Chapter 15
Brooke
The print shop sat on a side street off Grand Avenue, tucked between an antique store and a law office—the same law office Kelsey used to work at.
That’s how they met. Brooke was picking up some printing she’d had her brother do for the coffee shop when Kelsey was at her car, fumbling with too many things in her arms and trying to get her door open. They were instant friends.
Now she didn’t even know where Kelsey was.
After the terrible incident at Bearwater, Kelsey had been taken into police custody—which, according to Joe, turned into federal custody—until one day she was just gone.
Joe was convinced she had been put into witness protection, and they’d never see her again.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Not entirely, anyway. She couldn’t deny she missed their friendship, but she was still angry about the entire situation.
Stop it, Brooke, she chided herself. Kelsey is no longer a concern. She did what she did, and now she’s paying for it.
She didn’t know if Kelsey was actually “paying” for it.
The way Joe put it, things might be pretty good for her.
A new life where no one knew her. Certainly, she wasn’t a lawyer now, but Brooke knew there were plenty of days Kelsey hated her job.
Of course, so did most people, but they didn’t resort to theft.
It was rare for Brooke to have a bad day at work.
Sure, there were customers she could do without, especially during tourist season, and a few regulars who could be a little much, but for the most part, she loved what she did.
That made it even more difficult to understand and accept Kelsey’s poor choices.
She sat in her car for a moment, gathering her thoughts.
Coming here felt like the right move—Phil was always honest with her, even when that honesty hurt.
If anyone could help her understand Tyler’s past and whether she was being foolish to even consider believing in his innocence, it was her brother.
Phil was always practical. More than practical.
It used to drive Brooke crazy the way he was.
Her dad would be annoyed by it, too, but he admitted it made Phil good at the business end of things.
After their dad retired, Phil had taken over, modernizing some equipment but keeping the small-town feel that made the business successful.
Just get it done. She opened the car door and strode up the sidewalk. She pushed through the front door, the familiar chime announcing her arrival. The smell of ink and paper filled the air, comforting in its consistency.
“Be right with you,” Phil called from somewhere in the back.
“It’s just me,” Brooke called back.
“Brooke?” Phil appeared from the production area, then his expression shifted. “Oh. Uh, hey. I didn’t expect to see you here. I have a visitor.”
Tyler stepped around the corner.
Brooke froze. Of all the places she might have expected to run into Tyler, her brother’s print shop wasn’t on the list.
“Hi,” Tyler said, his voice carefully neutral.
“Hi.” Brooke’s heart was pounding, and her stomach was making that annoying little flip. She looked at Phil. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You’re not interrupting,” Phil said quickly. “Actually, this might work out. Tyler came to talk to me about . . . well, about everything. Any chance that’s why you’re here too?”
Brooke nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off Tyler. He looked tired but composed, dressed in work clothes with grease on the collar. Real. Solid. Not the dangerous criminal Deputy Boverman kept insisting he was.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll come back later.”
“No need, Brooke,” Phil said. “I’ve got another chair back here. You know that.”
“Okay. I guess.”
“Good. Turn the sign to closed. It’s near enough time anyway.”
Brooke did as he asked, then made her way to the small room and settled into a chair, acutely aware of Tyler sitting a few feet away. The chemistry she’d experienced between them was still there, humming beneath the surface.
Dangerous and undeniable.
“So,” Phil said, leaning against his desk. “While it’s been a minute since I’ve seen my baby sister, we’ve been texting back and forth.” He looked at Tyler. “She asked me why I believed you were innocent before. When Jen died.”
“It’s a fair question.” Even though Tyler’s words were calm, Brooke didn’t miss the tension radiating off him.
“And Tyler came here to tell me he’s innocent now. Seems like a good time for everyone to get on the same page.”
“You still believe I’m innocent?” Tyler asked. “Even with everything that’s happened?”
“Of course I do,” Phil said without hesitation. “For the same reasons I believed it then.”
“Which were?” Brooke prompted.
Phil looked at her before shifting to Tyler. “What grade were you in when you moved here, Tyler?”
Tyler shrugged. “Second grade, I guess.”
“Yeah. That sounds right. And we’ve been friends ever since.”
“Mostly,” Tyler agreed. “I do seem to remember that first day when you came at me acting all tough.”
Phil chuckled. “And you smiled and said, ‘Hey, I’m Tyler. What’s your name?’ Your friendliness took the tough right out of me.”
Brooke smiled at the thought of Tyler and Phil as children. She could almost imagine it. The differences in their personalities were evident in that exchange as young children.
Phil turned back to Brooke. “You remember Tyler coming over to our place?”
She shook her head. “Maybe. I know you had plenty of friends.”
“Right. Tyler was one of them. We played football in junior high and high school, though I was better at that than Tyler. He only played because his dad insisted on it. Tyler preferred track.”
“You’re a runner?” Brooke asked.
Tyler raised his hand. “In school. Not as much now.”
“Tyler’s a natural athlete,” Phil said. “Always was. Even when he was too lanky, he had skill. But football wasn’t his thing.
He was too nice on the field, and coach hated it.
He wanted us tough. That’s the point I’m making.
How could Tyler be a killer when he didn’t even like roughing people up on the turf? ” Phil shook his head.
“I know his character. Besides, he loved Jen and Garrett with his entire being. And Tyler starting the fire never made sense. Why would he kill his family when he was working overtime to provide for them?”
“They said that was one of the reasons,” Tyler corrected. “I was tired of working all the time.”
“You still work all the time, right?”
Tyler shrugged. “Not like then. I was working at the factory then and reworking cars on the side. That’s one of the reasons Jen and I chose that old house. It had an extra-large lot with a separate double-car garage at the back of it. The extra income helped make ends meet.”
“Yup. That’s right. You did good work. Buy a car cheap and fix it up. You don’t do that now?”
“No place at my rental. Besides, I’m working with cars every day now instead of doing factory work.”
“Coming home was a risk.” Phil scratched his chin, leaving an ink mark on it.
“And now there’s Sheila,” Brooke said quietly.
“Yeah, now there’s Sheila,” Phil said. “But the whole idea makes no sense. They dated years ago. So what? Lots of people dated Sheila. I even went out with her a couple of times in high school.”
“You did?” Brooke didn’t know that.
“For like two weeks. She broke up with me to go out with someone else. Didn’t bother me.” Phil looked at Tyler. “When did you two date? After you graduated?”
“Yeah. We went out for a couple of months. She ended it before school started again. I moved on.”
“Exactly. Ancient history. No reason to kill someone over something that happened back in high school.”
“Unless he’s been nursing a grudge all this time,” Brooke said, repeating things she’d heard others say.
“Does Tyler seem like the type to nurse grudges?”
Brooke studied Tyler’s face. He looked tired and stressed, but not angry. Not vindictive. Just . . . weary.
“No,” she admitted. “He doesn’t.”
“Besides,” Phil continued, “Sheila was one of the popular girls. But she was also a mean girl. She and her friends would go out of their way to make life difficult for whoever they decided was their current target.”
“I forgot about that,” Tyler said quietly. “Sheila was the leader of that group.”
“That’s for sure,” Phil said. “No one was safe. They played jokes on people. Remember that one kid? What was his name? Walt? Warren?”
“The brainiac?” Tyler nodded. “They were terrible to him.”
“Yeah. You hear about him? He’s like a gajillionaire now. Got into digital currency before it was a thing. Sheila was trying to track him down a few years back. Said she wanted to make amends. Wanted to figure a way into his wallet was more like it.”
Phil laughed, and Tyler joined in, though his was more subdued than her brother’s.
“So, Sheila wasn’t nice in high school?”
“She was awful.” He lifted his chin at Tyler. “Remember how she was with Edi? She’s the one who came up with those names. Yeti?”
“Sasquatch,” Brooke corrected softly. “I always thought that was terrible.”
Tyler frowned. “They were awful to her, but Edi never seemed to care. She let it slide right off.”
“Like water off a duck’s back,” Phil agreed.
“Besides,” Tyler added, “Edi had something Sheila and her gang didn’t.”
They looked at each other and said simultaneously, “Money.”
Phil laughed. “Right. But I do think it bothered Edi more than you realized. She had money, and her family had power, but she wasn’t always as strong as she is now. She put up a front when she was around you.”
Tyler shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Sure, she did,” Phil insisted. “She had a thing for you and didn’t want you to see her as weak.”
“Wait,” Brooke said, trying to follow. “Edi had feelings for Tyler?”
“No,” Tyler replied. “We were only ever friends.”
“A friend she had feelings for,” Phil corrected. “Trust me, everyone knew. Except you, apparently.”
Tyler looked genuinely surprised. “I had no idea.”