Page 11 of Inside Silence
“How are you planning to confirm identity? Dental records?”
I nod, recalling the difficult phone call I had with Franklin’s partner, Jeremy, who mentioned he hadn’t thought twice about not being able to get a hold of his husband last night because cell phone reception out by the lake is spotty at best. Poor guy. I could hear the fear in his voice when he told me he would drive up as soon as he got the kids he’d stayed home to look after to a babysitter. I don’t think there was anything I could’ve done or said to stop him.
“They’re being sent straight to the medical examiner’s office,” I share, feeling the weight of the world on me.
Dad throws an arm around my shoulders and turns me toward the house.
“You sound already defeated, Toots.”
I turn my head to shoot him a tired smile. “I’m not. I actually didn’t come here about the case.”
Although, I hadn’t been surprised news of the discovered body had already reached my father. He peppered me with questions the moment I got here.
His eyebrows pop up. “You didn’t?”
“It’s about Sanchuk.”
He stops and turns to face me. “Jeff? What has he done now?”
“He assaulted someone. At the station,” I add with emphasis.
“Assaulted? How?”
“He had him in a chokehold, Dad. In the kitchen.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t just trying to restrain a suspect?”
I drop my head back and stare up at the clouds in frustration. This has always been the issue; my father tries to find excuses or justifications for Sanchuk’s behavior that would’ve been unacceptable from anyone else—out of a misplaced sense of guilt because the guy took a bullet for him decades ago.
That loyalty has held my hands tied for years, but this has gone too far. I don’t need a loose cannon in my department. I don’t need the distraction when I may have a vicious murder on my hands.
“Dad…the person he was assaulting was Nathan Gaines.” I watch as my father’s face darkens at the mention of that name, but he doesn’t seem surprised. I note it but forge ahead with my point. “Nate was there to fix the ceiling that fell down in the holding cells. Brenda called him, for crying out loud. He was there to help and Jeff attacked him, unprovoked.”
I recognize the stubborn set of my father’s jaw and brace for his reaction.
“If he was there to fix the ceiling, what the hell was he doing in the kitchen?”
As I anticipated, he’s making it seem like Nate must’ve done something wrong. Nothing has changed, even after all these years. But I have, and I’m not going to stand for it this time. There are many things I can blame Nate for, but this is not one of them.
“That’s enough. You know Sanchuk is a problem and has been for years. The man is a liability and if Nate wanted, he could file charges. That might encourage others he’s manhandled or mistreated to come forward and file complaints as well. Can you imagine the stain that could put on the department’s reputation?”
Those words seem to cool my father’s temper somewhat. The sheriff’s department is everything to him.
“So is he? Going to file charges?”
I’d honestly been bracing for it after I’d sent Sanchuk home for the day. Nate would’ve had every right to and I wouldn’t have blamed him. I still remember all the times he was brought in to be questioned for some crime he didn’t commit. The price he had to pay for having been what my father called a juvenile delinquent. A title he had to carry and atone for well into his twenties.
He’s paid enough.
“No, although it would be well within his rights. He owns his own business, is a single father, and from what I can tell hasn’t broken one law since the last time you arrested him at seventeen. That was twenty-five years ago, Dad. A lifetime. It’s time to let that shit go, because I won’t stand by while you and the rest of the old guard left at the sheriff’s department continue to judge and condemn a man for his childhood transgressions. That is over.”
I wait a moment, expecting a protest, but it doesn’t come. My father is staring at the dirt on his boots, his hands tucked in his jeans pockets.
“So I’m here to give you a heads-up, I will be calling Jeff Sanchuk into my office tomorrow, and I will request he take his early retirement effective immediately.”
At that his head snaps up. “The man saved my life, Savannah.”
Dad doesn’t often use my full name, it’s either Savvy or Toots, but I won’t let his stern tone affect me.
