In the latest episode of Sheriff Country, a shocking betrayal rocks the small town of Edgewater. The peaceful community of legal cannabis growers is under attack as their tax payments are violently stolen. Sheriff Mickey Fox discovers the mastermind behind the robberies is not a hardened criminal, but someone the victims trusted with their own children. Meanwhile, personal relationships are tested as Boone starts a new romance and Mickey works to fix a family mistake.
The episode, titled “Death & Taxes,” aired on Friday, December 12, 2025 on CBS.
How Tax Season Created a Perfect Crime
The trouble in Edgewater starts because of a major problem for legal cannabis businesses. Even though their work is legal in the state, federal laws prevent them from using banks. This forces growers to pay large taxes and business expenses entirely in cash.
The episode shows the Miller family and other growers loading hundreds of thousands of dollars into their vehicles, protected by armed guards, just to drive to the tax office. This regular movement of cash has turned into a dangerous routine that criminals watch closely.
The first attack happens quickly. A family is ambushed on a back road. The robbers use overwhelming gunfire, leaving one bodyguard dead and another in critical condition. The thieves escape with $200,000. Sheriff Mickey Fox arrives at the chaotic scene and knows this is not a random crime. She tells her deputy, Boone, that the robbers will likely strike again.
“People don’t leave the casino when they’re up,” Boone agrees, using a gambling analogy to explain the criminals’ mindset.
Mickey’s prediction is proven right when a second group of growers is robbed just hours later. This second family had tried to avoid danger by leaving suddenly without telling anyone and without hiring guards. The precision of the attack confirms Mickey’s fear: the thieves are tracking their targets.
The Investigation That Led to a Trusted Friend
The initial suspicion falls on Cole, one of the bodyguards from the first robbery. He has a brother who was recently released from prison, and he failed to fire his weapon during the attack. However, Mickey remembers his record. Cole had washed out of the police academy years earlier because he froze during weapons training. He did the same thing during the robbery. He is cleared as a suspect.
The real breakthrough comes when Mickey’s deputies find a small GPS tracking device. It is hidden deep inside a child’s car seat from the first victim’s vehicle. They find a similar tracker in the second family’s car. Both targeted families have young children. They also share one thing in common: the same babysitter.
Her name is Grace. To the families on the mountain, she is a trusted friend who regularly cares for their children. When questioned, Grace plays the part of a scared victim perfectly. She claims she simply made the mistake of dating the wrong man—a ex-con named Danny Weiss. She says Danny must have used her access to plant the trackers. To prove her innocence, she agrees to help the sheriff’s department set a trap to catch him.
Danny is arrested and confesses to the robberies. But a key piece is missing: the stolen money. Danny and his crew don’t have it. Mickey realizes the truth. The person who planned the entire operation is still free.
Mickey Fox’s Smart Instincts Unmask the Real Mastermind
While Grace is pretending to help the police, Mickey is already watching her. Mickey plants her own tracking device in Grace’s bag before letting her go. Mickey’s suspicion comes from a simple but brilliant observation about parenting.
Mickey knew for a fact that people without kids don’t know anything about car seats. It takes experience to know better.
Grace, who has no children of her own, had expertly hidden the trackers in places only someone familiar with installing car seats would know. This small detail exposed her lie.
Just as Mickey expected, Grace tries to flee Edgewater with the stolen cash. Sheriff Fox and her team track her and make the arrest, recovering all the money. Grace’s elaborate plan, which involved using her position of trust to target the families she worked for, was finally over.
The recovered money is returned. In a quiet act of community support, Mickey’s father, Wes Fox, organizes help for the Miller family. He collects money from both legal and illegal growers to cover the medical bills for the injured guard and to ensure the Millers can pay their taxes and keep their license. However, this act creates a new alliance between legal and illegal operations, breaking a promise Wes made to his daughters and potentially creating future problems for the town.
Personal Struggles and New Relationships
Outside of the case, the characters deal with their own personal challenges.
Mickey and Sharon’s Tense Breakfast: The episode shows a private moment between Mickey and her stepsister, Sharon Leone. During their regular meal, a young deputy awkwardly asks Mickey out. After he leaves, Sharon teases her about her love life. In a moment of thoughtlessness, Mickey suggests Sharon should ask the deputy out instead, forgetting that Sharon is still grieving the death of her husband, Vince. The comment creates a painful silence.
Later, the sisters meet for drinks to talk it out. Sharon explains her grief, saying, “Losing Vince… broke me.” She tells Mickey she is not ready to date, but won’t let the pain stop her when she is. She encourages Mickey not to let her own past hurt from her ex-husband, Travis, stop her from finding love again.
Boone and Nora’s Fragile Start: Deputy Boone’s new relationship with Nora hits an early hurdle. Their peaceful lake date is interrupted by the gunshots from the first robbery. Boone runs toward the danger, showing Nora the reality of his job. Later, Boone realizes Nora, who once worked as an ER nurse, is scared of dating someone in law enforcement again. In a decision that may cause problems later, Boone chooses to lie to her about how he got a minor injury, hiding that it happened on the job.
Mickey’s Leadership Moment: Mickey also confronts an issue within her department. A deputy suggests she shows favoritism toward another deputy, Cassidy. Mickey asks Boone for his honest opinion, and he confirms it’s true. To correct this, Mickey reassigns Cassidy to other duties to ensure fairness.
“Death & Taxes” ends with the immediate crisis solved but several personal stories just beginning. The episode showed how a crime can stem from the complex legal problems of a community, and how betrayal often comes from the place you least expect.
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