Kill me if you can - that was Pepe Miranda's challenge. Murderer, two-bit hero of the street gangs, he was holed up somewhere in the 87th Precinct, making the cops look like fools and cheered on by every neighbourhood punk.

It was not a challenge Lieutenant Pete Byrnes and the detectives in the squad room could leave alone.

Not in the sticky, July heat of the city with the gangs just waiting to explode into violence . . .