Dark Horse (A Jim Knighthorse Novel) Read online

  DARK HORSE

  A Jim Knighthorse Novel

  by

  J.R. RAIN

  Acclaim for J.R. Rain:

  “Be prepared to lose sleep!”

  —James Rollins, international bestselling author of The Doomsday Key on J.R. Rain’s The Lost Ark

  “I love this!”

  —Piers Anthony, bestselling author of Xanth on J.R. Rain’s Moon Dance

  “Dark Horse is the best book I’ve read in a long time!”

  —Gemma Halliday, Rita and Golden Spur award-winning author of Scandal Sheet

  “Moon Dance is absolutely brilliant!”

  —Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, author of Understanding the Planetary Myths

  “Powerful stuff!”

  —Aiden James, author of Deadly Night on J.R. Rain’s An Uncommon Quest

  “Moon Dance is a must read. If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, be prepared to love J.R. Rain’s Samantha Moon, vampire private investigator.”

  —Eve Paludan, author of Letters From David

  “Impossible to put down. J.R. Rain’s Moon Dance is a fabulous urban fantasy replete with multifarious and unusual characters, a perfectly synchronized plot, vibrant dialogue and sterling witticism all wrapped in a voice that is as beautiful as it is rich and vividly intense as it is relaxed.”

  —April Vine, author of The Midnight Rose

  OTHER BOOKS BY J.R. RAIN

  VAMPIRE FOR HIRE

  Moon Dance

  Vampire Moon

  American Vampire (coming soon)

  Vampire Empire (coming soon)

  THE JIM KNIGHTHORSE SERIES

  Dark Horse

  The Mummy Case

  Hail Mary (coming soon)

  THE RETURN OF ARTHUR

  An Uncommon Quest (coming soon)

  The Merlin Game (coming soon)

  The Lost Ark

  The Body Departed

  Elvis Has Not Left the Building

  WITH SCOTT NICHOLSON

  Cursed!

  Cursed Again! (coming soon)

  WITH PIERS ANTHONY

  Aladdin Rising (coming soon)

  WITH AIDEN JAMES

  Plague of Coins (coming soon)

  WITH RANDOLPH NEIL

  The Forgotten Valley (coming soon)

  SHORT STORIES

  The Bleeder and Other Stories

  Teeth and Other Stories

  Vampire Nights and Other Stories

  The Santa Call and Other Christmas Stories (coming soon)

  SCREENPLAYS

  Judas Silver

  Lost Eden

  NOVELLAS

  The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo

  The Witch Who Played With Fire (coming soon)

  The Zombie Who Stepped on a Hornet’s Nest (coming soon)

  COLLECTIONS

  Rain Dance: Three Novels

  Rainy Nights: Three Novels

  Black Rain: Dark Tales

  Knighthorse: Two Novels

  Vampire for Hire: Two Novels

  Dark Quests: Two Screenplays

  ANTHOLOGIES

  Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My!

  (edited by Eve Paludan)

  DARK HORSE

  Published by J.R. Rain at Smashwords.com

  Copyright © 2010 by J.R. Rain

  Smashwords.com Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  To my sister Elaine, who loves mysteries. Love you, sis.

  Also, a big thank you to Eve Paludan and Sandy Johnston (again!).

  Dark Horse

  1.

  Charles Brown, the defense attorney, was a small man with a round head. He was wearing a brown and orange zigzagged power tie. I secretly wondered if he went by Charlie as a kid and had a dog named Snoopy and a crush on the little red-headed girl.

  We were sitting in my office on a warm spring day. Charlie was here to give me a job if I wanted it, and I wanted it. I hadn’t worked in two weeks and was beginning to like it, which made me nervous.

  “I think the kid’s innocent,” he was saying.

  “Of course you do, Charlie. You’re a defense attorney. You would find cause to think Jack the Ripper was simply a misunderstood artist before his time.”

  He looked at me with what was supposed to be a stern face.

  “The name’s Charles,” he said.

  “If you say so.”

  “I do.”

  “Glad that’s cleared up.”

  “I heard you could be difficult,” he said. “Is this you being difficult? If so, then I’m disappointed.”

  I smiled. “Maybe you have me confused with my father.”

  Charlie sat back in my client chair and smiled. His domed head was perfectly buffed and polished, cleanly reflecting the halogen lighting above. His skin appeared wet and viscous, as if his sweat glands were ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

  “Your father has quite a reputation in L.A. I gave his office a call before coming here. Of course, he’s quite busy and could not take on an extra case.”

  “So you settled on the next best thing.”

  “If you want to call it that,” he said. “I’ve heard that you’ve performed adequately with similar cases, and so I’ve decided to give you a shot, although my expectations are not very high, and I have another P.I. waiting in the wings.”

  “How reassuring,” I said.

  “Yeah, well, he’s established. You’re not.”

  “But can he pick up a blind side blitz?”

  Charlie smiled and splayed his stubby fingers flat on my desk and looked around my office, which was adorned with newspaper clippings and photographs of yours truly. Most of the photographs depict me in a Bruin uniform, sporting the number 45. In most I’m carrying the football, and in others I’m blowing open the hole for the tailback. Or at least I like to think I’m blowing open the hole. The newspapers are yellowing now, taped or tacked to the wood paneling. Maybe someday I’ll take them down. But not yet.

  “You beat SC a few years back. I can never forgive you for that. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone.”

  “Three,” I said. “But who’s counting?”

  He rubbed his chin. “Destroyed your leg, if I recall, in the last game of the season. Broken in seven different places.”

  “Nine, but who’s counting?”

  “Must have been hard to deal with. You were on your way to the pros. Would have made a hell of a fullback.”

  That had been hard to deal with, and I didn’t feel like talking about it now to Charlie Brown. “Why do you believe in your client’s innocence?” I asked.

  He looked at me. “I see. You don’t want to talk about it. Sorry I brought it up.” He crossed his legs. He didn’t seem sorry at all. He looked smugly down at his shoes, which had polish on the polish. “Because I believe Derrick’s story. I believe he loved his girlfriend and would never kill her.”

  “People have been killed for love before. Nothing new.”

  On my computer screen before me I had brought up an article from the Orange County Register. The article showed a black teen being led away into a police car. He was looking down, his head partially covered by his jacket. He was being led away from a local high school. A very upscale hig
h school, if I recalled. The story was dated three weeks ago, and I recalled reading it back then.

  I tapped the computer monitor. “The police say there’s some indication that his girlfriend was seeing someone else, and that jealousy might have been a factor.”

  “Yes,” said the attorney. “And we think this someone else framed our client.”

  “I take it you want me to find this man.”

  “Or person.”

  “Ah, equality,” I said.

  “We want you to find evidence of our client’s innocence, whether or not you find the true murderer.”

  “Anything else I should know?”

  “We feel race might be a factor here. He was the only black student in school, and in the neighborhood.”

  “I believe the preferred term is African-American.”

  “I’m aware of public sentiment in this regards. I don’t need you to lecture me.”

  “Just trying to live up to my difficult name.”

  “Yeah, well, cool it,” he said. “Now, no one’s talking at the school. My client says he was working out late in the school gym, yet no one saw him, not even the janitors.”

  “Then maybe he wasn’t there.”

  “He was there,” said Charlie simply, as if his word was enough. “So do you want the job?”

  “Sure.”

  We discussed a retainer fee and then he wrote me a check. When he left, waddling out of the office, I could almost hear Schroeder playing on his little piano in the background.

  2.

  “He was found with the murder weapon,” said Detective Hanson. “It was in the backseat of his car. That’s damning evidence.”

  “That,” I said, “and he’s black.”

  “And he’s black,” said Hanson.

  “In an all white school,” I said.

  “Yep.”

  “Were his prints on the knife?”

  “No.”

  We were sitting in an outdoor café facing the beach. It was spring, and in southern California that’s as good as summer. Many underdressed women were roller-blading, jogging or walking their dogs on the narrow beach path. There were also some men, all finely chiseled, but they were not as interesting.

  Detective Hanson was a big man, but not as big as me. He had neat brown hair parted down the middle. His thick mustache screamed cop. He wore slacks and a white shirt. He was sweating through his shirt. I was dressed in khaki shorts, a surfing T-shirt and white Vans. Coupled with my amazing tan and disarming smile, I was surprised I wasn’t more often confused with Jimmy Buffet. If Jimmy Buffet stood six foot four and weighed two hundred and twenty.

  “You guys have anything else on the kid?” I asked.

  “You know I can’t divulge that. Trial hasn’t even started. The info about the knife made it to the press long ago, so that’s a freebie for you. I can tell you this: the body was found at one a.m., although the ME places the time of death around seven p.m. the previous night.”

  “Who found the body?”

  “A neighbor.”

  “Where were the victim’s parents?”

  “Dinner and dancing. It was a Friday night.”

  “Of course,” I said. “Who doesn’t go out and dance on a Friday night?”

  “I don’t,” said Hanson.

  “Me neither,” I said. “Does Derrick have an alibi?”

  “This will cost you a tunacoda.”

  “You drive a hard bargain.”

  I called the waitress over and put in our lunch orders.

  “No alibi,” Hanson said when she had left, “but....” He let his voice trail off.

  “But you believe the kid?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah. He seems like a good kid. Says he was working out at the school gym at the time.”

  “Schools have janitors, staff, students.”

  “Yeah, well, it was late and no one saw him.”

  “Or no one chose to see him.”

  Hanson shrugged.

  Our food arrived. A tunacoda for the detective. A half pound burger for me, with grilled onions and cheese, and a milkshake.

  “You trying to commit suicide?” he asked.

  “I’m bulking up,” I said.

  “This is how you bulk up? Eating crap?”

  “Only way I know how.”

  “Why?”

  “Thinking of trying out for San Diego,” I said.

  “The Chargers?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about your leg?”

  “The leg’s going to be a problem.”

  He thought about that, working his way through his tuna and avocado sandwich. He took a sip from his Coke.

  “You wanna bash heads with other men and snap each other in the shower with jock straps, go right ahead.”

  “It’s not as glamorous as that.”

  “Suicide, I say. What’s your dad think?”

  “He doesn’t know. You’re the first person I’ve told.”

  “I’m honored.”

  “You should be.”

  “What’s Cindy going to say?”

  I sipped my milkshake. “She won’t like it, but she will support me. She happens to think very highly of me and my decisions.”

  He snorted and finished his sandwich, grabbed his Styrofoam cup.

  “I can’t believe I was bribed with a shitty tuna sandwich and a Coke.”

  “A simple man with simple needs.”

  “I should resent that remark, if it wasn’t so true.” He stood. “I gotta run. Good luck with the kid, but I think it’s a lost cause. Kid even has a record.”

  “What kind?”

  “Vandalism, mostly. He’s a goner. Hear they’re gonna try him as an adult.”

  Detective Hanson left with his Styrofoam cup. I noticed he wasn’t wearing socks. Even cops in Huntington Beach are cool.

  3.

  Cindy Darwin is an anthropology professor at UCI. Her expertise is in the anthropology of religion, which, she tells me, is an important aspect of anthropology. And, yes, she can trace her lineage back to Charles Darwin, which makes her a sort of icon in her field. She knows more things about anthropology than she probably should, and too few things about the real world. Maybe that’s why she keeps me around.

  It was late and we were walking hand-in-hand along the Huntington Pier. From here we could see the lights of Catalina Island, where the reclusive sorts live and travel via ferry and plane. To the north, in the far distance, we could see Long Beach glittering away. The air was cool and windy and we were dressed in light jackets and jeans. Her jeans were much snugger and more form-fitting than mine. As they should be.

  “I’m thinking of giving San Diego a call,” I said.

  “Who’s in San Diego?” she asked. She had a slightly higher pitched voice than most women. I found it endlessly sexy. She said her voice made it easier to holler across an assembly hall. Gave it more range, or something.

  I was silent. She put two and two together. She let go of my hand.

  “They call you again?” she asked. “The Rams, right?”

  “The Chargers. Christ, Cindy, your own brother plays on the team.”

  “I think it’s all sort of silly. Football, I mean. And all those silly mascots, I just don’t get it.”

  “The mascots help us boys tell the teams apart,” I said. “And, no, they didn’t call. But I’m thinking about their last offer.”

  “Honey, that was two years ago.”

  She was right. I turned them down two years ago. My leg hadn’t felt strong enough.

  “The leg’s better now,” I said.

  “Bullshit. You still limp.”

  “Not as much. And when I workout, I feel the strength again.”

  “But you still have metal pins in it.”

  “Lots of players play with pins.”

  “Have you told Rob yet?” she asked. Rob was her brother, the Chargers fourth wide receiver. Rob had introduced me to Cindy during college.

  “Yes.”


  “What does he think?”

  “He thinks it’s a good idea.”

  We stopped walking and leaned over the heavy wooden rail. The air was suffused with brine and salt. Waves crashed beneath us, whitecaps glowing in the moonlight. A lifeguard Jeep was parked next to us, a quarter into the ocean on the pier. All that extra weight on the pier made me nervous.

  “Why now?” she asked finally.

  “My window is rapidly closing,” I said.

  “Not to mention you’ve always wondered if you could do it.”

  “Not to mention.”

  “And you’re frustrated out of your gourd that a fucking leg injury has prevented you from finding this out.”

  “Such language from an anthropologist.”

  She sighed and hugged me around my waist. She was exactly a foot shorter than me, which made hugging easy, and kissing difficult.

  “So what do you think?” I asked.

  “I think you’re frustrated and angry and that you need to do this.”

  “Not to mention I might just make a hell of a fullback.”

  “Is he the one who throws the ball?”

  We had gone over this precisely one hundred and two times.

  “No, but close.”

  She snuggled closer, burying her sharp chin deep into my side. It tickled. If I wasn’t so tough I would have laughed.

  “Just don’t get yourself hurt.”

  “I don’t plan to, but these things have a way of taking you by surprise.”

  “So are you really that good?” she asked, looking up at me.