WEST WARWICK -- They had to see where it happened. Where so many died -- the site of a tragedy for which, now, many believe justice will never be done.

So all day yesterday cars pulled into the parking lot in front of what was The Station nightclub until a vicious fire Feb. 20, 2003, killed 100 people and injured hundreds more.

Many slowly walk around what looks like a neatly groomed cemetery, with grass and flowers and more than 100 crosses decorated with pictures, notes, a beer bottle or two and even a pumpkin.

It was the first visit for a woman from Massachusetts. She had heard people complaining on the radio about the sentencing Friday of the club's owners, and she just had to see where it all happened.

"The state is crooked and there's not a damn thing you can do about it," she said as she left.

A couple from Pennsylvania got out of their cars and stared, shaking their heads. The whole story was hard for them to believe, they said, just too tragic.

And then there were friends and relatives. Bob Johnson said his piece in court before Friday's sentencing. Yesterday, he sat on a folding chair in front of the cross dedicated to his son Derek, decorated with a big metal butterfly and a tiny toy motorcycle.

"I come up and sit in my chair and talk to my son," Johnson explained. He wears a picture of his son on his chest.

Talk to Johnson a bit longer and two themes come out: he and his wife raised three wonderful boys. But the state of Rhode Island let one die and has done precious little more than insult him ever since, he said.

"This judge, he was predisposed with the sentences," says Johnson. "So why call it an impact statement? Why mislead people? An impact statement in most states comes before the sentencing, not after. And he sat there with that glare when I tried to object."

"If the fire happened at a gathering of political people," Johnson added, "these guys would be serving life in jail, and there would be a monument here reaching to the stars."

A visit to West Warwick yesterday revealed two Rhode Islands. Clearly the town is moving on.

In the neighborhood behind the club, where noise complaints prompted the club owners to cover the walls with foam that turned out to be highly flammable, lawns were covered with campaign signs. Sen. Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick, seems to be the most popular. There are also lots of handlettered signs opposing the Narragansett Indian casino, even though supporters argue West Warwick would be the big winner if the casino were built on the edge of town.

Just up Cowesett Road, not far from where the old Crompton Mill was consumed by fire in 1992, a big Walgreen's is going up.

On the other side of Arctic, workers were turning the abandoned Royal Mills complex into condominiums and apartments. Across the street, Riverpoint Park was crowded with kids playing soccer.

Over near Route 2, where traffic was slow and parking lots jammed with shoppers, two big machines tore down the last of the old Kent County Court House. Next door soared the brick and glass of the new courthouse, where Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. Friday sentenced nightclub owner Michael Derderian to four years in prison and his brother Jeffrey to community service.

Court TV trucks were still set up out back, where they broadcast the proceedings to the nation.

Outside the new courthouse, two inscriptions decorate a long, glass wall. Frank J. Williams, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, says in one: "The judiciary is the last refuge of democracy."

Williams' hero, Abraham Lincoln, is quoted in the other saying: "Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people."

After a day in court watching the judge restrict family members from expressing their anger and then impose such light sentences, Johnson said he found those inscriptions infuriating and insulting.

And apparently he wasn't alone.

Telephone lines for talk radio-stations were jammed all day with people who thought both the sentences, and the manner of sentencing, outrageous. A total of 713 people responded to an unofficial survey at The Providenece Journal Web site, projo.com , on whether the case should have gone to trial.

More than 51 percent favored a trial and 38 percent voted no. Many of the yes votes were accompanied by angry complaints about injustice and losing the opportunity to learn all the facts that contributed to the fire.

Johnson, who lives in Easton, Pa., spent much of the week in Rhode Island, visiting the fire site and then attending court.

Yesterday he met with Shawn Corbett, whose brother Edward died in the fire. For some time the site was a mess, littered with refuse and a few momentos to the dead.

Out by the street there are angry signs accusing the West Warwick fire inspector and building inspector of being murderers because they didn't spot the dangerous foam on the club walls in their inspections.

Now, where the nightclub once stood, the tributes to the dead are neat and respectful. Corbett mows and trims the grass.

Not every victim is honored with a cross, says Corbett, but almost all are and some have two or three.

Some of the crosses are taller than a man and fashioned with polished wood. Many are weathered and appear to be assembled from old pieces of fencing.

Chairs and benches are set in front of many, suggesting that Bob Johnson isn't the only one who likes to sit at his son's resting place.

Corbett is treasurer of The Station Fire Memorial Foundation, which wants to see a memorial built on the site. But even that isn't working out. The real estate company that owns the property can't give it away, because victims are suing for compensation, he said.

Johnson said he's a Democrat, but he's very impressed with Governor Carcieri and his wife, Sue. They come to every meeting of victims' families, he said. And they are very firm: no press, no photos.

"I've never met a guy with more sincerity," Johnson said.

Johnson keeps going back and forth, expressing rage at the judiciary, and then getting misty eyed as he describes his son.

Derek Johnson was 32 and good looking. He loved women, but didn't want to marry, said his father. He sky-dived and drove a motorcycle.

"And most of all, he liked to help little kids," Johnson said. Derek helped the Make-A-Wish organization do special things for sick kids. He once got Shaquille O'Neal to take a sick child onto a basketball court.

Johnson said his son made a lot of money working for an Internet security company, first in California and then in Providence.

Derek got a great life insurance policy, and he asked his father who to name as beneficiaries. Johnson said he didn't need any money, so he suggested Derek name his two brothers.

He did. And they got a lot of money when their brother died, Johnson said. They used it to buy their mother a house and a new car.

Johnson said he was trying to point out in court that his son was very different from the Derderians, who he called "vile" people.

Yesterday afternoon, it was time to head back to Pennsylvania, Johnson said, after giving Corbett a hug. But he said he'll be back. He wants to talk to the U.S. Attorney about the Station fire case.

And, he said, "you'll see me sitting here, talking to my son."

plord@projo.com / (401) 277-8036