Chief Bill Vickery

Bill Vickery runs the police force in Wind Gap, Missouri, and he is not thrilled to have a big-city detective looking over his shoulder—or a hometown reporter poking around the murders of two young girls. Gruff, territorial, and quick to bristle at outside scrutiny, he wants the case closed on his own terms.

Matt Craven plays him as small-town authority curdled into defensiveness, a man more worried about jurisdiction and appearances than about what's actually rotting under the surface of his town. It's a supporting role, but Craven makes Vickery's prickliness feel lived-in—the friction of someone who resents being told his own backyard needs investigating.