by Jeff Noonan
It was Lee’s turn to laugh. “Boy, you have a high opinion of your neighbors, eh?”
“Only some of them. Did you want to see a menu, Lee?”
“No. But I’ll take a cheeseburger and fries.”
“You got it.” She left to put in the order and check on the truckers.
Mike and Tony came into the café while Lee was waiting for his order, so they moved to the table in the corner where the two always sat. Tony hadn’t heard about the shootings until Mike had come home to tell him, so he was still getting up to speed. The two ordered cokes and talked among themselves as Lee wolfed down his meal. They, too, were of the opinion that the shootings had obviously been the work of Wards and his henchmen. But the large caliber rifle question had both of them puzzled.
After he finished eating, Lee mentioned his idea that something around either Thunder Creek or Big River being cause of the murder. The three discussed this possibility for a while, but both Mike and Tony were totally convinced of Wards guilt.
Lee wasn’t sure about their conclusions and said so. “Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute. I talked to Kurt night before last. He was planning to spend some time measuring the pollution at the mouth of Thunder Creek yesterday. Then he was going on downstream toward Big River. Let’s say he found something bad coming out of Thunder Creek. Maybe it was something that the International Match people didn’t want anyone to know about. Maybe that was the reason for all of this instead of Wards petty crap? Could that be possible?”
Tony opened his mouth as if to answer, but Mike interrupted him. “Wait a minute, Lee. Are you sure that Kurt said he would be at Thunder Creek yesterday?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because Kurt and Ben were found when their raft got caught on the bridge pilings here in town. That’s fifteen miles or so downriver from Thunder Creek. The sheriff is looking for clues just upstream from St. Dubois. If you’re right, he’s looking in the wrong place.”
The three looked at one another. After a moment, Lee answered, “Let’s go talk to Ray. He was in the conversation with Kurt and I and he knows the area better than me. He’d know if I’m right.”
Lee was rising as he spoke. Leaving money on the table for his food and Janet’s tip, he headed for the door with his two friends following.
Ray was busy in the garage, repairing a tire for one of the truckers in the café. He saw the three coming and stood, wiping his brow with an old piece of toweling. “What’s up, guys?”
Lee excitedly told him about their recent conversation, finishing with, “What’d you think, Ray. Am I right? Wasn’t Kurt planning to be at Thunder Creek yesterday?”
“Yup. Better go tell the sheriff, Guys. I’m busy here, but you can tell him that I agree with you. It just makes sense that the raft would have floated downriver from wherever they were shot. He needs to be looking for clues somewhere between Thunder Creek and the west side of Big River. If I were him, I’d be looking around the mouth of the creek ‘cause it’s pretty deserted out there. If someone were shooting an elephant gun within the Big River city limits, it would’ve been heard.” He paused as he thought about this. “Mike do you know where Sheriff Rose is now?”
“Yes. I passed his car coming here from my place. He’s just upriver from where the highway crosses the river. Close to the place where the raft was found.”
“Then he’s fifteen miles too far west. Better go tell him.” With that, Ray went back to wrestling with the big truck tire.
Lee volunteered to drive and the three got into his Ford. Mike gave directions and soon they found the sheriff’s car, several other patrol cars, and a flat-bed truck in a nest just slightly upstream from the highway bridge. The lawmen were busy hauling Kurt’s big black raft out of the water. The three boys climbed over the protective fence and crossed the railroad tracks to help them. With three more sets of hands, the raft was soon up to the road where they set it on the back of the truck.
Lee hadn’t been able to see into the raft until they were ready to load it onto the truck. As they loaded it, he climbed up beside the raft to help manhandle it into place. “Oh shit!” The sight of the raft’s interior was almost too much for him. There was blood everywhere, some still washing back and forth on the raft’s bottom where it had mixed with river water. The deputy sheriff across the raft from him nodded and smiled wryly in agreement. The two then buckled down and pulled the raft into place, passing tie-down lines across to one another and tying the raft to brackets on the truck bed.
With the raft in place, Lee and Mike walked to where the Sheriff was standing talking to his deputies. Lee opened the conversation with, “Sheriff Rose, can we talk to you for a minute?”
The sheriff was obviously busy with his deputies, planning their next move and he was a little annoyed at being interrupted. “Can it wait, Lee? We’re kind of busy right now.”
But Lee wasn’t going to be ignored. “No Sheriff. We think we know something that may help. I talked to Ray and he told us to tell you about it.” His gaze was stubbornly fixed to the sheriff’s face as he talked.
“Okay, what is it?” Sheriff Rose was still abrupt, but his tone showed new interest.
“Ray and I had dinner with Kurt Kochran the night before last. While we were talking, Kurt mentioned that he was going to do a lot of water testing yesterday at the mouth of Thunder Creek. He didn’t plan to get as far as Big River yesterday. So we think they were shot somewhere around Thunder Creek and then they just drifted down here. We thought you should know this.”
The sheriff’s face creased into a big smile of relief. “Thank God! That’s the first thing I’ve heard that narrows this down. Both you and Ray are certain of the Thunder Creek location?”
“Yes, definitely.”
“Thanks, Lee. That helps a lot.” With that, the sheriff turned to his fellow lawmen. “Okay fellas. You heard him.” Looking at one of his men, he said, “Jim, You go with the truck. Don’t leave the raft until it’s at the crime lab in Helena. Get signatures from them so we have a firm line of custody. Then c’mon back to the jail.” He turned to his other men and told them to meet him at the mouth of Thunder Creek. The group broke up as Lee and his friends watched.
When they were alone, Lee walked over and sat on a big rock. “Did you guys see the inside of that raft?”
Mike replied, “Yeah.” Tony just nodded. All three of them were silent. This had been an experience none of them would forget soon.
The three drove back to the little home that Mike and Tony shared. Once there, they made a dinner of venison steaks and opened a six-pack of Great Falls Select. That evening, they managed to consume the six beers and spend hours talking about the murders. Lee was now a trusted friend of this little St. Dubois group.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A NEW PURPOSE
Lee woke early, with the morning light just breaking through the cabin’s front window. Stretching luxuriously, he lay there for a few minutes, his mind going over the events of the previous day. It had been a day to remember. But there didn’t seem to be anything more Lee could do about any of it, so his mind turned to other things.
He still didn’t have a plan for the next few months. There was no sense leaving St. Dubois because he would have to come back repeatedly for the Gohmert and Wards trials. After visiting Mike and Tony last evening, the little cabin didn’t seem too bad anymore. It was small, but the house they were living in wasn’t that much bigger and the two of them were living there. Maybe he could negotiate a monthly rate for the cabin? If that worked, he could buy some utensils and eat some meals at home rather than the café. That might just work. With that thought, his mind drifted back to the events of yesterday.
Slowly Lee got out of bed, cleaned up and got dressed. He decided to stop at the motel office in the nearby grocery store to see if he could negotiate a rate for the cabin. The lady who ran the motel was behind the counter waiting on a customer when he arrived. Thinking hard, he remembered that he’d been told that her name was Angi
e. While he waited, he walked around the store and picked up some chips and other little items that could be eaten without kitchen services.
When the customer left, Lee moved to the counter. He explained his situation to the lady and she immediately agreed that she would help. After some talking, they agreed on a monthly rental of $125, with the understanding that Lee would do his own cleaning for as long as he stayed. Angie even offered some shelf space in her store’s big refrigerator for any groceries he needed to keep cool.
Lee munched a candy bar as he went back to his car. Angie had told him that he could buy a cooler and coffee pot at the Gambles store in Big River, so he made that his next stop. While there, he bought a little table for the coffee pot, a clock-radio, and a set of shelves for food storage. By early afternoon, he had finalized his living arrangements and purchased all the equipment and supplies that he needed to live in the cabin.
But then he realized the biggest problem that he had to face would be boredom. His friends were at work until at least 5 p.m. every day and he had nothing to do. He thought about going fishing, but after all the time he had spent in the forest lately, that just wasn’t a particularly attractive option. He’d purchased several novels at the Gambles Store, so he spent the afternoon reading and looking at his watch. Finally, about an hour after the work day closed, he made his way over to the café for dinner.
Mike and Tony were sitting at their regular table. Janet was sitting with them and her older sister, Betty, was serving tonight. As usual, Dawn was cooking. Lee was waved over to the table by the three teenagers, so he walked over, greeting them as he took a seat. “Hi guys. What’s new today?”
Mike took the lead with, “Ben Stanton woke up today. It turns out he was shot through a lung, but it looks like he’s gonna make it. Still in intensive care, but he was able to talk to the sheriff. He confirmed what you’d thought about the location of the shooting. He said that they’d finished sampling the water at the mouth of Thunder Creek and had moved a ways downstream when someone shot at them from up by the railroad tracks. The tracks there are a quite a bit higher than the river, so they never saw the shooter. Ben saw Kurt go down first and he heard a big booming sound, then he got hit and doesn’t remember anything after that.”
Mike paused. This was a huge speech for him and he had run out of words. Tony chimed in with, “The sheriff was just in here. There’s a Community Council meeting tonight and he’s going to go over and let them know what’s happening on this stuff.”
Then it was Janet’s turn, “We’re really glad to hear about Ben. He’s a good guy. We were worried about him.”
Lee was pleased with the news. “Man, that is good to hear. I don’t know Ben well, but we worked together when we were getting Kurt’s raft ready. He seemed really nice. Worked hard too. I’m happy to hear that he’s gonna make it.”
Mike came back to the sheriff’s visit. “Sheriff Rose is going to try to get someone to finish the river water sampling job. He plans to talk to the community council about it tonight.”
This caught Lee’s full attention. “What is this Community Council?” Can they pay for something like this?”
Mike and Tony just looked at each other. This was something they hadn’t thought about. Janet answered the question. “It’s a group of business people and some local leaders that gets together about once a month to talk about things they can do together to help tourism and the timber business. They sponsor fundraisers to get money for things like the Fourth of July celebrations and Christmas parties and that kind of stuff. To answer your question, I don’t think they can afford to pay for something as big as the river work.”
Mike didn’t agree. “I dunno. There’s some pretty rich people on that council. Besides, Kurt had a federal grant of some kind that he was working on. I bet there’s still some money there.”
The four debated this subject until it wore itself out, then they went on to talk about other things. An Elvis movie was running at the theater in Big River and they decided they’d go see it next Saturday. Lee told them about his day and about how he had set up his cabin for long-term living. Janet was disappointed that she wouldn’t be seeing him in the café as much now, but all three had helpful suggestions for making the cabin more livable. Since the other three had to work in the morning, the conversation broke up fairly early and they headed for their respective homes for the night.
The next morning, Lee decided to go talk to the sawmill owner, Charlie Benton. He didn’t really need a job, but the boredom that came with having nothing to do during the day was bad and he knew it would just get worse.
It took Lee almost two hours to find Benton. The mill owner was making his rounds of the sawmill and it seemed like wherever Lee went, the mill boss had just been there. Finally, Lee found him standing on a pier that thrust itself out into the mill pond, a small lake about two acres in size that was filled with pine logs waiting to be turned into lumber.
Charlie Benton was talking to a man standing with him who was holding a long pole with a hook at the end. Lee waited politely until Benton turned away from the other man. When he did, the mill owner noticed him and smiled. “Ah, Mr. Raines. Have you come to talk about work and baseball?”
“I guess so, Mr. Benton. I’ve finished the job that kept me busy before and now I have to stay around for a couple of months at least. So I need to find a way to stay occupied.”
“Why do you have to stay, Mr. Raines?”
“Please, sir. My name is Lee. I’m not comfortable with the mister thing. But the reason for staying is that I have to testify at the Gohmert and Wards trials, so I’m sticking around until they’re over.”
Benton chuckled, “Okay. But I was hoping that our little town had grown on you and you’d decided to stay here.” He spoke with a New England accent, one that Lee hadn’t heard since leaving Villanova.
Lee grinned. “I do like it here, but I’m not really sure what I want to do when I grow up. Not yet, sir.”
“Well, Lee. To tell you the truth, I’ve got almost more mill people than I need right now. But there is something that just came up for us. Can you swim?”
Puzzled, Lee answered, “Yeah, no problem there.”
“Well, Lee, there is a project. It wouldn’t pay much, but it would keep you busy. I’m sure you’ve heard about Kurt Kochran and the shooting the other day, haven’t you?”
A light came on for Lee. This was going to be interesting. “Yes. I know about it. In fact, I helped Kurt and Ben set up the raft they were using.”
“How would you like to finish the job that Kurt was doing? By the time that gets done, my college summer hires will be gone and I could employ you here until the winter shutdown. Would that interest you?”
“Yes, definitely. But that’s a two-man job.”
“Actually, we are thinking about making it a three-man job. Two people would operate the raft and do the sampling work, while another would follow them from the river bank and stand guard so no one else gets ambushed. The only problem is that there isn’t a lot of money left in the grant, so we will have to be really stingy to make it stretch over three bodies, even if I pick up some of the cost.”
“Mr. Benton, I can help with that. I’m not hurting for money. I just don’t want to be bored for the next few months. I’ll take this job on for free as long as I’m doing the river work. We can talk about wages when I come to work in the mill later. But I do have a condition.”
“My gosh, Lee. That would be great. What’s the condition?”
“Let me have Mike Morse and his sidekick, Tony Mancini, for the other two bodies. I can trust them and I know they’ll be real hard workers on this.”
Charlie Benton stuck out his hand. “Deal, Lee! I’ll have to make some calls and get the other members of the Community Council onboard, but this is a no-brainer. Consider yourself hired. I’ll tell Mike and Tony to report to you tomorrow.” Suddenly, as a thought hit him, he hesitated, thinking hard. “But there is one problem with this.
You won’t be around here enough to play baseball with the Town Team. I guess you could play in the pick-up games whenever you can get here for them, but I’ve got a feeling you’re going to be too busy for much of the baseball stuff. Does that change your mind?”
Lee grabbed the proffered hand. “Not at all, sir. I knew Kurt Kochran fairly well and I’d consider it an honor to finish what he started. Baseball can wait.”
Charlie smiled and nodded. “Okay then.”
Lee was elated. This was too good to be true, he thought. “I’ll get it done for you, sir. I guess I should go out and see the ranger today. We’re going to need that spare raft of Kurt’s. And some maps and sample bottles, also. We can have the raft ready to go by tomorrow evening and be ready to hit the water. Do you have any special instructions for us?”
That caused Benton to think for a moment. “Not anything major. I’d like you to meet with the sheriff before you go out. He mentioned that he wants you to stay away from certain places for a while. You need to talk to him about the specifics. You should probably meet with the University people also. They’ll have some instructions for you on the sampling process. Ranger Mainwaring, can put you in touch with the right people there.”
He stopped for a moment, thinking. Then he continued, “I think I’m going to ask you to provide me with a handwritten weekly report on your progress. If I think of anything else, I’ll let Mike know tonight when I tell him about this. Now, before I go, do you have any questions for me?”
There had been a thought in the back of Lee’s mind since this conversation had begun. He decided to ask it, even though it might not be the most politically correct thing he’d ever done. “Yes sir, I do have a question and I’m sorry if it isn’t a good one, but my curiosity is up. You own this sawmill, but you’re working with Kurt Kochran, a guy who is known to be an environmental politician. When I talk to people around here who work in the lumber business, they all seem to hate any mention of the environment. My question is this. Why are you doing this?” His voice was a little shaky as he asked.
