When pop artist Andy Zygmunt is discovered impaled on one of his works, Burke finds that several of Zygmunt's paintings contain materials used in a blackmail scheme. A vicious practical joker, the victim was hated by one and all: his sexy assistant, a former girlfriend (and fellow artist), the nasty host of a kiddie show, the head of a fashionable dog grooming salon, the scion of a wealthy family, and the arrogant owner of the art gallery (who also stars in a TV cop show that Burke despises).