The Deadly River

by Jeff Noonan

  “I guess I do. But, dammit, please be careful how you guys wave those things around. Someone could get hurt.” He was blustering now, embarrassed at how he’d been trapped by three teen-aged kids.

  “We will, sir. Thank you for the information. You can tell Sheriff Rose that I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning. C’mon Tony, climb in and lets go back upriver.”

  They’d hidden one of the pickup trucks about a mile upstream. Lee’s car was in a nearby motel parking lot. While they rowed, they discussed this new development and decided to keep the job going while Lee was gone. None of them were overly concerned at this point with the guard requirements, although the encounter with Sheriff Gunderson had shaken them up somewhat. Mike and Tony could easily handle the sampling job and they only had a few more miles to go before the Clark Fork opened into Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. At that point, the only remaining work would be the fifteen miles of samples between Big River and St. Dubois.

  They tied off the raft and drove Lee back to his car where they shook hands and parted company.

  Lee drove toward St. Dubois, wondering what this new adventure would be like. Although his father had been a lawyer, he had never been in a court while a trial was underway. He realized that he was excited, and more than a little nervous, at the thought of testifying in court.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE TRIAL

  “All rise! All rise for the Honorable Angus McClain, District Court Judge, Fourth Judicial District, State of Montana, United States of America.” The deep voice of the Deputy Sheriff who doubled as the Court Bailiff rang through the little courtroom, signaling a start to the trial of Mr. William Wards.

  The judge, a large man with a florid complexion, was nonchalant as he took his seat behind the tall judicial bench. “Be seated.”

  Lee was sitting in the back row of the courtroom, beside Ray Moore and his wife, Dawn. None of the three had ever participated in a trial before and they were excitedly hanging on every word.

  The bailiff went on to announce that this was a capital murder trial and that Mr. William Wards was being tried for three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of robbery, and numerous associated offenses. The announcement of these offenses went on for almost five minutes as Lee listened carefully. By the end of the long announcement, Lee decided that the trial was going to be a lot more boring than he’d anticipated.

  County Attorney Don Warthen opened the trial with an impassioned speech stating that the defendant, Mr. William Wards, had actively pursued, over a period of at least six years, a policy of killing business competitors and anyone who opposed his ambitions in any way. He went on to describe in general terms, each of the murders that Jose Ortega had told him about.

  Warthen finished his opening statement by describing the murder of Kurt Kochran and the wounding of young Ben Stanton as well as the attempted murder of Ray Moore and Lee Raines. “One of Mr. Wards business goals during the past year was to clear-cut the cedar forest up Little Joe Creek. This is a project worth millions of dollars. To get official approval for this project, the federal government has charged that Mr. Wards bribed government officials. He will go to trial on those charges in Federal Court at the conclusion of this trial. In any case, Mr. Wards’ intentions regarding the Little Joe cedar forest were thwarted when Mr. Kurt Kochran and Mr. Ray Moore brought congressional pressure to bear on the forest service. Subsequently, the forest service cancelled the timber sale that Mr. Wards was counting on.”

  He continued, “We will prove that Mr. Wards was heard to actively threaten the lives of Mr. Kochran and Mr. Moore because of this cancellation, saying they would both die on the same day and that this would send a message to the congressmen who forced cancellation of the timber sale. It was this vendetta by Mr. Wards that resulted in his capture when he attempted to murder Mr. Moore and another person, Mr. Lee Raines, who happened to be with Mr. Moore at the time. It was later discovered that Mr. Kochran was killed and another innocent young man was shot and wounded on the same morning that the attempt was made on Mr. Moore and Mr. Raines. We will prove during this trial that Mr. Wards did commit these offenses as well as the other murders detailed earlier. Mr. Wards’ criminal actions have resulted in at least three deaths and serious injury to several others. We have concluded that Mr. Wards’ continued freedom constitutes a clear and present danger to our community. Therefore, we, representing the people of Montana, will seek the death penalty in this case.”

  Lee and Ray whispered excitedly to each other. They hadn’t heard about the bribery charge before this. That charge explained a lot of questions that local people had about how Wards had been so successful in getting timber sales steered his way. It fit well into the picture that Warthen was painting with his words.

  There were three lawyers at the defense table beside Bill Wards. The lead defense counsel, Mr. Leventhall, rose to rebut the County Attorneys opening statements. “The County Attorney has accused my client of some heinous crimes. In Mr. Warthen’s mind, my client is apparently guilty of everything from murder to spitting on the sidewalk. I’m surprised he didn’t charge Mr. Wards with shoplifting or wife-beating. That’s about all he missed.”

  The judge interrupted. “That’s enough, Mr. Leventhall. I’ll have no sarcasm in my courtroom.”

  “Sorry, Judge.” Then the lawyer continued. “My client is being accused of a total of three murders. Of those three murders, two of the bodies do not exist, or if they do, they haven’t been found as of this date. I don’t know how the County Attorney can possibly claim these people are even dead, let alone murdered by my client. The third murder, that of Mr. Kochran, was indeed a murder, a senseless murder for which someone should be punished. But not my client! There isn’t a shred of evidence proving that my client had anything to do with this murder. Not a shred!

  He paused to let that sink in with the jury, then continued. “As far as the supposed attempted murder of Mr. Moore and his friend, that was nothing more than a fistfight that the County Attorney is trying to magnify to help him prove his case. At the end of the day, this court will have no choice but to find Mr. Wards innocent of all charges because that’s the truth. Mr. Wards did not do any of the things he is accused of doing.”

  The defense counsel walked back to his table, turned toward the jury and added, “He is innocent!”

  Ray whispered derisively to Lee out of the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, right.” But Lee wasn’t so sure. He knew that Wards was guilty, but he wasn’t so sure that the County Attorney could prove that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

  After some procedural issues, the prosecution was asked to produce its first witness. The County Attorney called Mr. William (Willy) Gohmert to the stand. According to the schedule, Ray was to testify next, then Dawn. Lee would follow Dawn and Sheriff Rose would testify after him.

  At this point, Ray, Dawn, and Lee were required to leave the courtroom. County Attorney Warthen had explained that this was necessary since there was to be no collaboration between their testimonies. The prosecution wanted to make sure the defense couldn’t claim that anyone was simply copying another person’s testimony when on the stand.

  The three spent a long afternoon in the company of a deputy sheriff in a hot conference room adjacent to the courtroom, waiting for Willy’s testimony to conclude. It was almost 5 p.m. when the sheriff stopped by to tell them that Willy had finished, but the court had adjourned for the day. The three were instructed to go home and return in the morning. They were to have no contact with any of the people who had attended the trial that afternoon.

  Lee had an early dinner that evening at Big River’s Four Aces Bar and Grill. He stayed away from the truck stop and café in St. Dubois to make sure he complied with the sheriff’s directions.

  The next morning, Lee and Dawn reported to the deputy in the conference room. Dawn had brought some board games, so they killed time playing Monopoly while waiting to be called. Finally, at about two o’clock that afternoon, the call came
for Dawn.

  Lee waited for the remainder of the day and then had another lonely dinner at the Four Aces. Apparently Dawn wasn’t finished testifying, so tomorrow he’d be waiting again in the little conference room.

  In the meantime, Mike and Tony were working their way down the river. They told Professor Davis that they would be at the end of the Clark Fork River in another few days. After that, the only work remaining would be to sample the fifteen miles between Thunder Creek and St. Dubois.

  Big Mike was rowing across the river and Tony was sitting on a bench daydreaming when he suddenly seemed to come awake. “Hey Mike. I think I’ve decided what I’m going to do when we get done with this job and the mill closes this winter.”

  Grunting with the strain of fighting the current, Mike looked at his friend. “What?”

  “I was just thinking. You know that friend of Ray Moore’s? The one he calls Little Red?”

  “Yeah. He’s in the Army or something, isn’t he?”

  “No. He’s a career man in the Navy. Been in five or six years, I think. Anyway, I saw him a few weeks ago when he was home on leave, and he was telling me about some of the places he’s been. He’s seen all of the Far East - you know, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia, and all that. When I talked to him, he’d just come back from cruising to the Caribbean. I want to do that. I want to see something besides mountains and lumber mills and I want to do it while I’m still young enough to enjoy it. I’m gonna join the Navy this winter.”

  Mike made it across the river while Tony talked and was now in a small lagoon. He rested his oars and leaned back, giving this new idea some serious thought. Finally he shrugged and let out his characteristic little laugh before answering in a calm, matter-of-fact, tone. “Okay, that sounds good. I’ll go with you.”

  “Are you kidding me, Mike? Are you serious? You’re gonna go with me?” Tony was incredulous, but the smile that hit his face said everything. These two had been the best of friends for as long as they could remember. This was more than he’d expected to hear from Mike. Turning his head to the heavens, he let out a war cry that could be heard for miles.

  “Why not? I want to see something else myself. Plus, we can do Boot Camp in San Diego where it’s warm. If we time it right, we might even miss the worst of the winter cold. That works for me. But we have to wait for the mill to shut down for the winter. Mr. Benton is counting on us to come back and pick up some of the load after the ball players leave and I won’t let him down.”

  “Of course. Benton’s been good to us. We can wait that long.” Again Tony let out that long war cry.

  “State your name, please.” The County Clerk had just sworn Lee in as a witness.

  Lee cleared his throat. He was surprised at how nervous he was right now. “Lee Anthony Raines.”

  “Okay Mr. Raines, you may be seated.”

  Don Warthen was walking toward the witness chair as he talked, speaking loudly enough that anyone in the small courtroom could hear him. “Mr. Raines, You’ve been identified as a witness in two separate events that resulted in charges against this defendant. One is the incident where you witnessed an attempted holdup of the St. Dubois Café. The second was the incident on the mountainside up the Little Joe Creek. I’m going to separate these incidents and have you testify to each of them separately so there is no confusion in anyone’s mind as to the objective of the segments of your testimony. I’m going to ask you about the robbery of the café first, then we will move to the incident on the mountainside. Do you understand this?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Okay then, Mr. Raines, please tell us, in your own words, what transpired the evening of the attempted robbery of the café..”

  The defense attorney rose to his feet. “Objection, Judge. We have already heard from two witnesses all about the events that occurred in the café. The perpetrator of that crime has confessed and has received a plea agreement in return for his confession. In the interests of the court’s time, I’ll stipulate that the café was held up by Mr. Gohmert and he was apprehended as described by Mrs. Moore. I do not see how my client’s involvement or lack thereof is proven by going over this incident again.”

  Judge McClain looked at the County Attorney for comment. Don Warthen nodded and said, “The State has no objection to the defense’s stipulation, Your Honor.”

  “It is so ordered.”

  Warthen turned back to Lee. “Okay, Mr. Raines. In light of this, I have just one question for you on the robbery of the café.. My question is this. Do you have any knowledge of the involvement of Mr. William Wards with the robbery of the café by Willy Gohmert?”

  “Well, sir. I don’t know how to answer this. I did not know there was a connection to Mr. Wards until that day he stopped us on the mountainside. Can I talk about this part of that incident now?”

  The County Attorney smiled at the question. “Yes. You can.”

  “Well when we were on the mountain, before I got to the rifle, Wards was screaming at Ray about the cedar timber sale and Ray asked him if that was why Wards had paid Gohmert to rob the café and attack Ray’s wife. Wards answered yes, he had paid Gohmert to do that. He also said that it had cost him a lot of money to keep Gohmert quiet after Gohmert was put in jail.”

  County Attorney Warthen interrupted Lee with, “Are you certain that Mr. Wards admitted to paying Mr. Gohmert to rob the café?”

  “Yes, sir. I am absolutely positive about that.”

  “Very well, then. Let’s move on to the incident on the mountainside. Please tell us, in your own words, what you recall happening during that incident.”

  Lee took a long breath and began talking. “Well, we were coming back from Flynn Lake. The road up there is just a one-lane dirt road scratched into the side of the mountain. We came around a corner and there was a pickup truck parked sideways in the road, blocking us. We couldn’t get past it. Ray slowed us down and put on the brakes. Then two men came around the truck. I didn’t recognize either of them. One was a little guy with a rifle. The other was a big guy who had a pistol in a holster and was waving a baseball bat.”

  County Attorney Warthen interrupted him there. “Excuse me, Mr. Raines. Do you see either of these people here in the courtroom?”

  “Yeah. The big guy with the baseball bat is the defendant, Bill Wards. I don’t see the little guy.”

  “Thank you. Please proceed.”

  “Well, when Ray saw Wards, he gunned the engine and tried to go around the pickup by going up on the hillside. But the pickup didn’t want to go up the hill. The rear wheels were spinning in the dirt, but Ray kept trying. That’s when Wards said something to the little guy and the little guy shot a hole in our windshield. Put a big hole in the windshield right between Ray and me. Ray stopped the pickup then. We were sitting almost sideways on the mountainside by that time.”

  The Defense Counsel rose again, shouting, “Objection, the witness cannot possibly be certain that my client said anything to Mr. Ortega. Mr. Ortega may have taken this shot on his own recognizance.”

  The judge looked down at Lee. “Mr. Raines, are you sure that you saw Mr. Wards say something to Mr. Ortega prior to Mr. Ortega shooting at the pickup?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “Objection overruled. You may proceed.”

  The County Attorney held up his hand, stopping Lee from saying anything. “Before we proceed, Mr. Raines, I’d like to show you the windshield that we have placed in evidence. It’s leaning against the wall over there.” He pointed at the windshield. “Is that the windshield and the bullet hole that you are describing?”

  “Sure looks like it.”

  “All right. Go ahead with your story, please.”

  “Well, when we stopped, Ray jumped out and went over to where Wards was standing. As soon as he got there, Wards hit him in the side with the baseball bat. That knocked Ray down and knocked the wind out of him. Wards grinned at him and told Ray something like, “I thought you knew better.” Then Wards tur
ned to the little guy you called Ortega, and told him to keep an eye on me and make sure I stayed in the pickup. Ortega told me to get my hands up. I did what he told me.”

  Lee paused and took a long breath, then continued. “Wards made Ray get up then and took him over to the edge of the mountain opposite from where I was sitting. He pointed down toward the Little Joe and said something to Ray about the cedars and how much money he’d lost because he couldn’t cut those trees. That’s when Ray asked him if he’d paid to have the café robbed. Wards answered like I told you before and then he hit Ray in the face, knocking him down again. He said something else to Ray that I couldn’t hear and then hit him again when he got up. Then he screamed at Ray that we (I mean Ray and I) were going to be found at the bottom of this hill, all beat up. He said that the obituaries would say it was a bad pickup accident. Then he said that Ray and Kurt Kochran were both going to end up dead. He said that with Ray and Kurt out of the way, he would be able to get the Forest Service to let him cut the cedars. I specifically remember him saying to Ray that when Ray looked up from hell, he would see Wards living high off the proceeds from the cedars.”

  The County Attorney stopped lee again. “Mr. Raines, are you absolutely sure that Mr. Wards talked about Kurt Kochran and threatened his life?”

  “Absolutely. He seemed to think that if he killed both Ray and Kurt, he would be able to log those cedars. He called Kochran a bleeding-heart politician.”

  “Okay. Please proceed.”

  “At about this time, Wards told Ortega to get me out of the pickup. I tried to get out, but the pickup was so tilted that the passenger door was jammed. They saw me struggling with it and I told them I was going to turn around and kick it free with my feet. I did that. Then the door broke free and I started to push myself upward and out the door. About the time I was clearing the door, Ray fell down and both of them started watching him. So I grabbed the old 30-30 that was behind the seat and brought it out with me. I levered a shell into the chamber and got the drop on them. I told Ortega to drop the rifle. Then Ray took the pistol away from Wards.”