The Deadly River (21 page)

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 turned 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.”

Again the County Attorney stopped him. “Mr. Raines, wasn’t there a shot fired during this melee?”

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Wards didn’t want to do what I told him, so I shot the baseball bat out of his hand. Then he started listening to me.”

“Okay. Proceed.”

“Well, Ray took charge then and told Ortega to lie down in the road. He took Ortega’s rifle and Wards pistol and threw them into the bed of our pickup. Then he told me to watch Ortega. So I did. While I was watching Ortega, Ray and Wards got into a fistfight. They went at it for a while, but finally Ray knocked Wards out.”

The Defense Counsel interrupted. “Objection. I’d like clarification. Is Mr. Raines saying that he didn’t interfere in this so-called fight? He had a gun on them and he still calls it a fair fight? He is saying that Mr. Moore beat up a man that outweighs him by fifty pounds?”

Judge McClain just looked at Lee, with his eyebrows raised in a quizzical manner.

Lee nodded. “That’s the truth, Judge. I kept the rifle where I could react if I needed to and I watched Ortega. But Ray did win that fight
fair and square. Even though he’d been hit a few times - once with a baseball bat - before I got the gun out, he still beat Wards to a pulp. In fact, I can honestly say that he kicked Wards’ ass good.” Lee had a big smile at the memory. The visitors’ gallery laughed aloud at this remark.

He continued. “There wasn’t much to it after that. We tied them up and Ray watched them while I drove to town and called the Sheriff. I rode back with Sheriff Rose and everything on the mountainside was the same as when I left.”

The County Attorney looked at the judge then. “I have nothing further for this witness, Your Honor.”

Judge McClain nodded. “All right, Mr. Leventhall, you may proceed with your cross-examination.”

The Defense Counsel stood and made a production of looking through his notes before addressing Lee. “Mr. Raines. You just recently arrived in Mineral County. Yet you have been in the middle of two of the biggest events in the county’s recent history. In both incidents, you have been billed as something of a hero. Don’t you think of this good fortune as being a somewhat unusual coincidence?”

“No sir. With all due respect, I don’t think of it as good fortune. In fact, if I were asked, I’d say that it was some very, very, bad luck. It’s not fun being shot at.” A ripple of laughter ran through the seated visitor’s gallery.

Leventhall flushed noticeably. “Please do not make jokes, Mr. Raines.”

“I wasn’t sir. I was dead serious.”

“Okay, Mr. Raines. Let’s move to where you said that you heard Mr. Ward confess to hiring Mr. Gohmert to rob the café. Where were you when you heard this alleged confession?”

“In the pickup, like I said.”

“Where was Mr. Wards standing?”

“He was standing on the edge of the flat area, beside where the hill drops off.”

“Isn’t that completely across the road and several feet further away from where you were, Mr. Raines?”

“Yes.”

“How could you possibly have heard this conversation from so far away, Mr. Raines? Are you sure that you didn’t hear this from Mr. Moore after the incident was over?” Leventhall was sure that he had Lee now. He continued without waiting for an answer. “In fact, Mr. Raines, is it not true that you and Mr. Moore conspired to blame my client for this robbery even though there isn’t a shred of evidence that he had anything to do with it? Isn’t that the truth, Mr. Raines?” By the time the Defense Counsel finished the question, his voice had risen several octaves and he was obviously attempting to intimidate this young witness.