Mary Lou Mellace

A woman is killed after her SUV is carjacked, and when Briscoe and Green finally locate the vehicle, there's a vial of SARS in the back. They find the killer, a young black man who signs a confession, knowing there's enough evidence against him to make his case almost hopeless. His victim, Anna Hopkins, worked for world-renowned biochemist/virologist Dr. Charles Blanchard, and he claims he knew nothing about the traveling SARS vial. But Anna's friend Kate tells a different story. She reveals to the cops that Anna would do anything Dr. Blanchard asked her to. Coincidentally, a SARS epidemic breaks out and the doctors at St. Mark's Hospital isolate "patient zero," a journalist named Janine Wilson, who just returned from a conference on infectious diseases in Toronto.

Hal Garber, a Jaguar salesman, is found beaten to death in Harlem. The license used to take the car for a test drive was stolen and now the cops are linking a string of robberies to the homicide. The common link is Tina Montoya (Vanessa Ferlito), who was at a bar when it was held up. Tina ikes nice things and is a neat freak. She is also carrying a $20,000 Sorken bag, which is way out of line with her lifestyle. Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) trace the bag and it turns out to be stolen. Robby Delgado (Chandler Adrian Parker) was the delivery man when the bag disappeared enroute from Paris, and when Robby delivered the box to the store all they found inside were rocks. He is now working at a low rent coffee shop, and when the detectives search his apartment, they find a very expensive painting that was just stolen, the keys to Garber's Jaguar and many stolen wallets. Robby is mentally challenged, so his attorney Dean Conners (Peter Gerety) is looking to make a deal, citing his mental state.

Andrew Donner was public enemy number one. He interfered with a foul ball during the championship series and that changed the outcome, as the team on its way to winning, ended up losing. Briscoe says you could start looking for his killer with the Manhattan phone book. He was killed by being hit over the head with a beer bottle in a dive bar. Very delicately, the bottle is reconstructed to get prints. In addition to the bartender, they get another set.

Michael Imperioli ('The Sopranos') returns to guest-star as detective under investigation for slashing murder -- Detectives Fontana (Dennis Farina) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) are skeptical when Detective Falco (returning guest star Michael Imperioli, "The Sopranos") finds a young woman he took home the night before slashed to death in his bathroom. Anxious to exonerate himself of this crime, Falco takes steps that could be indicative of a cover-up instead of an unauthorized pursuit of the true culprit. Fortunately, Detectives Fontana and Green believe their colleague was drugged by the victim in a plan to rob him but was instead dispatched by a violent female rival. Proving it in court is difficult for A.D.A. McCoy (Sam Waterston), who must sort through a family of cons and ex-cons, some with ties to Falco, all resulting in a final twist of fate. Annie Parisse, S. Epatha Merkerson and Fred Dalton Thompson also star.

Virginia Boone looks like a bag lady but lives in a penthouse with a spectacular view on the Upper East Side. She is found stabbed to death inside her apartment building, but robbery is not the motive. Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) talk to a tenant in her building, Stefan Havel (Conrad John Schuck), but he doesn't provide much information. They also talk to Martha Taylor (Linda Thorson), who owns the pricey custom dress shop on the ground floor. Taylor, it turns out, not only lives in the building but owns it as well. Virginia worked as a school cafeteria worker and had very little money. Her rent, $362 a month, was unheard of, even though it was rent controlled because she had lived there since 1969. Rents for an apartment like hers in that area run between $6,000 and $8,000 a month. Now the Detectives suspect someone killed her to get her out of the apartment.