Dark Horse (Aspen Falls Novel)

by Melissa Pearl

  “Well, uh, according to the report I read, you claimed she ran away.”

  “Yeah,” Vern rasped. “She, uh…she thought she was in love with this boy…this man. They met over spring break and when she got back, she’d changed somehow. She wasn’t the same girl. She kept sneaking out to see him. She told us she was meeting friends, but we quickly worked out that she’d been lying to us. She’d never lied to us before.” The man blinked, his voice wavering over his words.

  “Where was she for spring break?” Nate flipped open his notebook and clicked on his pen.

  “Uh, one of her friends had an aunt in Nissawa. She owned a cabin up there, so they went away for a girls’ trip. Three nights away to watch movies and paint each other’s nails. That’s how she sold it to us.” Vern gave him a watery smile, which quickly disappeared. “She must’ve met him there.”

  Nate jotted that down. “And how did you find out she was lying?”

  “Well one day she told me she was off to catch up with one of her girlfriends. I watched her drive off and then headed out myself. I was very surprised to spot her car parked by the train tracks, so I went to go check it out. I found her in an abandoned mill, practically naked with some man pawing her.”

  Nate swallowed. “That must’ve been a shock.”

  “I was horrified, and deeply disappointed. Mila was a good girl. She was such a good girl.” Vern’s voice broke and his lips formed a wonky line as he no doubt fought his roiling emotions.

  “What did you do when you found them?” Nate asked, keeping his voice even and calm to counter the brewing storm.

  Vern swallowed, running a shaking hand over his head before answering. “Well, I told her to get dressed and get back to her car. I’d follow her home and we’d talk about it then.”

  “What did her boyfriend do?”

  “He grabbed his things and hightailed it like a coward. Mila was mortified and quite tearful, but when I asked her about the guy, she became very closed off. It was obvious she didn’t want to tell me much. All she could admit was that she loved him. When I told her she was too young and that I didn’t want her to see him again, she flipped. I’d never seen her like that before. She started screaming at me that I couldn’t keep them apart. I didn’t know what to do. My baby girl was turning into someone I didn’t recognize…all because of that man,” he ended darkly.

  “You keep saying man. How old do you think he was?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Not high school. He looked to be in his early twenties, maybe. He had the body of a man. He was definitely too old for my Mila, so I forbade her to see him.” His voice grew distant. “I tried to ground her, control her somehow, but she said I never could. She swore she’d never speak to me again and that she’d keep sneaking out. I warned her that I’d lock her in her room and bar the windows if I had to.” His face bunched with regret. “I don’t think she ever forgave me for threatening that.” He sniffed and blinked at his tears. “She kept her word and stopped speaking to me. It was pure torture. But I knew I was doing the right thing, protecting her. I just had a bad feeling about that man from the start. What kind of person encourages someone to lie to her parents, to sneak out of the house? He didn’t have the balls to come and introduce himself to me. He was trying to have sex with my baby girl, I knew it, and I didn’t want him near her.” His chin bunched suddenly. “I would’ve done anything to stop him.”

  “Do you know his name?”

  “Jamie,” he croaked. “At least I think that’s what it was.”

  “Last name?”

  Vern shook his head.

  “Do you think you’d be able to describe him to a sketch artist?”

  “Yeah.” Vern’s face took on a hard edge. “I can picture him alright.”

  “Good.” Nate nodded. “I’ll arrange for that after the interview.”

  Vern shuffled in his chair, looking on edge as he asked, “Can I see my daughter now?”

  “Not just yet.” Nate gave him a tight smile. “I need you to tell me about the night she ran away. Your wife was out of town, correct?”

  Vern shifted in his chair again, scratching the side of his face with shaky fingers. “She went to visit her sister. She was gone for two weeks. I told her it was a bad time to leave, but her sister was sick and she trusted Mila to fall into line. We’d never had any problems with her before, and Darlene was convinced that everything would be fine. It’d be fine.” A lone tear slipped from Vern’s right eye, trailing down the side of his face. “I think Mila had just been waiting for her to go, because she tried to leave the night after Darlene did.”

  “And what happened?”

  “I caught her sneaking out her window…with a bag, like she was going to leave us.”

  “So what’d you do?” For some reason Nate’s heart rate had picked up. He swallowed and smoothed down his tie as Vern continued his story.

  “Well, I chased her down. I wasn’t about to let him steal her away for good. She was only seventeen. She hadn’t even graduated high school,” he spat. “And he was going to drive off with her and we’d never see her again.” He thumped the table. “He was stealing her!”

  Nate held up his hand to calm the man down. “It’s okay, Mr. Schnyder.”

  The man let out a ragged sob. “He killed my baby.”

  Sitting to attention, Nate leaned his elbows on the table. “Did you see it happen? Did you see this Jamie person kill your daughter?”

  “I just wanted to scare him away.” Vern’s face bunched. “But then Mila went ballistic. She was so scared and she came toward me screaming like a banshee. ‘Don’t kill him. Don’t you dare.’” A sob punched out of Vern and he crumpled forward, holding his stomach like it hurt. “She tried to grab my gun, and I don’t know how it happened. But if he hadn’t been there, if he’d just left us alone, it never would’ve happened!”

  For a second Nate couldn’t speak, his brain scrambling to process the unexpected confession.

  “Mr. Schnyder, are you saying… Sir, did you… Did you shoot your daughter?”

  “It was an accident,” he whispered. “She was wrestling for the gun and he was yelling at her to get it. ‘Get the gun. Get the gun.’ He had some kind of hold on her and she didn’t see me anymore. I wasn’t her daddy anymore; I was just the man stopping her. I told her to calm down and let go, but she just wouldn’t listen. And then her body just… She fell. And the blood.”

  Nate was dumbfounded. It was the last thing he’d been expecting. He blinked and tried to find his voice, his lips opening and closing like a goldfish.

  A sharp tap on the glass brought him to attention and he cleared his throat.

  “Um…Vern Schnyder, you’re under arrest for the murder of Mila Schnyder. You have the right to remain silent,” Nate said, his mind still spinning. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning.” His voice sounded wooden as he read the man his rights.

  Vern slumped forward, pitiful whimpers spurting out of him. Nate’s eyes began to burn as Vern fell apart in the interview room. The whimpers grew to sobs that racked his body, punching out of his chest in heavily weighted moans.

  Nate was usually so good at hardening himself against that kind of behavior. Cutting off the emotion. But this one was hitting him right in the core.

  “He took off after that,” Vern wailed. “Drove into the night and I was left holding my girl. She was gone. She was…gone.”

  Nate knew he should’ve asked why he didn’t call the police, but he couldn’t speak.

  The man was still bent over, his sobs ebbing to a quiet weeping that broke Nate’s heart. “I killed my own child and I was so ashamed. How was I supposed to tell Darlene? I’d only been trying to protect our girl!” He looked up, desperate for Nate to understand. “So I hid her under my workshop, and I tried to give her the dream she wanted. I told everyone that she’d been taken away
by a man who loved her. And I was a good father, and I let her go because I didn’t want to lose her. That’s all I could give her. That’s all I could…” Vern’s voice was lost to more gut-wrenching moans.

  Nate couldn’t swallow. The lump in his throat hurt. Gripping the edge of the desk, he watched this man…this criminal…who had only tried to do the right thing, completely screw himself over.

  He couldn’t even muster anger at the man’s terrible decision-making, because all he felt was pity.

  Vern Schnyder would be going to jail for this, but he’d incarcerated himself already. Living in isolated squalor, haunted daily by the demons of his mistake. The burden he’d been carrying for the last twelve years had eaten him alive and taken everything from him. His wife. His home. His entire life.

  A knock at the door pulled Nate to attention. He glanced over his shoulder then turned back to Vern and managed, “I’m going to need a s-signed confession.”

  Vern nodded. “And then can I see my daughter?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Stumbling out of the interview room, Nate stepped into the hallway and shared a sad look with Kellan.

  His boss nodded and patted his shoulder. “I…uh… Case closed, I guess.”

  Nate couldn’t respond as Kellan started talking logistics. He felt hollow. Raw and reeling. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so devastated by a case.

  28

  Friday, May 25th

  7:20pm

  After Vern signed his confession, his case would be passed along to the DA. Nate had no idea what she was going to do with him, but he hoped she’d give the guy a break. Nate was sure Vern would never get over the torture of what he’d done, and that was a lifelong sentence in itself.

  Because Nate never did anything by halves, he stuck around and made sure a few things were set in place before heading home. Vern got to see his daughter’s remains. Nate stuck to the edge of the room while Vern sank to his knees and sobbed. He murmured apologies over and over until Nate could barely stand it.

  Seeing the man’s broken mess touched something in Nate’s heart.

  He understood the pain.

  The loss.

  Maybe even the guilt.

  He hadn’t killed his mother, but he’d let the culprit free. He hadn’t remembered enough about the car. He hadn’t done enough and so he’d pushed himself through life, determined to make amends for his mistake.

  Rather than hiding the way Vern had, he’d acted like a bullet, firing through life with blinders on. Obsessed with catching bad guys and doing good.

  But in that moment?

  He didn’t feel good.

  As he drove Vern back from the hospital to the precinct, he was consumed by every past case he’d closed. Slides ran through his mind—one image after the next—and it struck him with painful clarity that none of them had lessened the pain of losing his mom. None of them had redeemed him or filled the gaping hole.

  When they arrived at the station, Nate gently helped the big guy out of the car.

  “Do you still want me to talk to that sketch artist?” Vern asked in a wooden voice. The tall man’s aching expression was pitiful.

  “Do you think he was a predator?” Nate asked as they walked inside.

  Vern’s eyebrows slowly lifted, his eyes filling with tears once more, and Nate understood that Vern needed him to be. He needed this Jamie man to be a criminal too, or the hurt would be unbearable.

  Clearing his throat, Nate pulled out his phone. “The fact that he took off and never reported the accident sets off alarm bells in my head. I’ll arrange for a sketch artist to come by tomorrow.”

  “Thank you,” Vern croaked.

  Nate led him back to the holding cell where the officer on duty would book him and then lock him up for the night. Nate stood in the doorway, watching Vern get photographed. Fingerprints would come next. With a sad sigh, Nate turned away and shuffled out to his bike.

  He felt heavy.

  Tired.

  Depleted.

  Slumping onto the seat, he leaned forward and gripped the handlebars. But he didn’t start the engine. All he could do was stare into the black night sky. Emptiness consumed him until it hurt to breathe.

  He didn’t know when he started the engine or how he even made it back to his father’s house.

  Climbing the porch steps, he let himself in and found his father at the dining table, finishing his dinner alone.

  His dad took one look at him and quickly asked, “Tough day?”

  Nate leaned against the doorframe. “I just had to arrest a guy who accidentally killed his daughter.”

  His father hissed, his face a picture of sympathy. “Not so satisfying, huh?”

  Nate shook his head, his throat swelling with an emotion he didn’t understand. “Why do I do this job, Dad?”

  His father wiped his mouth with his napkin and sat back in his chair to gaze up at his eldest son. “Because you love it.”

  “Do I?”

  His father sighed. “Because you’re good at it. You’ve always been driven by justice. It’s what makes you such a great detective.”

  Nate gave a thoughtful scowl and went to turn away.

  “It doesn’t make you happy, though,” his father said. “Nothing’s made you happy since your mother died…except maybe Sally.”

  Nate closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.

  “She was nothing but pure sunshine, that girl.” His father rose from the table, his penetrating gaze trying to peel the layers off Nate’s soul.

  “She doesn’t want me anymore. I…I wasn’t enough.”

  “Well, that’s bullshit,” his father muttered.

  Nate’s head jerked up, his eyes popping open in surprise. His father never swore.

  The older man let out a hard, barking laugh and took his plate into the kitchen.

  Nate could do nothing but follow him. “She dumped me, remember?”

  “Yeah, because you weren’t around, not because she didn’t love you anymore. Not because you weren’t enough. You just weren’t there!”

  Nate opened his mouth to argue but nothing came out.

  “Look, son, I know you’re dedicated to your job. And so does Sally. That’s why she stuck around for so long. But those demons that drive you? They’re hard task masters, and they are stopping you from dealing with the truth.”

  Uncomfortable with such a rare, honest conversation with his father, Nate crossed his arms and scoffed. “And what truth is that?”

  “That you’re still a scared little boy who’s afraid that if you stop working, someone’s going to slip through the cracks and hurt the people you love.” His father’s voice was soft and steady, yet it felt like he’d just blasted that truth from the rooftop.

  Nate’s nostrils flared, his heart hammering an unsteady beat.

  His father placed his dirty plate in the sink and turned to face him. “I’m sorry to tell you this, son, but we can’t stop bad things from happening. You can’t fight a natural disaster or stop someone from getting sick. Accidents will happen whether we want them to or not. Now, you’re doing your damn best to keep the people of Aspen Falls safe and I admire that, I really do. But at what cost, Nate? No one’s asked you to give your life for the force. You deserve happiness just as much as the next person.”

  Nate looked to the floor, unable to hold his father’s steady gaze.

  “Sally was your happiness. You need to get her back.”

  “She’s moved on,” Nate muttered bitterly. “She’s with someone else.”

  “They married?”

  Nate glanced up with an incredulous frown. “No.”

  “Huh.” His father looked thoughtful, then turned to start rinsing his plate.

  Nate rolled his eyes. “I just told you she doesn’t want me anymore.”

  His father laughed again, tipping his head back. “You know, for a man who notices everything, you are one blind fool.”

  The laughter g
rated on Nate’s tattered nerves and he nearly walked out on it.

  “Sally Richmond has been in love with you for years. You stole her heart, and as far as I’m concerned, you haven’t given it back. You would be a complete idiot to give up on that girl. Now you stop fighting your demons, Nathan.” He glanced over his shoulder with a sharp look. “Stop wasting your time, and start fighting for the woman you love.” His father slipped his plate into the dishwasher and walked out of the kitchen.

  Nate stayed where he was, staring at the wooden floors until the cracks between the boards started to blur.

  Very slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled up Sally’s number on his phone. Her beautiful smile stared up at him from the screen and his heart squeezed with desire, affection…happiness.

  It was only then that it hit him with a force he couldn’t ignore.

  Putting bad guys away would never fill the gaping hole in his chest.

  But love would.

  29

  Saturday, May 26th

  8:55am

  Sally had a restless sleep and woke up tired. She envied Rusty, who was still snoring beside her as she stirred.

  With a groan, she reached for her phone to check the time and noticed a missed call notification.

  From Nate.

  She blinked to clear her vision. She rubbed her eyes and blinked again to make sure she was reading it correctly.

  She was.

  And her heart skipped out of rhythm.

  Why was he calling her? What did he want to say?

  Part of her was desperate to call back and find out, but her fragile heart was scared.

  “Sally Richmond, you’re not up yet?” Her mother breezed into the room and snapped open the curtains. “You better hurry. Oscar’s due here in less than half an hour.”

  Sally swallowed, watching her mother pull a dress from the closet. “This is my favorite one of yours. It always has been. You look like such a dream in it. Oscar won’t know what to do with himself.” She laughed and Sally suddenly felt ill.