Plot summary
Detectives Logan and Wheeler investigate the case of a television news anchor who is blackmailed by a popular tabloid gossip columnist. When the man goes to the NYPD and wears a wire for detectives, the car blows up and the columnist is killed, while the anchorman is severely injured. The detectives find themselves up to their eyeballs in suspects and motives, where no one theory and suspect can be ruled out as a possibility, because the columnist was extorting money from famous people, ostensibly to open a luxurious restaurant and trying to protect his younger sister.
The list of suspects include a mobster whom the victim had some major gambling debts and a physician who has operated on many renowned athletes, as well as an unscrupulous filmmaker and his wife/assistant – a studio executive who is disturbed to hear about any drug involvement in relation to a huge star who recently died on set. As Logan and Wheeler begin to stitch together the pieces, they discover a sordid secret life of sex and deceit that could be a motivating factor in the crime. Mary McCormack guest stars as her character Mary Shannon, from In Plain Sight. Julianne Nicholson returns from maternity leave.
Credits
Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 7. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.