Black Horse (Breaking Black) (13 page)

Black Horse tried to hold his son, comfort him for once in his life, but he could not grip the boy. Colton was much too fast. Bolting out the screen door, Colton ran for the Ford’s house as fast as he possibly could.

***

“Colton!” Corinne yelled as she saw the boy run into her yard with tears streaming down his face. She bent down to hold him and the child shook under her touch.

“Sweetheart, what is wrong? Where is your Mammaw?”

Colton sobbed incoherently. Averi came up behind him with a frightened look on her face. She stroked his back and looked at her mother with broad eyes.

“Momma, what’s wrong with Colton?!”

“She’s gone…” Colton sobbed.

“Gone? Gone where?” Corinne asked, not understanding the severity of the situation.

“Mammaw fell and she won’t answer! My father said she’s dead!”

“Your
father
?!” Corinne asked.

Corinne ran from the yard and bolted for the telephone and immediately dialed 911, while Averi continued to console Colton.

***

Black Horse sat in the waiting room at St. Helen’s Emergency Room. Nathan and Corinne Ford had just entered and while Nathan took a seat next to Tom, Corinne was asking a nurse at the front desk a question. She gave her husband a precarious look.

Do not get involved, Nate…
thought Corinne to herself. She remembered the many conversations she had with Anna about her son. Anna was afraid of Tom. Deathly afraid. According to Colton, she shook with fear just being in his father’s presence. There was a reason why there were five locks on the front door of Anna’s home. She was scared to death of Black Horse. Scared not just for herself but for Colton, too. That is when she realized what she had to do. Biting her lip, she tried to play nice.

“Tom,” she said, holding out her hand thinking that he would shake it. Instead he stood up and removed his cowboy hat. He embraced her, pulling her in. Corinne felt sick. Those hands that she knew had killed others, were touching her. She immediately wanted to wash. She felt as if she had a million bugs crawling over her skin.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Corinne said as she pushed gracefully out of the hug.

“You two were friends,” he said more as a statement than as a question.

“Yes. Very dear friends,” said Corinne, trying not to cry.

“I’m sorry. I’ve upset you.”

“No, you haven’t. Her passing has. I must say that I am very fond of your son.”

“Oh, Colt.”

“Yes. I know you’re not settled yet. Why don’t you let Colton stay with us? He is good friends with my children.”

Black Horse thought about it. He had no intentions on caring for the boy anyway. He hated his guts. He probably would have just turned him over to the State.

“I think that sounds like a good idea. I do not have the means to take care of him.”

“Very well,” said Corinne. She gave her husband a look of warning and left.

***

“Colton, honey. You are going to stay in here with Randy. You will be living with us.”

Colton didn’t say anything but somberly followed after Mrs. Ford. He was happy to have a safe place to stay and with people who he loved. He was just too devastated at the loss of his grandmother to show it properly.

Randy cleared off the floor in the corner of his room and helped his mother set up a cot where Colton could sleep. He didn’t say anything to his friend in fear that he would upset him further. He didn’t really understand what was happening, he just knew that he had to be there for him.

“I’ll grab some blankets.”

***

“Quite a shock to come home to, I’m sure…” said Nathan as he tried to make small talk with Tom.

“I just can’t believe it. I was so happy to be free, and then on the very day I come home, my mother dies.”

Black Horse sounded out of breath and beside himself.

“I was wondering, Nate. Could I have one of your business cards? I might be in need of your services.”

“Sure. But I must say, I would need to pass you off onto one of my colleagues.”

“Oh, how come?”
 

“Conflict of interest, with Colton staying at my home.”

“Would anyone really know, though? I heard you’re the best, and I need the best. They want to make an example out of me for something I didn’t even do.”

It was amazing. Black Horse made his speech sound so convincing that he nearly fooled himself.

“I’ll consider it,” said Nathan trying to push his skepticism away. “You have to be straight up with me though. No lies.”

“Of course. I’m an honest man.”

Another lie.

Nathan shook Black Horse’s hand, wished him well and departed through the double doors of the emergency room with a heavy feeling in his heart.

Chapter Nineteen

Conflict of Interest

Corinne Ford unlocked the front door to her house as the weight of her friend’s death weighed heavy on her mind. She tried to calm the muscles in her face and shoulders before she entered the house where her children and Colton waited. She searched for an inner calm and waited for it to take over. When she opened the front door, she was relieved to see that only her eldest son Seth and Tim were awake in the living room. They were playing Duck Hunt on the Nintendo and arguing over who had better aim.

“Keep it down boys, I don’t want to wake the others.”

“Honestly, Mom… I don’t think they are sleeping,” said Seth, giving his mother a serious look.

“Randy is. I can hear him snoring,” said Tim.

Corinne rolled her eyes at her sons.

“What about your sister and Colton?”

“He was crying and Averi is consoling him.”

“Exactly what you two should be doing!” Corinne berated her sons.

Storming off in a fit of rage, Corinne ran upstairs to see if Colton was okay.

“I think she loves him more than us.”

“I heard that!”

Quietly, Corinne made her way down the hall towards Randy’s room, and sure enough, he heard her son snoring loudly.

I need to get that boy to the doctor. That is unnatural,
Corinne thought.

As she walked into Randy’s bedroom, she found Colton and Averi on the floor playing a card game. He wasn’t crying anymore. It appeared that Averi had successfully distracted him for the moment with a spirited game of Crazy Eights.

“Who’s winning?” Corinne asked quietly, careful not to wake Randy.

“Colton is. I’m horrible at this game…” admitted Averi.

Colton simply stared at his cards and didn’t want to look Mrs. Ford in the eye. He was afraid what he might find there. Sadness? Judgment? The truth that the two mother figures in his life were both dead, and now there was just her, a close friend of the family to watch out for him?

Corinne’s gaze fell upon Colton. Though he was distracted, she could tell he was distraught. She loved him like a son, and she would do anything for him. While Tim and Seth liked to tease their mother that she loved him more, it wasn’t true. She loved them all the same. She was deeply worried over Colton’s well-being.

“Colton, honey… Come to my room, I want to talk to you.”

Colton did as he was told, leaving Averi and the game of cards for another time.

Corinne sat on the bed and patted the space next to her for Colton to join her. He climbed up onto the king size bed and stared at the dim room around him. Family photographs lined the cream walls, memories of happiness, of a life well lived. Averi and Randy opening presents on Christmas morning, Seth pitching at last summer’s Fourth of July game, Tim and Nathan fishing at the lake, Averi and Mrs. Ford baking with flour covering their hands and aprons. In the center, Mr. and Mrs. Ford’s wedding portrait took center stage. The head of the family, a partnership, a team. A husband who didn’t raise his hand in hostility towards his wife. Lock her in a shed and try to burn her alive. Murder her in front of their son. A father who didn’t taught his children about the good in the world, instead of the dark underbelly of society. In Colton’s eyes, the Ford’s had it all.

“Do you like looking at those photographs, Colton?” Corinne asked.

He shook his head yes.

Corinne lifted the child up into her arms. She took him to the wall of photographs to give him a better look. She showed him a picture of a beautiful woman with ginger hair and a young dark haired girl. “That is your Mammaw and I… She was my Sunday School teacher.”

“And this one,” Corinne continued moving to another photograph. “This is you, Randy and Tim playing football last fall. Do you remember?”

Colton nodded again. A look of meaning took over his face.

“Oh, and look! In this one you’re giving Averi a kiss on her cheek!”

Colton looked embarrassed.

“Mrs. Ford?”

“Call me, Cory…”

“Cory… Can I ask a question?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you have pictures of me on your family wall of pictures?”

Corinne looked at the boy. Emotion flooded his deep brown eyes, filling up, threatening to spill over.

“Because you are a part of this family, my love.”

Colton sobbed. He clutched Corinne’s arm as the tears spilled down his sweet face.

***

Corinne was waiting on the couch when Nathan walked through the front door with a somber look upon his face. He glanced at his wife and he knew immediately that there was a hard conversation waiting for him. The look on her face said it all.

“Please tell me that you did not give that man a business card…” Corinne said with a stony look in her eyes.

Nathan did not respond.

“Nathan!”

“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked, as if he didn’t know.

“For one, it is a complete conflict of interest! For two, Black Horse…”

“His name is Thomas McClain…” Nathan interrupted.

“I don’t give a damn what his name is! He is not the priority! We are caring for his son because he is a deadbeat and a criminal!”

“Corinne, he seemed really shaken at the loss of his mother…”

“As he should! Anna was a saint. She was petrified of him!”

“Wouldn’t she want us to help him change if we could?”

“Getting him off the hook isn’t going to change a thing! Are you aware that she called the cops and gave them information when she heard about Jessa’s death?”

Nathan looked shocked.

“You get him off, you will dishonor her memory,” warned Corinne.

“She loved him. She may have been fearful, but I know she wanted her son to turn his life around. Corinne, you’re upset. I understand. I know you two were close friends. I want to be able to help her son…”

Corinne looked outraged.

“Nathan Jeremiah Ford! You listen to me! He is a horrible, horrible man! You should be helping me get physical custody of Colton so we can protect the child! And you want that animal to go free?!”

“I know that you want to adopt the boy, but wouldn’t it be best if his father assumed responsibility?”