Wooden animals on a chain? It would seem so after the warehouse fire of an importer with a police record and once again the 87th Precinct's Steve Carella leaves the squadroom to proceed from one kind of joint to another. You know the format -- it's the detail (this time urban blacks, prostitutes and junkies) which give it definition and a legitimate character of its own in what is by now established as one of the better bread and butter series.