Thomas Blackhorse's Arc

Chapter 16 of 17

Thomas stood in the hallway of the Gallup police station and watched Pablo hold his daughter for the first time in eight years. The girl he had been calling a witness. The girl whose book bag sat in evidence with her name in faded sharpie on the underside. She let her father put his arms around her, but her own arms stayed at her sides. Thomas felt the case tilt under his feet. Juanita had signed a confession for a killing that had not happened, why? He walked the young woman who was somehow Katie Delgado to a quiet room and sat across from her. He did not offer coffee. He set a pen on the table. "You're Katie Delgado," he said. "You've been alive this whole time. Tell me how." She looked at the pen. "I was twelve," she said. "She took me from the school. Back door. Told me my mom sent her. I didn’t believe her, I tried to get away but I fell. I was hurt bad, there was a lot…” she started clearly struggling. "Juanita." "My aunt. I didn't know that then. She told me later, she had a doctor come to the ranch. He was scared, of her I think.”, she rubbed a scar on her hairline as she said this. "Why didn't she kill you?" The girl flinched, then steadied. "She said Maria, my mom, never wrote back. Said she'd raise me instead. Locked me in the ranch house for two years. Then the basement at the casino after her husband died, he owned the casino. She, taught me the machines. Told me if I ran, she'd burn my parents' house down." She stopped. "I believed her." "You're old enough now to walk out." "I tried once. She showed me pictures of my dad's truck. Where he parked. What time." Thomas wrote three lines. He slid the pad across. "Sign it. Every word. Dates if you have them." She signed. Her handwriting was small and careful. He brought Miguel Roundrock in next. Miguel sat down without being asked. Thomas said, "The night at the school. What did you see her carry out." "A child," Miguel said. "Wrapped in a coat. Not a body. The coat moved." "You're sure." "I'm sure. I told her I saw. She said if I spoke, the girl died. So I didn't speak." "Sign it," Thomas said. Miguel signed. Thomas walked back to the room with the metal table. Juanita looked up. The cut on their jaw had crusted over. "You wrote a confession for a murder," Thomas said. "There is no murder. That's kidnapping. Eight years of it. Two counts of false imprisonment of a minor. Extortion. Assault on Earl. Your confession still holds for what you did. Not for what you didn't." Juanita's smile went flat. "Maria was supposed to stand at a grave." "Maria's going to stand with her daughter," Thomas said. "You don't get the ending you wrote." He closed the door behind him. Ray was at the desk with the new statements. Thomas set them down. "The confession holds," Ray said. "Different charges. Bigger ones." Thomas nodded. Down the hall, Pablo was holding on to Katie, tears still visible on his face. The girl's arms had come up around him. Thomas had his case. He couldn’t help but think he was missing something.