Unfinished Business

A cold murder case turns red hot—and San Francisco Public Defenders Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez are caught in the firestorm.

On Christmas Eve 1978, Luther Johnson was shot and killed in San Francisco’s notorious Hunters Point neighborhood. The crime scene was pristine. The weapon vanished. The lead investigator suspected drugs, but Luther’s father—legendary homicide inspector Roosevelt Johnson—believed the truth was far darker: a police officer was involved. No arrest was ever made.

Nearly five decades later, the case explodes back to life when SFPD finds boxes of 1970s-era bullets in the garage of retired officer Kevin “Sully” Sullivan. The unfired rounds match the markings on the slugs that killed Luther. Roosevelt, now 87 and long retired, comes back to lead the new investigation, arrests Sully, and the District Attorney charges him with murder.

Sully is dying of cancer. His final request: a Public Defender. Roosevelt asks Mike Daley—son of his former beat partner—to represent Sully “to make sure we get it right.”

With only days before a high-stakes preliminary hearing, Mike assembles the closest thing he has to a family strike team: Rosie Fernandez, his ex-wife and San Francisco's Public Defender; Rosie’s niece Rolanda, a rising star in the office; and Mike’s brother Pete, an ex-cop turned PI. But the investigation is a minefield. Most witnesses are dead. The evidence is ancient. And everyone involved—including Sully and Roosevelt—has been carrying secrets for nearly half a century.