Black Horse (Breaking Black) (12 page)

Tom kicked his horse, biding it to go faster, faster, the poor beast’s heart would go out before its legs did. It was as if the stallion had the same sense of urgency. As if it knew it would be shot the moment that Black Horse was captured. A cloud of dust shot up as the horse bolted down the dirt road with two police cruisers chasing behind.

“Yah!” Black Horse yelled as he kicked the horse again causing it to go even faster.

He could see the border. The god forsaken border of a god forsaken land. Black Horse hated Texas. He was sure that if he was ever captured the State of Texas would have a field day sending him to death row or worse yet, imposing a life sentence for his crimes.

Border control stood with rifles at the gate. He didn’t know how he would survive this encounter, but he knew if he didn’t, he gave it his all. He knew the devil awaited his arrival. Despite all his mother’s prayers, God had no room in his gates for a bastard like him.

The horse bolted forward at breakneck speed. Tom’s eyes, beady and dark, eyed the gate, trying to avoid eye contact with the Border Control officials, he rose in his seat and moved with the motions of the horse, allowing the steed to move faster, hellaciously pounding a its hooves into the dirt and rock of the Mexican soil. Two clicks. Two guns’ safeties were taken off. Border Patrol was prepared to take him down.

“Yah!”

A shot was taken, but missed. The bullet ricocheted on the ground under the horse’s belly and just missed hitting its hind right leg. Another shot. This one grazed Black Horse’s face, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Five more shots. Dirt flew up making it hard to see. Ten shots followed by a horrible cry. The devil horse was shot once in the throat and against in the belly and as it fell to
the ground, Black Horse was thrown over the U.S./Mexico border and into a bramble. What felt like a million thorns pierced his rough skin, reminding him, that yes, he is in fact human, and not infallible. As the first fleck of blood poured from his body, a Texas border official cuffed him so that he could not escape.  

Chapter Seventeen

Ghost

The sound of a children’s choir echoed into the early morning air. The peaceful churchyard hosted a symphony. Between the voices of the congregation's youth, the sweet song of the robin red-breasts that gathered below the arbor of magnolia blooms and the sound of Anna McClain humming along to “Jesus Loves Me” as she prepared the Sunday Morning breakfast for the congregation. Nathan Ford and his eldest son Seth had already hidden the Easter eggs in the field that lay beyond the chapel. Meanwhile, Corinne and Nathan delighted in watching their children belt out the words to their favorite church song.

On the altar, Randy and Colton stood together dressed in their Sunday best with Tim, Seth and Joey Benson standing behind them. Singing as loud as they could, Averi, Shelly and her cousin Melissa Pierce added a sweet feminine flair to the song. Randy and Colton looked embarassed to be singing on stage, but Averi and Shelly loved their moment in the spotlight. As the organ ceased to play, the children departed down the center aisle with smiles on their faces. Every single one of them were friends and in their
young minds, nothing on earth could change that.

***

Detective Shawn Hall smacked his teeth as he walked into the interrogation room at the Oakeley Police District precinct 5. The man called Black Horse was sitting at the table looking like he had been caught in a fight with a porcupine. It was hard to take a guy seriously when he had pockmarks and open sores across every visible part of his body. Detective Hall didn’t even bother sitting down. He stood in the corner of the room and glared at Black Horse.

“Why’d you do it?”

“Do what? Hey, can I get some coffee.”

“No.”

“What am I being accused of?”

“To start with?”

“Six counts of murder… Assault… Spousal abuse… Child abuse… Robbery… Illegal possession of a deadly weapon…  Drug possession…Fraud… Forgery… and DUI.”

“That’s it?”

Hall glared at him with hostility. He didn’t care if there were cameras. He’d fuck this guy up royally if he watch his tongue.

“Why did you murder Jessa McClain and John Radcliffe?!”

“I didn’t murder my wife.”

“There were seven eye witnesses that place you at the scene.”

“I was there. That’s for sure. My wife ran off with another man with my son! You’d run after her, too!”

“And you shot them, didn’t you?!”

“No! I loved her! When I showed up, he had her in bed, and when I tried to leave with her and my son, he threatened to kill my wife. I backed off like he asked… The guy was crazy.”

“Be careful what you say about Mr. Radcliffe.”

“Oh, so you knew him…”

“Everyone knows everybody else ‘round here… Small town.”

“He was your partner.”

“And so what if he was?!”

Black Horse smirked darkly.

“Keep smilin’ asshole, I’ll wipe that smirk right off your ugly mug.”

Black Horse held his hands up as if feigning surrender.

“So go on… you were saying…”

“He had a gun pointed at my wife’s head so  backed off and I grabbed my son’s hand, trying to protect him from John.”

“Mmmmhmmm…” said Shawn, who clearly didn’t believe a word that Black Horse said.

“But despite my begging and pleading… he shot her anyway, and then he turned the gun on himself.”

“That was a nice story. Maybe you should sell that to the Women’s Drama Network. They have pathetic stories like that on all the time… Too bad it’s not the fuckin’ truth! Time to come clean, McClain! You shot Jessa and John. They were runnin’… You seem to forget. My father works for the fire department. I know you set her on fire!”

Black Horse looked shocked. He could win an Academy Award for his acting.

“I loved my wife! She was smoking a cigarette back there as she sewed a blanket for the baby and it dropped and she couldn’t get out.”

“There was a padlock on the door with gasoline surrounding the fuckin’ shed!”

Black Horse cleared his throat and he looked the detective squarely in the eyes. With a hint of hysteria in his gaze, Black Horse said, “Can’t prove it was me.”

Black Horse was right. No matter what crimes they tried to pin on him, there was never enough evidence to convict him. The case would crumble in a courtroom. He had plenty of contacts that would claim to be eye witnesses to seeing him elsewhere at the time of the incident. This time was a little different. He admitted to being at the scene of the crime, but he knew that there was no evidence pointing to him being the shooter. His prints would not be on the gun. The gun was stolen and registered to someone other than himself. No one alive saw him shoot, except for his kid who was three years old, and honestly, who is going to take the testimony of a three year old. That’s if he even remembers the incident.

“Why’d you hide in Mexico for two years, then?!”

“My girl lives down there… She’s pregnant and I’m going to be a daddy again…”

“Again? Because it worked out so well the first time.”

Black Horse shrugged again.

Shawn paced the room becoming more aggravated by the minute. After taking one final look at Black Horse’s smug face, Shawn bolted out of the room and slammed the interrogation room door behind him. He met his new partner, Eddie, in the break room. Before Eddie could say a word, Shawn set a tower of plastic cups flying.

“Fuck!”

“Please tell me we have something on this dickhead…”

“Nothing… We have NOTHING!”

“So what now…”

“You know what.”

“Son of a bitch!”

***

Randy and Colton scrambled through the field collecting as many colored eggs as they could find. Tim and Averi stuck together trying to find the more difficult eggs that Randy and Colt had missed. By the time the hunt was over Randy and Colt both had twelve eggs each, while Tim had ten and Averi had four. As Randy and Colton gloated, Tim winked at his sister as he dumped all of his eggs into her basket.

“Not fair!” yelled Randy.

Colton smirked as Averi danced around the field, victorious and thrilled that she had bested her highly competitive brother and his best friend.

“It just says whoever has more…” said Colton, trying to be a good sport.

“Cheaters!” Randy yelled acting like a spoiled brat.

Colton, Averi and Tim couldn’t help but laugh at him as he ran off preparing to tell Mr. Ford about how he was jipped of his Easter egg hunt victory.

***

Nathan Ford sat with his family at a round table in the parish hall eating the fresh breakfast that Anna had prepared. As he shoveled a fork full of pancakes into his mouth, he read the morning paper. Randy and Tim kicked each other under the table while Colton sneakily stole Averi’s bacon. Meanwhile Anna and Corinne were preparing to poke fun at Nathan.

“What are you doing, looking for future clients?” Anna asked in a joking manner as she watched Nathan read the top headlines of the paper.

“Very funny… No, I found something that might be of interest to you. Look.”

Nathan passed the folded up newspaper over to Anna as he pointed out the article in question.

The headline read: Black Horse released from Police Custody, Search for McClain/Radcliffe Killer continues.

Anna’s blood ran cold. Standing in the doorway, just under the hung crucifix, was her devil of a son, staring in her direction. Before he could approach her, Anna grabbed Colton’s hand and ran from the hall leaving the Fords with puzzled looks. They had not seen Black Horse enter the building. In fact, no one other than Anna recalls seeing him on the premises. He was like a ghost. His path unseen. His presence undetectable by the untrained eye.

That was the last time Corinne would see her good friend alive.

Chapter Eighteen

She’s Gone…

“Mammaw!” Colton yelled as his grandmother fell to the floor clutching her chest. She had a look of pure fear on her face.

Black Horse stood in the corner of her living room with a look of disbelief on his face. He tried to hide his emotion behind his hand, but failed. He was a horrible man. This is true. But the fact that his presence had scared his mother so horribly that she had a fatal heart attack struck him to his core. As Anna fell to her knees, her eyes met her sons and the contents of her heart were displayed. The pleading. The praying. The endless yearning for her son’s redemption. Black Horse had a heart of stone, but somewhere, in some tiny crevice of his hardened heart, there was a morsel of love for his mother.

She was so afraid that he’d take Colton. So panic-stricken that she wouldn’t be able to save Colton from becoming the man her son was. Colton, on the other hand was enraged. Just five years old, his eyes were filled with hate.

“What have you done?!” he yelled as he charged at his father.

He punched and kicked and bit his father. Furious over the fact that he was here now, in this place, on this earth, hell… Alive! All he could think of was his mother’s face. He only had a piece of her tucked in his mind. Her words she whispered to him as they hid from the man that stood before him.

“Do not allow your heart to fall into darkness as your father’s heart has.” Colton would forever remember the words.