Act One
A man walks out of a bar with a hooker hailing a cab when she tells him rooms there are only a dime. As they work out where they're going, a Cadillac convertible pulls up parking in front of Phoebe's. The pimp (Glynn Turman) gets out receiving a wink from his girl in the back of the cab. Another Cadillac pulls up parking behind the first with a girl stepping out to open the driver's door for a second pimp (Ron Glass). The second pimp introduces the first as "Darlin' Harley" and "king of the cats" to his new girl who "pulls in three bills a day before dinner". They walk on the street where another girl walks up to Harley giving him a wad of cash "including a Ben Franklin".
They go inside a bar where they meet a third pimp. J. Paul, the second pimp, says he doesn't have any explaining to do: when Lolo (Gregory Sierra) leaned on him for 35 percent of the pimps' take, he walked out. They meet with several other pimps in a back room celebrating their small victory against Lolo.
When Harley and J. Paul go outside, an HPD officer writes Harley a parking ticket as they discuss Harley's collection of parking tickets, J. Paul pulls out to traffic. J. Paul stops for a red light only to have a .38 with a silencer put up against his head by a barefoot Hawaiian who takes off after the kill shot. He speeds away in a red VW Bug with flames with the HPD officer witnessing him taking off. Walking up the street, the officer makes a gruesome discovery among several honking horns.
J. Paul is taken away in a body bag as another pimp (Wilfred Keale) stands by holding J. Paul's hat. The new girl introduced to Harley earlier runs screaming toward J. Paul but is taken away by Harley past Duke (Herman Wedemeyer) and two other pimps. He tells the pimps to stay put as he meets McGarrett and Danno who just arrived on scene. The officer tells them what the kid looked like: "cane field-type, shorts, no shoes" and the car he drove off in had no plates. McGarrett wants to see Harley Dartson as the officer goes to retrieve him as McGarrett asks Wunton, the pimp holding J. Paul's hat, if there's something he wants to say to them. Wunton clams up saying it could have been a freaked out john but McGarrett knows better. Wunton does give up that Lolo wants 35 percent of their profits, about a third of their turnover. As Wunton tries to go after the ambulance, Danno tells McGarrett Harley is over on the street with Duke and the officer. McGarrett walks over where Harley gives him attitude and an offer to keep a lid on things for them to investigate J. Paul's death. He tells McGarrett if he can tie the hit man to Lolo, "there will be peace throughout the land".
McGarrett goes to see Lolo as the guards outside don't give him any trouble on entry. When he goes inside, Lolo seems to be expecting him as one of his muscle (Gerald Waialae) stands beside Lolo. McGarrett knows what's going on: Lolo's loan-sharking business is in the gutter so he's trying to take a bigger slice of the "body work in Trick City". One of Lolo's aides (Seth Sakai) sits back and takes it all in. McGarrett asks Lolo if he's really interested in starting a war but when Lolo's attitude is nonchalant, McGarrett turns serious fast: he tells Lolo he'll nail him to the wall for murder one and will not let things explode between the factions. After McGarrett leaves, Lolo sends Plumber, the muscle, out to tell the pimps their new tax is effective immediately and not to take any crap.
In the laboratory, Che Fong (Harry Endo) informs the team the weapon was .38 with powder burns embedded in the skin so the gun was touching J. Paul. As well, a silencer was probably used since no one heard the shot. Che also came up something interesting in the prints: the car had just been washed so the only fingerprints belonged to J. Paul and his girl. While the killer probably wore gloves, he was barefoot and Che pieced together a full footprint that can be positively matched if they find the guy. McGarrett wants the team to scour anywhere and everywhere because the "wolf packs" are on the verge of going after one another and will hurt a lot of innocents when they do.
Harley, Wunton and the other pimps gather at their bar toasting J. Paul. When one of the pimps asks what they're going to do about Lolo, Harley says they're not going to do anything, rather let "McGarrett and his rollers write their own ticket". Wunton demands they do something, otherwise Lolo is going to "run all over us". Harley disarms Wunton just before Plumber walks in and the bartender Phoebe (Pat Morita) signals to the pimps he's there with Plumber thanking him for his intro. Plumber steps into the meeting informing the pimps their new 35 percent tax is due tomorrow, in cash and plain envelopes. Words are exchanged as the pimps try to weasel out of it but after a bit, they finally tell him, "message received". When Plumber gets smart about J. Paul's death, Wunton loses it tossing the table and lunging for Plumber. A major fight ensues with one of Lolo's guys being thrown over the bar and another having his back broken by Wunton. Wunton pins Plumber against the wall trying to get his gun as two HPD officers arrive. Harley tries to pull Wunton back but to no avail. The first officer tries to get Wunton to back off but he winds up with the gun and charges the second officer who shoots Wunton. Plumber warns Harley he's in deep trouble.
Act Two
At the morgue, Danno tries to nail down a time of death from Doc (Al Eben) who asks, "you running a quiz show?" The time of death is for the kid who hit J. Paul, John Sui.
At Harley's house, his wife (Lynne Ellen Hollinger) answers the phone with McGarrett on the other end. He tells Harley the man who shot J. Paul is "on a slab in the morgue" but Harley is not relieved as he and his bunch are barely surviving. When he hangs up the phone, Harley returns to the other pimps by his pool telling his wife they need more drinks. The phone rings again and she directs the girl to her latest customer. When she's done, the wife looks out to the pool where the pimps make a plan to deal with Lolo once and for all. One of the pimps suggests they pool their money to pay for a hit from Detroit because they're already paying $12,000 a week between them: the hit is $20 - $25,000. As the wife steps out with the drinks, the phone rings again but she's overheard enough concerning the hit. She's worried about his plan and says they need to send the girls out earlier and one more trick a week will pay the new tax. She finally approaches him and offers to go back on the street than for him to call in a hit. Harley won't hear any of it: she is to stay put with their two kids and house "on the for-real side".
In McGarrett's office, Ben gives the report on John Sui: age 19, Kahili hood, killed within an hour of J. Paul being hit. The phone rings, the caller, Harley's wife, tells McGarrett there is a hit man from Detroit coming in to take out Lolo. McGarrett is ticked off as things are escalating out of control. Ben wonders what the point is before McGarrett orders Ben to take Chin to the phone company to find all calls made to Detroit in the last 24 hours including those from "the macks' phones" before running out.
McGarrett goes to see Lolo again to warn him about the hit. Lolo is impressed they're calling in a big gun from Detroit and McGarrett is slightly tempted to let the gun take out Lolo but that would not be the end of things. Instead, McGarrett gives Lolo a choice: go to his yacht and put a bunch of open water between him and Oahu or go to lock up. When Lolo asks what charge, McGarrett says there are lots to choose from. He gives Lolo one hour before leaving. Lolo begins pacing as his aide picks up the phone to call the harbor. Lolo slams the phone down weighing his options.
Chin and Ben visit Phoebe asking him about phone calls made from his phone. Chin mentions Los Angeles and San Francisco, which Phoebe says was for supplies and food for the bar. Ben says, "Hong Kong" and Phoebe has an answer to that too: Harley made the call for his clothes because he has all his clothes made there. Chin then mentions Detroit: Phoebe obviously covers for somebody mentioning delivery of a new car.
In McGarrett's office, Duke says Lolo is on his yacht in the Molokai Channel. Jenny (Peggy Ryan) buzzes in with Lieutenant Carlin from the Detroit Police Department. McGarrett tells her to put him through and send everyone in. As they discuss the weather, Chin and Ben make their way in. Lieutenant Carlin identifies the hit man as Alex Gargossa, a.k.a. Smart Alex, George Alexander, Ron Pratt, Royal Robins, Larry Reynolds and Russ McClean. He tells McGarrett he's a heavy hitter and has 12 hits to his credit that is known but he's not been caught. Detroit sends a telex and a photo of Alex hoping Five-O can nail him and "do the world a favor".
Chin and Ben hit the airport hard circulating Alex's photo to aircrew members and taxi drivers. In McGarrett's office, Duke suggests Alex may shop for a rifle in Honolulu to bypass airline inspections and McGarrett agrees telling him to check out the angle with as much help as he needs. He's also puzzled about the move to bring in Alex when the pimps know Lolo has a yacht he can hole up on. So what's their plan?
That afternoon, Harley receives word about "the Cockleshell at 9:00" and calls Alex with the information. Alex readies his own rifle, an AR-15 with scope, for the hit.
Act Three
Duke visits a gun shop and the store manager (Carl Smith) tells him about a thirty-aught-six bought by Mr. Holbine who lives on Maui. Duke looks over the register asking about an AR-15, which the manager says was bought by a Chinese man who wanted to hunt tigers at night. He had an English accent and bought two scopes: one was a starlight scope costing $1500 used for night hunting. Duke returns to McGarrett's office to brief what he found out: the other scope being a daylight scope. McGarrett wants a sketch of the tiger hunter and send Duke to work on one with the store manager. The phone rings, Ben calls in one of Alex's aliases arrived on the 5:15 flight and he's on his way to the Hawaii Hotel. McGarrett runs out to meet him.
McGarrett, Chin and Ben arrive at the Hawaii Hotel entering Alex's hotel room. Chin finds a piece of cloth with gun solvent as Ben finds a smoldering cigarette thinking he'd been tipped. Ben is still trying to figure if the pimps are on a suicide mission. Chin backs him up saying the next Lolo will go after them with a "flamethrower". McGarrett doles out assignments: Ben is sent to Phoebe's, Duke is to coordinate with HPD to set up surveillance on the hotel room and Chin to find out the location of Lolo's yacht.
That night, a limousine pulls into an alley of the Cockleshell Restaurant. Plumber exits to ensure the coast is clear before Lolo exits the car to enter the restaurant. Meanwhile, the pimps hang out in their room at Phoebe's and Ben reports on their celebration. McGarrett tells him to stay put and stay in touch. Duke is working with the sketch artist and the store manager on the tiger hunter who gave a phony name and address according to Danno. He also says Che is trying to work on prints of other guns he handled before purchasing the AR-15. McGarrett is going crazy trying to figure out what's going on because if Lolo is successful in hitting their hit man he will have the upper hand, permanently.
At the Cockleshell, one of Lolo's guys peek out the door as Kuji, Lolo's aide, comes up behind him planning to take out the sniper. Kuji tells Lolo it'll be in three minutes before he takes an AR-15 from the limousine driver and walks away. Kuji goes parks himself by a wall leaning the rifle against it. At the same time, Alex aims for where Lolo is about to walk out and the tiger hunter aims for Alex. Lolo stays in the enclave as the tiger hunter kills Alex. Kuji walks back with his AR-15 and they go about their night.
At Phoebe's, Harley receives a phone call from Kuji! He tells Harley it went as planned.
Act Four
The next morning, Five-O investigates Alex's shooting. It's pretty easy to figure out the tiger hunter was up and behind Alex as Alex waited on Lolo. The question becomes why would the pimps put all their eggs in one basket, it's not the smartest move especially when word reaches the mainland: no hit man will take the contract on Lolo. Danno brings up one problem: if the tiger hunter was hired by Lolo, why wasn't he used to take out J. Paul?
At his office, Lolo gloats and is very happy Kuji "flipped" the situation. Lolo tells Kuji to get Harley and the pimps together at Phoebe's so he demand more money from them.
Later, Kuji and Harley meet in their big cars assessing how Lolo is feeling: like he'll rule forever. Harley laughs, the true plan is to hit Lolo this afternoon after his meeting with the pimps. Kuji and Harley are working together to eliminate Lolo so Kuji can take over! The tax will revert back to 25 percent but he will control fairly and thoroughly.
In McGarrett's office, he tacks up a sketch of the tiger hunter. Chin says his prints don't match anyone locally and McGarrett doubts they'll match anything in Washington. The man probably flew in from overseas and would only buy a new gun to circumvent Customs inspections. The other issue is he knew more than Alex, which meant two tips from the inside. The phone rings, Duke calls in saying everyone is back to their normal activities including Harley seeing his tailor. Chin sits up wondering about that: there was a call to Hong Kong from Phoebe's and it was where Phoebe told them Harley got his suits. McGarrett, Danno and Chin put it together: Harley ordered something else from Hong Kong, a hit man! Chin adds Duke mentioned the tiger hunter had an English accent. McGarrett believes Alex was a sacrifice to make Lolo put himself in the open and thus an easier target. McGarrett calls Ben who tells him Lolo's people are making the rounds. McGarrett tells him to stay on them whether they know he there or not because the contract is still active!
McGarrett, Danno and Chin are en route as Duke reports the pimps are meeting earlier than usual and are pretty happy about life. Ben calls in that Lolo just showed up across from Phoebe's. McGarrett wants all unmarked cars on silent approach to Phoebe's while inside Lolo crashes the pimps' meeting. Lolo gloats and up the tax to 40 percent, except for Harley who will pay 50 percent. Harley doesn't even flinch. Lolo leaves laughing and strolls out of Phoebe's as McGarrett stops in the middle of the street. McGarrett pulls his gun yelling at Lolo to go back inside but Lolo doesn't comply and is shot dead by the tiger hunter. McGarrett yells at Danno which building the tiger hunter is on and they close in as he tries to make a run for it. Danno and Duke go out to the roof while Ben and a few HPD officers chase from the opposite direction. The tiger hunter pins everyone down until Danno, Ben and Duke shoot him dead. His body falls to the street as McGarrett continues talking to Central to send the wagon on now two dead bodies. Chin walks out of Phoebe's with Kuji and Harley ready to arrest. As they're put into the patrol car, a parking ticket flaps in the wind on Harley's Cadillac.
This plot summary Copyright Bobbi Baker ©2019. No reproduction of any kind without permission.