In 1972 Los Angeles, California, three robbers wearing Richard Nixon masks invade a police evidence depository building. They go to evidence lockers and retrieve a footlocker, killing three police officers in the process. Another officer, Dennis Meechum, is also shot, but stabs one of the robbers in the abdomen. Despite his wound, the masked robber escapes to the getaway van where his cohorts open the footlocker to reveal a briefcase full of money. Dennis Meechum is rushed to emergency surgery that saves his life. He continues to serve on the Los Angeles Police Department, and in 1981 receives a medal of valor for participating in an undercover operation. Dennis also develops a side career as an author. His first book, Inside Job: The Anatomy of a Robbery, about the depository heist, becomes a giant bestseller. He goes on to write several more acclaimed novels, but tells a reporter he considers himself a cop first and an author second. In 1987, Dennis chases a suspect while working an undercover operation on the docks in San Pedro, California. The suspect runs into a warehouse full of workers and climbs into the rafters preparing to shoot Dennis. However, before he can pull the trigger, a hired gunman named Cleve shoots and kills the suspect. Cleve disappears before police can arrest him, but when Dennis returns to his car, he finds an envelope addressed to him on the windshield. The note inside reads, “Say Thank You.” The next morning over breakfast with his sixteen-year-old daughter, Holly, Dennis learns that Cleve gave Holly and her friends a ride home several days earlier. Later, Dennis has a meeting with his publishers. He has missed four deadlines for his latest novel and the publisher may ask him to return their advance money. Cleve leaves a message for Dennis to meet him at a bar on the docks. There, Cleve reveals he knows a lot about Dennis’s life, including the fact Dennis has had writer’s block since his wife Kate’s death, and that he is now deep in debt due to medical bills for her caner treatment. Cleve asks Dennis to write a book about him and his former boss, promising it will be a best seller. When Dennis returns to his car, he finds a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings about the death of various people. The next day at the shooting range, Dennis and Cleve compliment each other’s firing prowess, then Dennis arrests Cleve for the murder of the suspect in the dock warehouse. However, when Cleve reports that businessman David Madlock, head of Kappa International, is connected to all the killings in the scrapbook, Dennis agrees to hear him out. Cleve tells him that he worked as a hired assassin to get rid of people creating problems for Kappa. Cleve quit Kappa after he and Madlock had a disagreement and now Cleve wants to expose Madlock’s nefarious dealing. Dennis suggests Cleve be a witness against Madlock. Cleve says Madlock could buy his way out of a trial, but cannot escape a book. Cleve also tells him the initial $2.5 million used to start Kappa International in 1972 came from the police depository heist. Cleve was the driver of the getaway van and says the other three people involved died in the van. The next day, Cleve takes Dennis to a party honoring Madlock. Cleve taunts Madlock with the fact that he is working with Dennis on a book, then Madlock’s men escort them out of the party. Although still skeptical, Dennis flies to New York City with Cleve to retrieve evidence implicating Madlock and Kappa in the murders that Cleve committed. Cleve offers specific details about the killings, bragging that he always managed to make the murders look like accidents. As the two take a taxi across town, the driver stops to buy cigarettes. Suspicious, Cleve tells Dennis to get out of the taxi, which explodes into flames seconds later. They chase the taxi driver down, finding him hiding in a photo booth in an amusement arcade. The driver reports two of Madlock’s men, Thorn and Pearlman, paid him off. Afterward, Cleve puts money in the photo machine, which takes photos as Cleve slits the taxi driver’s neck. That night at a bar, Cleve deliberately burns his hand with a cigarette to demonstrate that pain does not bother him. When Dennis grabs Cleve’s hand, his mind flashes back to the police depository incident. He rips Cleve’s shirt open to find a large scar on Cleve’s abdomen and realizes Cleve is the man he stabbed. An infuriated Dennis promises not only to arrest Cleve when they are finished, but also to kill him. The two fly to Oregon so Dennis can meet Cleve’s warm and welcoming family, who have no idea Cleve is a hired killer. Dennis wonders how a “freak of nature” like Cleve can come out of such a wholesome environment. Cleve says that the contrast will make the book even more fascinating, but to make sure he comes across well in it. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Madlock’s lawyer, Mr. Graham, promises that if Dennis writes the book, they will hold it up for years in court. Graham offers Dennis money to write an authorized biography of Madlock, but he declines. In the following weeks, Dennis writes the first few chapters and shows them to his literary agent, Roberta Gillian. She is impressed and wants to read the rest. Dennis says he will arrest Cleve when it is over. After Dennis leaves, Cleve appears inside Roberta’s house wanting to know if he came across as likable in the book and demanding to read the manuscript, but she does not have a copy. Dennis and Cleve fly to El Paso, Texas, so Dennis can question a woman who aided Cleve in one of his murders, but Madlock’s men show up and kill her before Dennis can get any answers. Her murder, however, convinces Dennis that Madlock truly is afraid of the book. Back in Los Angeles, another of Madlock’s men, Thorn, breaks into Dennis’s house to steal the manuscript. Holly Meechum catches him, but Cleve arrives, kills Thorn, and takes Holly to stay with Roberta Gillian so she will be safe. When Dennis returns to his house, Cleve is there reading the manuscript. He likes the book and suggests that killing Madlock would be the perfect ending. The next morning, Madlock’s men kidnap Holly from Roberta’s house. Dennis goes to a meeting at Madlock’s house and assures him the book is being published. Madlock says the only way he can guarantee Holly’s safety is if Dennis comes to work for him at Kappa International. Meanwhile, Cleve sneaks onto the grounds and kills the five security guards. Cleve uses the home’s loudspeaker system to taunt Madlock, saying he is coming for him. Madlock pulls out a gun and shoots Dennis in the stomach. As Cleve and Madlock exchange gunfire, Holly rushes to be with her father, but Madlock grabs her and holds a gun to her head. Dennis orders Cleve not to shoot Madlock. Cleve lowers his gun and Madlock immediately shoots him in the chest. Cleve falls down the stairs. Madlock surrenders his gun to Dennis, who then handcuffs him. A dying Cleve says Dennis should have killed Madlock and reminds him that he is supposed to be the hero of the book. One year later, Dennis’s new novel, Retribution: The Fall of David Madlock and Kappa International has been on the bestseller list for twenty-eight weeks.