Chapter 8 #2
Tyler had considered leaving again, going somewhere else and starting over yet again.
But he’d tried that for a dozen years, and it hadn’t worked.
He’d been miserable in Montana, lonely in Idaho, and restless in Utah.
Indiana seemed promising, but it was just too flat.
There was no place that felt like home because home was here, in Basin County, whether he liked it or not.
So, he stayed. And aside from Adam’s periodic harassment, it had been okay. Better than okay, actually. His old friends seemed happy to see him.
Edi had stopped by his place a few days after Adam, not in uniform. At the time, he didn’t even know she was employed by the sheriff’s department. They’d chatted and caught up. When she told him she’d been on the job for four years, he’d been surprised.
She hadn’t dropped by his place again, but he still saw Edi around town.
He ran into her at the bank a few days ago, talking with Sheila, another woman they’d both gone to high school with.
The three of them stood there catching up for twenty minutes, and for a little while things felt almost normal.
Even now, during this interrogation, Edi didn’t seem to think Tyler had anything to do with the body they’d found. Her questions were procedural, professional. Adam was the only one who kept circling back to suspicion.
“Are we done here?” Tyler asked.
“For now,” Adam said. “But I’ll have more questions as the investigation progresses.”
Sue took a step forward. “Did you find one body or two? I’ve been wondering since yesterday.”
“Just one,” Edi said.
“Deputy Reeves,” Adam snapped. “We don’t divulge case details to civilians.”
“It’s going to hit the papers soon enough. That reporter, Joe Monroe, already has the information. He approached the sheriff at the diner this morning. We’ve got a leak somewhere.”
She emphasized the last word while looking directly at Adam. He returned her stare with a cold glare.
“Wonder who it could be,” Edi added with a slight smirk.
“I’ll be looking into that,” Adam said. “In the meantime, all of you remember that this is an active investigation. If we have more questions, we’ll be in touch.”
As they left, the bell over the door chimed with false cheerfulness.
“I knew it was only one body,” Sue said quietly. “Still, how terrible. I wish I’d asked if they knew who it was.”
“They probably don’t yet,” Robert said. “These things take time. Not that they’d tell you.”
“Sounds like things might be coming out in the online paper soon. Joe Monroe is a good reporter.”
Tyler barely heard them. His mind was already circling back to yesterday, to the parking lot, to the moment when everything had fallen apart.
Finding the body had been terrible, traumatic in ways that’d probably stick with him for a long time. Death did that.
And he shouldn’t be surprised about Adam Boverman showing up here and asking about Jen and Garrett.
Tyler had a hunch it wasn’t because he thought Jen’s death was connected with the body in the woods.
He did it to cause trouble for Tyler with Robert and Sue.
He’d bet good money that was his entire intention.
Edi seemed to know it too. She seemed to understand that Adam was simply stirring the pot. He was grateful she’d come with him. He suspected that had she not been there, the accusations would’ve gone further than they did. He was glad Edi was the first to arrive yesterday too.
The way she’d been, especially with Brooke, was welcome and helpful. He wondered if Edi and Brooke were friends. He didn’t think they were, not close anyway, but probably friendly enough.
It was interesting that he hadn’t seen Brooke since he came back to Irma.
Well, maybe interesting wasn’t the right word.
He didn’t go places a woman like her would go.
Seeing her after all these years was something.
She looked good, even in her panic. Strong and capable.
The kind of person who could handle a crisis without falling apart completely.
He was weirdly disappointed she hadn’t recognized him, but he wasn’t surprised. He’d been scrawny in high school, having hit his full height early but weighing maybe one-fifty soaking wet. All angles and awkward limbs.
He’d started filling out during his marriage to Jen, normal adult weight gain he kept in check by hiking and doing a little lifting, but mostly by working on cars and staying busy.
But after they died, after he’d spent months doing nothing but existing in the most minimal way possible, he’d become serious about weightlifting. Partly for something to do with his hands, partly because physical exhaustion was the only thing that let him sleep.
Twenty pounds of muscle and a scruffy beard later, he barely recognized himself in old photos.
The transformation had been dramatic enough that people who’d known him casually in high school often didn’t make the connection when they saw him now.
Not at first at least. He always knew when the realization of exactly who he was hit.
A shift in posture. A flick of the eyebrows.
A glance, or a sudden cut-off in conversation.
Brooke’s brother had recognized him when he’d brought in the shop’s delivery van to check on a noise. Last night, Tyler had wondered if Brooke might have mentioned him when she told her brother about what happened. He liked to think Phil would put in a good word for him.
It didn’t matter. Adam had shown up and destroyed any chance Tyler might’ve had. He’d seen it in Brooke’s eyes yesterday, the way she’d pulled back and put distance between them.
But he still felt a need to make her understand, to explain what really happened. Not the version Adam presented, but the truth. Not because he thought it’d change anything between them—that ship had sailed—but because he couldn’t stand the thought of her believing he was a killer.
Maybe he’d go to the coffee shop, just to set the record straight. Not because anything could happen between them. It couldn’t. He’d accepted that the moment Adam started talking yesterday.
This was exactly why he couldn’t get involved with anyone. Everyone in Basin County would always see him as the guy whose family died under suspicious circumstances. They’d always wonder if maybe the fire marshal had gotten it wrong, if maybe Adam’s questions had merit.
More than that, Tyler had come to believe he was cursed. The people he loved died. His parents. Jen and Garrett in the fire. He was alone and always would be.
Tyler looked down at his hands, still stained with grease and oil from the morning’s work, from years of work.
The hands that had held Garrett as a newborn, that had fixed Jen’s car a hundred times, that had built their life together piece by piece.
The hands that had punched one of the volunteer firefighters who tried to hold Tyler back when he ran toward his burning house. It had taken three men to restrain him.
These were also the hands that people like Adam believed were capable of murder.
He’d lost Brooke yesterday. Lost any chance before it had even begun. But he could still make sure she knew the truth.
Tomorrow, he decided. Tomorrow he’d go to the coffee shop and explain everything. Set the record straight, even if it didn’t change her opinion of him.
At least then he could walk away knowing he’d tried.