 The episode connects several subplots involving the detectives of a Baltimore Police Department homicide unit and establishes story arcs that continued through the first season . Among them are an investigation by Meldrick Lewis ( Johnson ) and Steve Crosetti ( Polito ) into a widow killing husbands for insurance money , as well as rookie Tim Bayliss ( Secor ) being assigned the murder of an 11 @-@ year @-@ old girl for his first case . Both of those subplots were taken directly from Homicide : A Year on the Killing Streets , the 1991 David Simon non @-@ fiction book from which the series was adapted . 
