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Reichert, who was elected sheriff in 1997, looks like a cop from a Hollywood movie, circa 1950, only he's not crusty. Tall and square-jawed, he wears his uniform without wrinkles, pops breath fresheners before going into meetings and ends his e-mails with electronic smiles. Despite his easygoing manner, he knows how rough it is on the streets. In 1974, when he was a 24-year-old rookie, a man holed himself up in a house and threatened to kill his wife. Reichert went in through a window alone and got the woman out, but was surprised by the man, who slit Reichert's throat open with a butcher's knife. Reichert got 45 stitches. The scar, shaped like a long pink sickle, slices down the right side of his neck.
Reichert's life has left other scars. Born in Minnesota in 1950 of German stock, Reichert is the eldest of seven children. When he was 11, his family moved to the town of Kent, south of Seattle. Like Ridgway--two years older and growing up nearby--Reichert spent his childhood playing in the fields and woods. His father worked in a warehouse, and the family was always short of money--but not discipline. "My father was the old iron German fist," says Reichert. "There was a lot of conflict there." But as the eldest of a large family, Reichert acted as peacemaker, pulling his siblings apart, confronting neighborhood bullies. "When I was 16, I remember my mother got into an argument with one of her friends. I went over and knocked on her door and tried to negotiate a peace with that lady. My mother said I was naive." Later, in college, he pursued some Peeping Toms outside the women's dormitory and ended up throwing himself on their moving car to stop them from escaping.
The church, along with his family, has always been at the center of Reichert's life. "I can't imagine going through life without faith," he says. His grandfather was a Lutheran pastor, and Reichert attended Concordia University, a Lutheran college in Portland, Ore., intending to follow the same path. But he left school to get married, in 1970. After a spell in the Air Force as a mechanic, he joined the King County sheriff's department, which covers Seattle and extends south of the airport, over what was once open land. He found himself drawn to murders. "Homicide is the ultimate in police work," he says. "I did all the courses I could--blood spattering, evidence collection, identification, puncture wounds." He started working homicide in 1979.
In '82 his partner and mentor, Sam Hicks, was shot dead while on duty. Reichert was not there when it happened. Three days later the suspect was picked up, and it was Reichert's job to ride with the man to the station in the back of a police car. Hicks's murder made him a more determined detective. Says Reichert: "You just don't want to give up until you make it right."
SCARS, PART II