Adeline swallowed. “Go on then. Leave.”
Suzanne reached for the purse and slung it over her shoulder. She would not go quickly.
“It’s disappointing, you know,” she said. “That it’s come to this.”
Adeline looked away.
Suzanne nodded, like a question had been answered, then picked up her coffee and left the café.
61
March 2
EAGLE, Colo.—An Eagle County police officer is being investigated in the shooting deaths of two people.
Officer Michael Raphino was placed on administrative leave after he entered a home outside of Otter Ridge, Colo., and was involved in a shooting that left two dead. Raphino said he was responding to a noise complaint at the home, and entered when he heard loud fighting from inside. The two men allegedly fired their weapons at the officer, and he returned fire with his service weapon. Officer Raphino sustained non-life-threatening gunshot injuries, according to the police report.
“Right now we’re focused on gathering all the facts,” said Eagle County Police Chief Kevin Warren. “We wish Officer Raphino a speedy recovery and hope to have this sorted out soon.”
The victims were identified as Joseph Silvasky, 24, and Vincent Decierdo, 43.
62
April 13
EAGLE, Colo.—The former Eagle County police officer involved in the now famous Otter Ridge shooting that left two dead was charged yesterday with second-degree manslaughter.
Michael Raphino, 28, was relieved of his duties last week and now faces charges in both deaths. Eagle County Police Chief Kevin Warren said Raphino exhibited “complete lack of judgement” and had no legal grounds for entering the home. If convicted, he could face 15 years in prison.
Activist groups have called for criminal charges against Raphino since the shooting was first reported. Rev. Tony Dunn, of the group Coloradans for Peace, said this was the latest example of police overstepping their bounds.
“For far too long, police have been given blatantly unchecked power in the use of deadly force,” Dunn said at a rally in Denver. “This is just another example of corruption resulting in the deaths of innocent men. Two men are dead, and we have no explanation, no answers. The citizens of Colorado deserve better.”
Warren has promised a thorough review of his department’s processes regarding home entry and the use of force.
Neither of the victims had criminal records. Joseph Silvasky, 24, was a Fort Collins native who worked as a bartender in Frisco. His parents said they are “absolutely heartbroken.” High school classmates described Silvasky as “quiet” and “proud.”
Vincent Decierdo, 43, was the owner of a small electronics brokerage company in Summit County. Warren described him as a “visible, well-liked” figure in the community who was commonly involved in outreach programs.
63
There were more stories in the news. Even across the country, it was easy to follow. Another example of police abusing their power. There were funds set up for the families of the victims and fervent calls for reform. The police chief had been pressured to resign. The public wanted justice for innocent lives needlessly lost.
If only they knew.
Mike went to jail. He was found guilty on manslaughter charges and sentenced to five years. The papers said he’d serve two. The prosecutor droned on about “reigning in unchecked police power” and the “wild west culture” of western cops. The Eagle County Police Department fully supported the punishment.
Mike would spend at least two years behind bars and would never again work as a police officer. Not once throughout the questioning, trial, or sentencing, did he mention he wasn’t alone that night. Still, I expected it to come out. Through forensics or ballistics or a weak moment from the accused, I was sure for a long time that it would be revealed there was an accomplice to the crime. But Mike held fast—the one last thing that appealed to his sense of duty—and the investigators were never able to determine a fourth person was in that room.
Sometimes I thought about calling him. A visit was out of the question, but a phone call, from a burner or a payphone, to tell him thank you. That I was thinking of him, and I wouldn’t forget what he did for me. That he had done the mountains proud, for whatever it was worth coming from an eastern yank.
Maybe when he got out. Maybe I would then.
When I left New York that hot summer morning—when I started my drive that would lead me to Boulder, and then to Otter Ridge—I had visions of the grandiose. It was, I thought, a rejection of the status quo, a freedom from the chains that bound me. I was riding off into the sunset. But what I learned about sunsets is there’s a night after them, and then a day, and another night.
I left Colorado knowing I had to, but not that I wanted to. It was my home; a place I’d found not through the accident of birth, but through a genuine pull of the things that mattered. And I agreed with those things, and they agreed with me, whatever they were. I felt right there. And despite the darkness, despite the bloodshed, I know that rightness is what I want. The mountains are not responsible for the evil that happened, no more than the skin is responsible for a cut. The soul of the mountains is old, and it is understanding. The mountains will forgive me, and when they do, I will return.
I had not felt the rightness of place before my trip to Colorado, and I have not felt it since. I won’t. Even now I wake up with a longing that follows me through the day; longing for the feeling I had when I woke up in the mountains. Longing for that freedom, for that rightness, the whole day through. And when I lay myself to bed at night, I think of Suzanne, and of Damon, and of Michael Raphino. I think of these and more, and where they are and how they are, and I pray they can smile. And as I drift off to sleep, I hear a whistle in my ear, of the air through the hills, and the call of the mountain.
Sam Neumann is the author of four books, including the New York Times bestseller Memoirs of a Gas Station: A Delightfully Awkward Journey Across the Alaskan Tundra.
He lives in Boulder, Colorado, and writes about life and leisure at TheOtterLodge.com.
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