The Deadly River

by Jeff Noonan

  Wards finally moaned and tried to roll over. Suddenly realizing that his limbs weren’t free, he came alive with a huge jerk. “What the fuck?” His eyes took in the scene around him and he twisted his arms, trying to free his hands. He almost did it, with the cord actually seeming to stretch under the immense strength in those arms and shoulders. Finally he sat back, his gaze fixed on Ray’s face. Surprisingly he smiled, making his bloody hash of a face into a ghastly sight. “I didn’t think you had it in you, Moore. You surprised me. But you know this shitty little rope won’t keep me down long enough for you to get away, don’t you? I suggest you turn me loose now, before you really piss me off.”

  Ray wasn’t intimidated. “Get up, Bill.” He had Wards’ pistol in his hand now. He gestured with it. “Stand up. Now!”

  Clumsily, with the ropes impeding the effort, Wards got to his feet. Drawing himself to his full height, he stared down haughtily at Ray. Ray wasted no time. Putting the pistol in his pocket, he grabbed Wards by the back of his neck and his belt and pushed him. He steered him across the road to a tall jackpine. Roughly he turned Wards so that his back was to the tree and told him to sit down. Wards complied, his back resting against the big pine. Now Ray turned to Lee. “Watch him, Lee. If he makes a move shoot him.”

  “Will do.” Lee moved so that Wards could see the old carbine pointed at his heart. Wards just glared at him.

  Ray picked up the tow chain he’d brought from the pickup. Crossing to where Wards was sitting, he ran the end of the chain under Wards’ arms jerking it up to where it was firmly in the bigger man’s armpits. Then he brought the chain around the pine tree and, bracing a foot against the tree and pulling the chain tight. Wards screamed and began cursing. “I can’t breathe, you son-of-a-bitch. I can’t breathe.” Ignoring him, Ray jerked the chain even tighter, then slipped the padlock through two links and snapped it shut. Wards tried to continue yelling, but had to stop to gasp for air. He was immobilized.

  Ray stepped back to admire his handiwork. Then he realized that there were long loose ends on the chain, so he quickly looped them around another nearby tree and tied them back so they couldn’t be reached. Again, he inspected the scene and then smiled, finally satisfied that Wards was going nowhere.

  Now he turned his attention to Lee. “Okay, Lee. I’ll wait here with them. I want you to take the pickup down to the café and call the sheriff. Bring him back here. Tell him to bring some help in case there’s a problem. Try to get back as fast as you can.”

  “Will you be all right here by yourself, Ray?”

  “Yeah, but make it fast. I’d like to be out of here before dark. Now let’s move that truck so you can get the pickup out. You do know the way out of here, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I memorized it on the way in this morning.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it then.”

  The keys were still in the big truck’s ignition, so they had it out of the way in no time, running over some small trees in the process. Then Lee dragged the little Mexican out of the road and climbed into the pickup. With a cheerful wave, headed down the narrow road. Looking back, he saw that Ray had hoisted himself onto the flat bed of the truck where he was sitting with the carbine loosely pointed in the direction of Wards and his henchman.

  Lee drove as if the devil was chasing him, leaving loose gravel flying on countless curves. It seemed to be forever before the truck stop showed up in front of him. He wasted no time in niceties, letting the pickup slide almost to the front door of the café.

  Running into the café, he was immediately captured by Dawn who was obviously terrified at the sight of him arriving without Ray. But as soon as he explained the situation, she went into action. Wasting no time, she phoned the sheriff immediately. While she was on the phone, Mike and Tony, who had been sitting at a table, began excitedly questioning Lee. Within a couple of minutes, Dawn finished her call. “The sheriff and his men are on their way from Big River.”

  Then she turned to where Mike and Tony were hovering excitedly, all thought of their food long gone. “You two. Do you know the place that Ray is holding down?

  “Yeah. Exactly.”

  “Go get your guns and get your butts up there. I don’t want Ray there by himself and Lee has to wait for Sheriff Rose.” They needed no further urging, shooting out the door before she finished her sentence. Mike’s old car left rubber across the parking lot as they headed out.

  Dawn sat down on Mike’s deserted chair and looked up at Lee. “Wow, kid. You’ve had your share of adventures lately, haven’t you?

  Lee grinned wryly and nodded. Now that he was here and Dawn had taken over, he felt tremendously relieved. He looked down and realized that he was shaking like a leaf. That startled him. He couldn’t remember his hands ever shaking like this. That’s twice in one day!

  Dawn left to take care of a customer and Lee sat quietly, his mind racing. Slowly he calmed himself. He found that he was really concerned about Ray. The giant, Bill Wards, had scared him badly. He just hoped Ray had been tight enough with that tow chain.

  It was less than five minutes before the first patrol car came racing into the parking lot from the west, siren blaring and lights flashing. It held a deputy sheriff who stayed in the car, talking on his radio. Shortly thereafter, a Montana Highway Patrol Officer came into view with his siren and lights working madly. He pulled in beside the deputy and both got out of their cars to talk in the parking lot. This lasted for another five minutes before the sheriff’s big sedan screamed in from the east. The Sheriff conversed briefly with the other two lawmen before meeting Lee and Dawn as they came out the café’s front door.

  The sheriff waved them back into the café, where all of them stood in a cluster to one side of the counter. Sheriff Rose was all business, his questions terse and to the point. Finally Dawn could take it no more and she burst out at the lawman, “Sheriff, while you are standing here asking questions, that murdering piece of shit, Wards, could be killing my husband. Ask Lee your questions while you’re on the road, but please get the hell out of here.”

  The sheriff seemed startled, then he recovered “You’re right, Dawn. Sorry. C’mon Lee. Let’s take a ride.” The two climbed into the sheriff’s sedan and started out. The Highway Patrolman got in with the deputy and followed.

  On the way, Lee recounted the entire story of the encounter with Wards and his accomplice. He left nothing out and the sheriff stopped him regularly with questions. When Lee got to the point where Wards had been knocked out, Sheriff Rose grunted in satisfaction, a small smile working around the corners of his mouth. For a long time, he kept his comments professional and courteous, obviously understanding that everything said right now could come back to haunt him in court. Then, when they were cruising through the semi-dark cedar forest, he mused aloud, “Darn it, I sure hope this is the break I’ve been waiting for. I’ve been watching this Wards guy for years. But I’ve never been able to prove anything.”

  Lee looked over at his, startled by the statement. “Do you suspect him of something else?” he asked.

  “Yeah. We all do. A half-dozen people seem to have disappeared after they got in Wards’ way. Others have shown up badly beaten and afraid to say what happened to them. Still others have suddenly left Montana without explanation. The only common denominator in these cases is Wards. But there’s never any evidence. I hope this is a chance to put an end to him.”

  Lee sat for a long moment, thinking about this. Then Sheriff Rose spoke again. “Lee, please forget I said that. It could sound bad in court, if you know what I mean.”

  Lee smiled. “Forget what, Sheriff?” He was rewarded with a big grin from the sheriff.

  The big sedan drove with its lights flashing and siren screaming. Sheriff Rose made the trip even faster than Lee had done on the way out. The deputy was right behind them.

  When they pulled in, Lee felt a wave of relief flood over him. Ray was still sitting on the flat bed of the truck and he had deployed Mike and Tony to flank the t
ree where Wards was still chained. Ray waved lazily at them as Lee sat back in his seat, muttering, “Thank God.” He realized suddenly that he had been more worried than he had admitted.

  The lawmen went to work with an efficiency that surprised Lee. Wards tried to say something to Sheriff Rose and was told to shut his mouth. He did as he was told. The little Mexican just sat there, looking terrified. Soon Wards was behind the safety mesh in the back of the sheriff’s sedan and Jose was similarly placed in the back of the deputy’s cruiser. The highway patrolman seated himself in the sheriff’s car where Lee had been on the way up the mountains. Lee noticed that the patrolman kept his pistol in his hand on his lap as he seated himself. They were not taking any chances with Wards.

  Ray and Lee were directed to ride back to town with Mike and Tony. All four were instructed to proceed directly to the jail in Big River to be interviewed. Sheriff Rose was taking this arrest far more seriously than he had with the arrest of Willy Gohmert last spring.

  When everyone else was seated in their cars, Sheriff Rose came over to Mike’s car and leaned into the open window. “Guys, this is going to be hard to do, but I’m going to ask you to not discuss anything that happened here on the ride to Big River. I want your stories to be in your own words, so they don’t seem rehearsed when they come out in court. Let’s do this the right way - the professional way. Wards can afford good lawyers and I don’t want him to slip away on a technicality. Capiche?” There was a chorus of assent from the four in the car.

  It was after midnight when Lee finally slid into his bed in the little log cabin. He was totally exhausted and felt emotionally drained. He was asleep almost immediately. But first he looked at the ceiling in the cabin and whispered, “Goodnight eagles, wherever you are.” He was smiling as he drifted off.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: MURDER ON THE RIVER

  When Lee awoke, the sun was high in the sky and the little cabin was already getting too warm for comfort. Looking at his old wrist watch, he found that it was nearly noon. Stretching and yawning, he lazily made his way to the shower. Somehow the world seemed to be in perfect order this morning.

  Lee put on clean jeans and a white T-shirt before leaving for the café. After eating, he found a coin-operated laundry on the outskirts of town and loaded in four loads of laundry. Virtually everything in his wardrobe was in serious need of a bath. He wasn’t sure what he intended to do today, but at least he wanted to be clean when he did it.

  After they had arrived in Big River yesterday, they’d spent hours being separately interrogated by Sheriff Rose and County Attorney Warthen. The two were determined to ensure that Bill Wards was convicted. Both of them obviously considered Wards to be one of the biggest fish they had ever had in their net and they were making sure he didn’t slip free. They had even isolated Wards from both Jose and Willy Gohmert, with them at opposite ends of the cell block and a deputy in the middle to ensure they didn’t communicate. They were taking no chances.

  But, as Lee waited for the washers and driers to complete their tasks, he realized that he was in a bit of a situation himself. He’d finally found the lake. Now he had no personal reason to stay in Montana. But Sheriff Rose had been adamant that his testimony on both the Gohmert trial and the subsequent Wards trial was going to be vital. That meant that he had to be available off and on for at least the next two or three months.

  He had plenty of money in the checking account Uncle Mike had insisted he set up. But even for him, three months in the little cabin would be hard. And what would he do to fill the time? This was starting to look like a tough few months.

  He was sitting beside the dryers, waiting for the final few spins, when Big Mike’s old car came roaring off the road to park beside his Ford. Mike was almost running when he came through the door. “Lee! I was just driving home when I saw your car here. Did you hear the news?” He was so excited that the words were almost unintelligible. For once, his ever-present nervous laugh was missing.

  Lee was startled. “Whoa, big guy, whoa. You’re gonna have a heart attack. What news?”

  “Kurt Kochran’s been murdered! Ben Stanton’s shot and is in bad shape in the Big River hospital. They were doing their river testing thing and someone shot both of them!”

  “Oh man, you aren’t kidding me are you?”

  “I wouldn’t kid about something like this. It’s serious stuff. The whole town is down at the truck stop and everyone is up in arms about this. Kochran might have been a tree-hugger, but he was well-liked.”

  “Do they know who did it? Or when?”

  “Not for sure. The sheriff says they were shot sometime yesterday. Then the raft drifted downriver until it got hung up on a bridge piling here in town. That’s where they were found. The sheriff and his crew are out combing the riverbank between here and Big River looking for clues. But everyone is thinking that this was something Bill Wards did before he was arrested yesterday. It would fit with the crap he tried to pull on you and Ray up on that mountain, wouldn’t it?”

  Lee thought back to the comments Wards had made yesterday before the fight with Ray, You and that bleeding-heart politician, Kurt Kochran, you’re both going to be dead! It did sound like the plan had been in motion, now that he thought about it.

  “Yeah, it does kinda make sense. He said something about Kochran yesterday when he was threatening Ray. We should have taken him more seriously, I guess.”

  Mike sat down with Lee. “No sense crying about spilt milk. But you need to tell Sheriff Rose about this. Maybe he can build a case against that asshole.”

  “I told him and the County Attorney yesterday when I was being interviewed. I’m sure Ray did too. Wards said that he planned to kill both Ray and Kurt. It was a direct threat.” His voice trailed off as he relived hearing Wards’ threat. There was a long silence as both men thought about the situation and its implications.

  It was Mike who broke the silence. “Man, he is guilty as hell, isn’t he? But I wonder who he got to actually do the shooting? The rumor is that they were both shot with a really big-caliber rifle. An elephant gun, some are saying. I dunno anyone around here that has a rifle that big.”

  Lee just nodded at this bit of information. he didn’t know many people around here and he certainly didn’t know anything about their armament. After a moment, he asked, “Did Kurt have a family?”

  “A wife, Judy. She’s in her last year of college, down in Dillon. She’s gonna be a schoolteacher. They just got married last year. No kids yet.”

  “Ow! Man, that makes it even worse.”

  “Yeah.” They sat, both lost in thought. Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the buzzer indicating that Lee’s laundry was dry. Without thinking about it, he stood and began tossing the dry clothes into a big canvas bag that he used for this purpose. Mike sat watching him, an absent look on his face. Obviously his thoughts were far away from here. Finally he stood up. “I was headed home to get Tony. Want to get together later? I was planning to go back to the truck stop after I picked Tony up.”

  “Sure. I’ll drop off the laundry at the cabin and meet you there.” With the laundry finished, Lee headed back to the cabin, lost in thought. It had just been night before last when he had set with Kurt and Ray at the café, looking at his picture and talking about the lake.

  Thinking back, he remembered that Kurt had said that he was going to be working his way past the mouth of Thunder Creek yesterday, then on toward Big River. Maybe they were wrong about Wards, he thought. Maybe Kurt had found something coming out of Thunder Creek; something that had upset the wrong people. There was that big International Match sawmill there. Maybe they were hiding something? Was there more to this than there appeared to be? Could Wards possibly have been working with the sawmill on all of this?

  Lee shook his head to clear it. Sheriff Rose was a good man. He’d figure it out. Lee went back to his laundry, stuffing most of it into the little chest of drawers that sat in the corner. He put the shirts on hangars and hung them on a s
eries of pegs placed on one wall in lieu of a closet. With this finished, he left the cabin and headed for the café.

  When he arrived, he saw that a small crowd had gathered over beside the garage. He avoided them, going into the café and taking a seat at the counter. Except for a few truckers at one of the tables and Janet behind the counter, the place was empty. Through the little pass-thru window, he spotted Dawn working her kitchen. At least this place looked normal.

  As soon as he sat, Janet brought him a mug and filled it with coffee. As she poured, she asked, “Did you hear about Kurt and Ben?”

  “Yeah, Mike stopped at the laundry and told me about it. Really bad news. I hope they catch whoever did this.”

  “We all think he’s already caught. Wards. They just have to catch the tool that did the actual shooting for him.”

  “Yeah. That was what Mike said. I hope it’s right.”

  “I think it is. Heck. You met him yesterday. What do you think? Is he the one?”

  Lee actually paused for a moment, thinking about the question and unconsciously studying her face. She’s pretty. Nice body, too. He replied, “I dunno. He’s certainly capable of it. He struck me as one arrogant, nasty, human being. Obviously very violent, too. But there could be others out there that didn’t like what Kurt was doing with the river pollution and all that. I’m really not sure what to think.”

  “Boy, Lee, you’re sure more cautious than most people around here. That bunch out by the garage have actually been talking about taking him out of jail and hanging him. They’re positive he’s the guy.”

  “Wow! A lynch mob? I’ve read about those in my history books. I didn’t think they still happened.”

  Janet laughed. “Not to worry. That bunch talks big, but they aren’t a threat to Wards or anyone else. That’s the same bunch that gripes about everything that anyone does, but for them it’s too much trouble to even vote or sit on a jury. They bitch and talk big, but they’re too darned lazy to do anything productive. Tonight they’ll all be at the bar, talking it up until they pass out. No, they’re not gonna be a lynch mob.”