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5.0 out of 5 starsWhen should a police officer take a stand against a police department?
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 19, 2020
Stoneridge, Klickitat County, Washington, is getting ready to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the 1976 State Championship football team. The Four Ironmen of Stoneridge High School led the football team to its only State championship ever. Two of the four have committed suicide and one, Hastey Devoe, is a drunk whose brother Lionel, is Stoneridge Chief of Police, and who is cared for financially by the remaining player, Eric Reynolds, the quarterback and son of Coach Ron Reynolds, who now owns his own construction company. During this 2016 celebration, the football stadium is to be named the Ron Reynolds Memorial Stadium.
Tracy Crosswhite, a Seattle Police Department homicide detective who has received the Department’s Medal of Valor twice, has a history with homicide. Her only sibling, Sarah, was raped and murdered when she was a teenager causing her father to commit suicide. Her mother became a recluse but has now been dead for some time so Tracy has no family.
While a man was arrested for Sarah’s rape and murder and is currently in prison, Tracy is not sure he is the actual murderer. This caused Tracy to choose a career in law enforcement at a time when few women became police officers. There was, however, one other woman in her class at the Police Academy. Jenny Almond was struggling and about ready to drop out. So, Tracy took Jenny under her wing and helped her graduate and even become an officer with the Seattle Police Department.
Tracy’s homicide team is assigned the case of a man who went to his estranged wife’s home to pick up his son for weekend visitation. Before the father and son can leave home, dad is shot - in the back - and the mom admits to shooting him. A few days later, the son, who has just turned 18, comes into the Police Department and confesses he was the shooter.
Unfortunately, all of this happens just as Buzz Almond has died and Tracy is invited by his daughter to his funeral mass. Jenny has succeeded her father as sheriff of Klickitat County. After her father’s funeral, Jenny asks Tracy to talk privately with her. Jenny takes Tracy into her father’s study and shows her a file she found in his desk. Jenny says it is apparent he thought there was more to the case than originally determined. And asks Tracy if she will look at the file and see if she thinks there is something that needs to be done in the case. Now Tracy must convince her supervisor, Captain Nolasco, to allow her to use her personal time to investigate the case.
The case is about the disappearance and death of a 17-year-old Native American girl from the Yakama Reservation. Kimi Kanasket is a track star at Stoneridge High School and is planning to attend the University of Washington on a partial track scholarship when she graduates. In order to help defray the remaining costs of college, Kimi works at the local diner and each evening after her shift she walks home. Unfortunately, on Friday, the night before the 1976 championship football game she never arrives home.
While he is a rookie sheriff’s deputy, Buzz Almond comes across the case and immediately decides that this young woman did not commit suicide, as has been ascertained. He is warned off of the case but simply can’t leave it alone. Unfortunately, after he has been elected Sheriff, he gets cancer and becomes unable to work before he brings the Kamasket case to an acceptable conclusion.
Now the questions are: does Tracy agree with Buzz and, if so, how can she investigate her current case in Seattle and the cold case in Stoneridge and further, will she be allowed to investigate the cold case or will her Captain, who resents her, refuse to allow her to take the time ?