Detective Story (Plot Summary)

Plot Summary

Detective Story takes place in a detective squad room of a New York City precinct police station on a Sunday evening in August, spanning a time period from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Act 1

In act 1, several police detectives and other police precinct employees process arrests and attend to the routine business of the police station. Two men, Charlie and Lewis, are brought in, having just been arrested for burglary. Detective McLeod enters with Arthur, a young man he has just arrested for stealing $480 from his employer. Arthur claims he has never been arrested before and that he cannot give the money back because he has already spent it. Joe Feinson, a reporter familiar to the employees of the police station, hangs around, hoping for a lead on a good newspaper story.

Endicott Sims, an attorney representing Mr. Kurt Schneider, enters the station. There is a warrant out for the arrest of Schneider, who is being accused of performing illegal abortions, although he claims to be a vegetable farmer in New Jersey. Sims later brings Schneider into the station, warning the police officers to observe his client's legal rights.

Alone with Schneider in an office of the police station, McLeod tries to pressure him into signing a confession that he has practiced illegal abortion services, but Schneider refuses. McLeod explains that a young woman, Miss Harris, is currently in the hospital in critical condition from internal injuries received while obtaining an abortion from Schneider. McLeod asserts that the Harris girl has identified Schneider as the man who performed the abortion, and McLeod plans to bring Schneider to the hospital so that she may identify him in person. McLeod needs this concrete evidence in order to bring Schneider to trial. However, he receives a phone call from the hospital indicating that the Harris girl has died. He now has no evidence against Schneider.

Frustrated, McLeod shoves Schneider, slaps him, and kicks him, knocking him down on the floor. Other detectives come running into the office to see what has happened. Schneider writhes and moans on the floor and then seems to lose consciousness. Before he does, however, he asks the detectives to contact a man by the name of Tami Giacoppetti.

Act 2

Act 2 takes place about an hour later. Schneider is in the hospital being examined to determine if McLeod inflicted any significant injury to him. Lieutenant Monaghan chastises McLeod for assaulting Schneider. Sims, Schneider's lawyer, warns that he will charge McLeod with felonious assault if it turns out that Schneider is injured.

Sims privately tells the lieutenant that McLeod's insistence on convicting Schneider is a matter of personal vengeance, not just a matter of doing his duty as a detective. Sims suggests that the lieutenant call McLeod's wife to ask about what he is referring to. While McLeod is busy with other matters, the lieutenant calls McLeod's wife, Mary, and asks her to come to the station.

Meanwhile, other detectives and police officers have discovered numerous items of stolen property stored at Charlie's apartment. The detectives find Charlie's police record and learn that he has been convicted and served prison sentences several times in the past for a variety of crimes. They taunt Charlie by telling him that with his record he will certainly be given a life sentence for his recent crimes.

Mr. Pritchett, the employer from whom Arthur stole money, enters the police station. Suzie Carmichael, an old friend who grew up with Arthur, arrives and offers to pay back the money Arthur took. Mr. Pritchett is willing to accept the money, but McLeod asserts that Arthur is a thief and that he himself intends to see him prosecuted as a criminal.

The lieutenant learns that Mary McLeod has arrived at the police station. Because he does not want McLeod to know that his wife is there, the lieutenant sends McLeod to dig up some old, obscure police files so as to get him out of the way for a while. The lieutenant takes Mary into his office and asks her directly if she ever obtained an abortion from Kurt Schneider. Mary says she has never heard of Schneider and insists that she has no idea what he is referring to.

The lieutenant then brings Tami Giacoppetti into his office. Tami and Mary clearly recognize each other. The lieutenant speaks to Tami privately, asking how he knows Mary. Tami explains that, although he has been married for fifteen years, he had an affair with Mary about seven years earlier. He explains that Mary had gotten pregnant from him and then disappeared without contacting him. After he found out that Kurt Schneider had performed an abortion on Mary, Tami beat up Schneider. He claims that he would have beat up Mary, too, but he had been unable to find her.

Mary insists that McLeod knows nothing about her past relationship with Tami or about her having obtained an abortion from Schneider. The lieutenant explains that if McLeod knew that his wife had once obtained an abortion from Schneider, then his physical assault of Schneider would be regarded as a personal vendetta against the man; however, if Mary is being truthful in stating that McLeod knows nothing about her having gotten an abortion from Schneider, then the assault will be considered less serious because it was not motivated by personal vengeance.

At this point, McLeod returns with the old files he had been ordered to dig up. He then goes into the lieutenant's office, where Mary, Tami, and the lieutenant have been talking. Mary and McLeod are left to speak privately, and Mary admits to him that she had gotten pregnant from Tami several years before she and McLeod met and that she had obtained an abortion from Schneider.

McLeod responds to Mary's admission with rage and disgust. He calls Mary a "whore" and a murderer. Mary admits that she made mistakes in the past and that she regrets it. She begs McLeod to try to understand her situation at the time and to forgive her, but he refuses to understand or forgive. Mary runs out of the office in tears.

Act 3

Act 3 begins about an hour later. Mary enters the lieutenant's office of the police station, where McLeod is sitting. She tells McLeod that she is leaving him. She has her things packed and there is a taxi waiting outside. McLeod begs her not to leave him, but she insists that he will never be able to forgive her for her past and that she could not live with him under such conditions. McLeod continues to insist that Mary go home so they can work things out between them in the morning. He finally convinces Mary to wipe away her tears and go home.

While Mary is in the washroom, Sims walks into the office, demanding to speak with McLeod about Schneider. McLeod realizes that Schneider will once again go free because McLeod does not have a witness to testify that Schneider has performed an illegal abortion. Sims, however, suggests to McLeod that Mary, his wife, could testify against Schneider. Sims then leaves the police station.

When Mary returns from the washroom, McLeod is once again bitter and unforgiving toward her. He indicates that he is disgusted by the thought that she had been involved with other men before she met him. Mary realizes that McLeod will never be able to forgive her for her past. She once again asserts that she is going to leave him and that he will never see her again. Mary then leaves the police station.

Charlie, one of the burglars brought in to the station earlier in the evening, takes an opportunity to seize a gun that one of the detectives has set on his desk. McLeod lunges at Charlie, and Charlie shoots him three times in the belly. The other detectives then knock the gun out of Charlie's hands and beat him to the ground.

McLeod is fatally wounded but still alive. He demands that Brody take the handcuffs off Arthur, drop the charges against him, and let him go home. As he is dying, McLeod asks for a priest and then begins to pray to God for forgiveness. McLeod dies, and Gallagher calls the hospital to send a priest to the station and administer Last Rites.