Celilo's Shadow

by Wilcox, Valerie

  “What for?”

  “I didn’t bury Tony, but I was involved in the cover-up. Isn’t that illegal?”

  Rycoff shook his head. “The statute of limitations ran out on that aspect of the case years ago.”

  “Then I’m off the hook as far as you’re concerned?”

  “Dessa, too. I’m sorry I gave you so much pushback earlier. Keeping quiet for such a long time couldn’t have been easy. Then, to have your story questioned when you finally did talk . . . well, let’s just say you’re one tough lady.”

  “What about Danny? Will he be released now?”

  “It’ll take a couple of days to process the legal paperwork, but yes, he’ll be free to go, too.”

  It could’ve ended much differently and Ellie breathed a grateful sigh of relief. “Ever since that day I’ve been obsessed with the past, haunted by it, actually. Even though I knew it was cheating the present and betraying the future, I couldn’t let go of the memories and the guilt I felt. The longer I kept silent, the worse it became.”

  “Why did you come forward now?” he asked.

  “That’s easy. I couldn’t let Danny go to prison for something I’d done.”

  “I’m curious about that,” Rycoff said. “Why did he confess to Rossi’s murder if he was innocent?”

  “I tried to talk him out of it but Danny was convinced that he owed it to me. He’d wanted to kill Tony back then but I got to him first. Danny felt like he’d failed to protect me once and he wasn’t going to do it again.”

  “He must really love you.”

  Ellie beamed. “And I love him.”

  “We told Dessa that you’re here and she would like to see you. Are you willing to meet with her?”

  When Ellie hesitated, he gave her a way out. “You don’t have to. She said she’d understand if you’d rather not.”

  “It’s not that. She’s lived with the same guilty secret all these years, too. I’m surprised she wants anything to do with me.”

  “You ladies can sort all that out in the conference room. It’s a lot more comfortable than the interview rooms. We’ve cleared it for your use. Take as much time as you want.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  I’ve traveled all over the world as a journalist but walking down the hall to the conference room was the scariest trip I’d ever taken. I very much wanted to see Ellie again but I wasn’t sure how she’d react to seeing me. We greeted each other with an awkward hug. “My God,” I said. “You’re as beautiful as ever, Ellie.”

  She smiled warmly and brushed my compliment aside. “I see you still have a way with words.”

  She was too polite to comment on the change in my appearance. I laughed and patted my substantial hips. “I’m not the skinny kid you used to know but I have made a good living stringing words together. How about you? Did you stick with your art?”

  “I dabble with it now and then but just for my own amusement. I worked for many years as a model.”

  “Makes sense that you’d choose the glamorous life.”

  The conversation stalled a moment and then started up again with both of us talking at the same time. Laughing, Ellie said, “You go first.”

  “Let’s sit down then. I’ve got bad knees and can’t stand up for too long.” I dropped my bulky frame into a soft leather chair. “Ah,” I sighed. Much better. That metal wannabe chair in the interview room just about killed me.” I took a deep breath and said, “Look, Ellie, I have to say this: I’m sorry that I had to tell the cops about you.”

  “No, no. I’m the one who should apologize. You kept a secret—we both did—that wasn’t even true. I’m amazed that you never said anything before now. You really have been a loyal friend.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t be so quick to thank me. Truth be told, my silence was self-serving. I ensured that my own role in the cover-up was never discovered.”

  “Nevertheless . . .”

  I held up my hand. “Stop. That’s over and done with now, but there are a few questions I’d like to ask you. I gestured to the chair next to me, “Come sit a moment. “I’m sure you have a few things to ask me, too.”

  Ellie settled in the chair and said, “You’re right. I’ve been wondering why Mildred Simmons willed Baker Bluff to you.”

  “I guess because she thought of me as the daughter she never had. I started working for Millie when I was still in high school. My parents split up shortly after the cemetery incident. As much as my mother desired to be part of the social set in town, our family was never fully accepted. We were grudgingly tolerated, mostly because of Dad’s wealth. When the news broke that he was not only a card-carrying Communist but he’d supplied the Indians with the dynamite to blow up the spillway, we sunk to persona non-grata status.

  “My mother freaked out and thought the one saving grace would be the money she’d get in their divorce. Turns out, none of Dad’s wealth was in his name. It belonged to the U.S. Communist Party and all the assets were frozen by the Federal government before she could get her hands on any of it. Being broke and a social outcast didn’t suit her well. She committed suicide when I was a senior in high school.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Ellie said.

  “Don’t be. It turned out all right in the end. Millie took me under her wing and offered me a job at her resort. After I graduated from high school she covered all my expenses to attend the University of Oregon. She wanted me to come back to The Dalles afterward and run the resort, but I had my heart set on a career in journalism.”

  “What do you think about her confession?”

  “Millie was fairly easy-going, but you didn’t cross her when it came to battered women. Given her background, I think it was a foregone conclusion that she’d react the way she did when Tony admitted to attacking you.”

  “Why’d she kill Clarice? Do you think she was really afraid that Clarice would “whack” her first?”

  “Who knows?” I shrugged. “Maybe she was just in a killing mood. The point is, she’s the guilty party, not us. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I unknowingly triggered a potential lawsuit when I put Baker Bluff on the market.”

  “Maybe,” Ellie said. “But we’d never have known about Mildred’s confession if you hadn’t.”

  “I wish now that I’d done it years ago. There’s still something that I have to know.” What happened to you after Tony was killed? I never saw you or your father again. It’s like you disappeared off the face of the earth.” A worried frown creased Ellie’s brow. “I hope I’m not dredging up too many bad memories,” I said.

  “Not at all. We never went back to our home in Hillcrest because we stayed with Reba and Oscar at Celilo until Sam was well enough to travel. Then we flew to Washington D.C., where Dad was honored by the FBI for his courageous action that day. He made good on his promise and quit the Bureau soon afterwards. We didn’t even wait for the house to sell before moving to Idaho. Sam took up farming again and never regretted the decision, especially with Reba by his side. Oscar was part of the deal, but he missed the river too much to stay on the farm for very long. He moved to the new village that the government built for the Wy-ams displaced by the dam. Sam and Reba were married for over thirty years. They’re gone now, of course.”

  “What about Danny?” I asked. I know he was sentenced to fifteen years at the state pen in Salem, but I never heard anything more about him or his gang.”

  “It was a harsh sentence, but it could’ve been worse. The judge took into consideration the lives he saved along with Sam’s testimony on his behalf. Ernie didn’t adjust very well to life behind bars, but Danny made the most of his time. He took some classes and when he was released, he attend
ed Oregon State on a full scholarship. He finally learned how to deal with injustice in a productive way and became a tribal lawyer. Danny has won some very significant cases against the federal government that have benefitted his people.”

  “That’s so good to hear,” I said, and meant it. “You said Ernie didn’t do so well in prison. How did his friend Henry fare?”

  “That’s the interesting part. We all thought Henry was the one who blew up Sam’s truck when he couldn’t get at the helicopter. It turns out, he never even made it to the reburial site. He decided that Walter had gone off the rails and wanted no part of the plan. He ditched the dynamite Walter had given him and stayed in Celilo. He was never prosecuted.”

  “But who blew up the truck if Henry didn’t do it?”

  “Remember Sam’s partner, Jess Harmon?”

  “The scar-faced man?”

  Ellie nodded. “He blew up the truck.”

  “What for? I thought he was an FBI agent like your father.”

  “He was an agent but he was nothing like my father. He blamed Dad for the injuries he suffered on another assignment. Harmon was sent to The Dalles to solve the murder of a foreman. What he really did was try to frame Dad for the sabotage at the dam. He didn’t care how many people were killed or injured so long as he got his revenge.”

  “But wasn’t he killed in the explosion, too?”

  “He was, indeed. He even received a posthumous award for bravery.”

  “Your father didn’t tell the authorities about what he’d actually done?”

  “No, Dad said it was better that Jess Harmon was remembered as a hero than as a rogue agent.”

  “Wow, I’m surprised by his attitude. The man tried to ruin your father.”

  “Dad quit the FBI but he still felt a duty to preserve the public image of the Bureau. He said tarnishing Harmon’s reputation wouldn’t bring back any of those killed and would only foster public mistrust of the FBI. He was instrumental in getting the Federal Government to monetarily compensate the injured and the survivors of those killed.”

  The way Ellie glowed when she talked about her father was certainly different from the way she’d ranted about him when she was a fourteen-year-old girl. “I always liked and respected your father,” I said. “It sounds like you do, too.”

  “I love and miss him very much.”

  “Okay,” Dessa said. Now to the question I’m dying to ask. Did you and Danny ever get together?”

  “Danny was my first love, but the timing was never right for us. I wrote to him while he was in prison and went with Sam and Reba whenever I could, to visit him. He was released before serving his full sentence, but I’d already started my modeling career. By the time he graduated from law school, I was engaged to someone else. We used to joke that it wouldn’t have been good form for a brother and sister to date one another, anyway.”

  “Did he get married?”

  “Yes. He married a young woman named Loretta from the Yakama nation. She was a lawyer, too, and together they made a formidable legal duo until they retired a few years ago. Loretta is a remarkable woman. She fully supported Danny’s decision to protect me by confessing to Tony’s murder.”

  Keeping a secret for decades was something I could relate to, but confessing to a murder you didn’t commit? No way did I get that. I shook my head. “That’s beyond support. That’s amazing.”

  “Loretta and Danny are both amazing people.”

  “Sounds like you’ve had a good life.”

  “What about you, Dessa? Did you ever marry?”

  “Briefly. My husband was a photojournalist and was killed documenting the Viet Nam War.”

  “That was such a tragic period in our country’s history. Any children?”

  “No,” I said. “But it’s just as well. I’ve never really had the time or inclination to raise a kid. What about you?”

  She smiled but I detected a profound sorrow behind her eyes. “Like you said, I’ve had a good life in many ways.” She paused for a few moments as if she were deciding whether to go on. In the past, I would’ve jumped right in with another question, but I’ve learned over the years that you often learn more by keeping quiet.

  “I thought that the rape was the worst thing that had ever happened to me,” Ellie continued. “But it was nothing compared to losing a baby. Tony’s baby. She was stillborn.”

  “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry, Ellie.”

  “It was a long time ago and I had plenty of therapy and a loving family to help me through it. I couldn’t have any more children, but Danny and Loretta gave me the honor of being their twin daughters’ godmother.”

  It was a downer note to end our reunion and so I asked her about her marriage and life as a model. She’d been widowed for several years but had no money worries due to her husband’s success as a hedge fund manager on Wall Street. We were surprised to learn that we’d both been living in New York. “Two small town girls take on the big city and survive,” Ellie said.

  “No,” I said. “Two small town girls take on the big city and thrive.” We both laughed but it was true. We’d survived and thrived.

  Our talk turned to the changes in The Dalles since we’d both been gone. “Regrettably,” Ellie said, “not all the changes have been for the good.”

  “You must be referring to the dam.”

  She nodded. “I’m just glad I wasn’t here to witness Celilo Falls destroyed.”

  I remembered it well. “Hundreds of people turned out to witness the dam’s huge steel and concrete gates close and the rising waters choke back the downstream surge of the river.”

  “Danny was there,” Ellie said. “It took place shortly before he was arrested. He said the Wy-ams and other Indians stood on the bluffs overlooking the river to watch their way of life disappear forever. They stayed on the bluffs for three days and nights with no sleep, singing sacred funeral songs to mourn their loss. It only took six hours for everything—the rapids, the fishing platforms, the burial islands, and Celilo Village—to drown and wash away. Vanished as if they’d never existed.

  “The mighty Columbia River had become just another placid, smooth-flowing body of water. Danny said the most shocking part was the silence. The river gods’ thunderous roar—as much a part of his life as breathing—had finally surrendered to man’s resolute power. Celilo Falls was but a whisper on the wind.”

  We parted outside the police station without any pretense that we’d meet again or keep in touch. It is what it is, I thought, as Ellie walked away. She retrieved a ringing cell phone from her purse. “I’m free to go,” she said into the receiver. “No, Loretta, it’s all good. I’m coming to see you and Danny now. I’ll explain everything.”

  THE END

  Afterword

  Vice President Richard M. Nixon was the keynote speaker at the dedication of The Dalles Dam in 1959. Today, the Columbia River Basin is the most hydroelectrically developed river system in the world. More than 400 dams and hundreds of other structures on tributaries block river flows and tap a large portion of the estimated Columbia’s generating capacity—more than twenty-one million kilowatts. Hardly any major stream of the 260,000 square-mile Columbia River watershed has been left untouched. The 1,214-mile “raging river” has practically become a back-to-back series of reservoirs from the Canadian border to Bonneville Dam near Portland, Oregon. Less than two hundred miles of the United States portion of the Columbia remain free-flowing.

  The combined consequences of dams, increased ocean fishing, deterioration of stream and river habitats, and changing river conditions have made the Columbia less and less habitable for native fish. Ever since the early 1970s, the fish catch has dramatic
ally declined, with hatchery-raised species making up more than eighty percent of commercially caught salmon in the river. The situation has become critical for some salmon and steelhead runs and too late for others. Some stocks have disappeared altogether.

  The drastic decline in fish runs has brought a great deal of money and attention to the problem through the years. Numerous groups, including Native Americans, commercial interests, and sports enthusiasts, are working to achieve what they consider their fair share of the dwindling resource. Compounding the controversy are advocates who suggest that the salmon runs would benefit the most by removing or breaching and decommissioning the dams.

  Source: Bill Lang, Professor of History, Portland State University and former Director, Center for Columbia River History.

  Other Novels by Valerie Wilcox:

  Sins of Silence

  Sins of Betrayal

  Sins of Deception

  Concierge Confessions