Cardinal

John Cardinal has been demoted for a hunch about a case that he wouldn’t let go. But he is brought back to the Homicide Unit when the body of missing 13-year-old Katie Pine is discovered, proving his instincts correct. As the series unfolds, back on the case, Cardinal’s search for her murderer soon becomes an all-consuming race to stay ahead of a serial killer. Meanwhile, he must manage his own precarious family issues and secrets, and keep a watchful eye on his new partner, Detective Lise Delorme, who he believes may have her own secret agenda.

Commanda finds a confused young woman, alone at a roadside bar. The red-haired woman has no memory of who she is, how she got there, or who shot her. Even after the bullet is removed, “Red” can’t remember anything. He turns the case over to Cardinal and Delorme, who must protect Red while trying to uncover her identity and find her shooter. While on the trail of a stolen gun that may be the murder weapon, Cardinal and Delorme find another victim, not shot this time but ritually murdered and left in a gruesome tableau.

In the aftermath of Catherine’s suicide, Cardinal outwardly accepts the evidence that she took her own life. But when he starts to receive taunting cards blaming him for her death he begins to question the suicide. Back on duty, Cardinal and Delorme are called to a bloody cottage crime scene where at least two people have died, but there are no bodies to be found. What they don’t yet realize is that there is a living witness - a young woman named Sam Duchene. She escaped the killer, but has personal reasons to avoid talking to the police. With resources stretched thin as Delorme also works a string of ATM robberies, a hunch of Cardinal’s leads them to the two bodies strapped to a boat at the bottom of the lake. They have their victims now, but who are they – and who killed them?

Cardinal and Delorme struggle to identify the two bodies – until two entrepreneurs are reported M.I.A. from the Sportsman’s Show. The lead brings the detectives to the trashed boat of Roman & Irena Barstow. Roman was a former gun industry exec who bought out Irena’s custom hunting-bow business and then married her – enraging her ex-partner – and husband. When the ex’s alibi checks out, the case turns to locating the Barstow’s missing rental car. The rigors of the investigation distract Cardinal, but he still has one eye on Catherine’s death. Taking the handful of cruel cards he’s received to her psychiatrist Dr. Bell, he gets help profiling the sender and makes a list of ex-cons who might want revenge. Meanwhile Dyson confronts an armed man in a laundromat, and he shoots himself in front of her. With Dyson faltering from trauma and Cardinal distracted, Delorme is frustrated by the lack of leads – until an anonymous tip from Sam gives the case new momentum. Meanwhile, Mama and her ‘family’ descend upon the remote lodge of Lloyd Kreeger. On the run for the murders, they need the lodge as a base for what’s yet to come...

Mama and her family (Jack, Lemur, and Nikki) have commandeerd Lloyd Kreeger’s home, taken him prisoner, and killed his employee. The Barstow murders are in the news and the heat is on, but the family must find the guns they came for before leaving town. Meanwhile, Cardinal and Delorme pursue evidence that realtor Randall Wishart was in the house shortly before the murders. A lawyered-up Randall stonewalls, but they soon close in on his mistress, Sam. Meanwhile, Cardinal confronts an ex-con he thinks is behind the cruel cards he’s been receiving. After making a scene at the suspect’s workplace and realizing he’s mistaken, Cardinal starts to wonder if he’s losing his mind. Back at Lloyd’s, Mama punishes Lloyd for questioning her sanity, and Jack obsesses over Sam’s artwork, fixated on pulling her into his world.

Cardinal and Delorme get a sketch of the Island Road killer from Sam, and with the department stretched thin, Commanda volunteers to keep her and her mother safe. Cardinal and Delorme find evidence leading them to known gun dealer Misha Pulaski - last seen meeting with the Barstows at a local watering hole. He has an alibi, but admits he was buying guns from them – guns he has yet to receive. Unable to let go of tracing the anonymous cards, Cardinal makes a big connection when he traces a printer flaw to Roger Felt, a man he once put away for fraud. Cardinal hauls him in, enraged. Meanwhile, Delorme stakes out an ATM just as the robber strikes. Before she can catch the perpetrator, shots are fired and she finds the mugger dead. Delorme returns to the station and walks in on chaos as Cardinal bullies a confession from Roger Felt for writing the cards – but not for killing Catherine. Dyson grills Delorme, wondering if Cardinal is fit for duty.