Breaking Blue (35 page)

Bamonte clutched Betty’s hand, recalling the good times they had been through together, and how much hell he had caused her. He was still seeing Linda, and he was in love with Betty—a seeming contradiction that he could not explain. He looked out at the river.
She brought up the Conniff memorial, a service that never would have been held had it not been for Tony’s persistence.

“You made a difference,” she said. “My God, you made a difference!”

But he had lost the enthusiasm for talking about the history he had changed. He looked at Betty, and then they talked into the night about things that are much harder to recast.

Darkness came. The Conniffs went home. Graduates went off to parties, families, jobs, and disappointments. The river coursed through the town that hid the secrets of Billy Tipton and Butch Cassidy and Clyde Ralstin.

In September, Bamonte faced a primary election to keep his job. He ran his usual campaign—a few yard signs, talking to people in cafes and on the street. He worked other cases, including a murder in his county that bore striking similarities to one in Spokane. When Bamonte alerted Spokane police about his findings, they said their case was closed; they had a conviction.

As the election neared, the Spokane police chief called three press conferences at which he specifically criticized Bamonte. Some reporters were baffled. What was the chief of the biggest police department in the region trying to do? They had never seen one cop bring the press together to ridicule another lawman.

On primary day, September 18, Sheriff Bamonte lost his job, by thirty-four votes.

A reporter asked why he had been defeated. He thought he knew the answer, but he kept it to himself. After more than twenty years as a cop, he still did not belong.