A parking attendant's suspicion leads to the discovery of a woman's body in the trunk of a car, sending Hooker and the team on the trail of a psychotic killer who is on a cross-country murder spree. Meanwhile, the deranged killer lures a young woman into his clutches and takes her hostage, leaving behind her husband and sick baby. Hooker persuades the Detective in charge of the case to let him place a trap to try and catch the killer and get the woman back safely, but it places Stacy in great danger...

Corrigan and Stacy stop a car for speeding, only to have the trio inside open fire on them with automatic weapons, badly wounding Corrigan. Hooker and Romano are first on the scene, and the trio, who comprise of a woman who is a convicted murdered and two men who have broken her out of prison, take sanctuary in a nearby church, with Stacy and the seriously injured Corrigan as hostages. With the church surrounded with SWAT Officers, Hooker must try and negotiate not only with the gun-happy thugs, who are demanding a safe passage to Mexico, but also reason with the church's priest, also a hostage, who has beliefs that he is determined to stick to, not matter what the circumstances...