Free The Deadly River by Jeff Noonan

You’ve gotta be kidding!”
    “Nope. C’mon. Let’s get a cup of coffee and talk a bit.”
    The two entered the café and took stools at the counter. Lee immediately noticed that a new waitress was behind the counter. She looked a bit like Betty, the waitress that had served him before, but this girl was younger. She brought them coffee without being asked and then asked, “Lee, can I get you anything else?”
    The surprise on Lee’s face must have been obvious, because the waitress began laughing immediately, a sweet, tinkling laugh that made the world right wherever it touched. Lee closed his mouth, knowing that he must look silly, and asked her, “Do I know you?” Still chuckling, she replied, “No. But I saw you play ball that night, so I knew what you looked like.”
    By now Ray was also grinning at Lee’s confusion. “Hell, Lee. The whole town knows you by now. You’ve been big news in these parts for the past month. By the way, this is Janet. You already met her big sister, Betty. The two of them help keep us afloat here.”
    Janet extended her hand to Lee over the counter and the two exchanged greetings. He tried to cover his confusion and embarrassment with small talk and soon he ordered breakfast.
    When Janet turned to place his order, Dawn, who was working the kitchen, looked out and spotted Lee. The confusion started all over again as she rushed out to give him a huge hug. Her questions started flowing immediately. She wanted to know all about his past month, what he’d been doing, and where he’d been. Soon Ray held up his hand, laughing and signaling for a halt to the interrogation. “Gosh, Dawn. The poor guy’s just trying to get some breakfast. Why don’t we feed him before we give him the third degree. He’ll still be here after he’s been fed.”
    Dawn threw up her hands in mock exasperation. “Okay, but you’d better make sure he’s here to talk when the food is gone. I have a question or two for this young man.” With that she headed for the kitchen, Lee’s order in hand.
    With the orders in and coffee on hand, Ray turned to Lee. “Okay, here is what’s happened since you’ve been gone. Sheriff Rose filed his case and the County Attorney, Don Warthen, took over. Dawn and I have met with the sheriff and Warthen several times and the case is moving forward. But someone has been planting rumors that Willy is innocent and that we’re just lying to get publicity. The people who know us are solidly on our side, but there are a lot of people who live in Big River and the eastern part of the county who don’t know us. The rumor there is that I’m some kind of nutty tree-hugger who is trying to shut down the sawmills and the logging around here. So the prospective jury pool is getting tainted. That’s why we’ve been looking for you so hard lately.”
    “But why would you be accused of being a tree-hugger? You don’t have anything to do with the sawmills, do you?”
    “Not really. But I did help Kurt Kochran stop a planned cedar forest clear-cutting a few months back. The local plans were to completely wipe out a stand of cedar trees that are very near and dear to me. In addition, I’m known to be a friend of Kurt’s, so that gavethem some ammunition. I think this is all being instigated by Bill Wards and his cohorts. He hates me because I helped to stop his plans to log off that cedar forest. He isn’t used to being stopped when he goes after something. He’s mad and I think he was behind Willy’s attack here that night. It would be just like him to pull something like that. But I can’t prove it, so I guess I shouldn’t be talking this way.”
    “Is there any chance that Willy will say anything about why he did what he did?”
    “Sheriff Rose is working on that. But Willy is too scared to say anything. He’ll probably go off to prison without telling what he knows. The Wards reputation around here isn’t one that would be reassuring to someone like Willy.”
    Janet