His voice was monotonous, as if he were reading from a menu. “I would have killed him, Abby. That was my intention. I wanted him dead.”
“What stopped you?” she asked softly.
“His wife walked in. Saw the blood and me wailing on him and screamed. It snapped me out of it. I realized if I went to jail for murder, Dani would always be alone.”
“What happened?”
Tinker looked down at his feet and shifted his weight back on his heels. “I waited for the cops. Sat in one of the chairs along the wall and just waited. I sat there listening to him groaning, thinking it wasn’t enough. I knew I was fucked. Knew I should have thought about Dani and what was going to happen to her, but all I could think was that he should’ve been dead.”
“What did happen to her?”
“She went into the system. Too old and too much trauma to be taken in by a family so she went to a halfway house. That’s where she met Angie.”
Abby tilted her head. “Angie was a foster kid?”
Tinker nodded. “Yeah.”
“What happened after you were arrested?”
“I didn’t have money for bail, and the Marines wouldn’t accept responsibility for me initially, so I sat in jail until I found a lawyer that got me released on the condition I would be confined to base except for any court appointments. I was put in hold status and assigned to the civil engineer detachment.”
He walked over to the bench, sorting and arranging the tools on top. “They couldn’t redeploy me. I found out a buddy of mine was killed while on patrol. While I was emptying trash cans around the barracks.”
She could have wrapped herself in his guilt and stayed warm through the winter. It oozed from him like an invisible sludge ready to surround and suffocate him and anyone around him. How long had he been carrying it all? Had he ever talked to anyone? Had anyone ever told him he didn’t have to carry it?
He turned and leaned against the bench again, crossed his arms, and went back into what she was beginning to think of as his defense pose.
“I lucked out with my lawyer. The lady was vicious. She played up the fact that I’d been called home from Iraq to find my sister in the hospital. That I’d stepped off one battlefield and found myself in another one I shouldn’t have had to deal with. That I was trying to support my kid sister after the death of our parents, and I’d trusted Dimitrii with Dani’s wellbeing, and he’d done the worst thing humanly possible.
“Then she went after Dimitrii. She found six former students who he’d molested and raped. Two of them were willing to testify. That was enough. The jury found me not guilty of the most serious charges that could have sent me to jail for twenty years. Found me guilty of assault in the second degree and recommended probation. The judge signed off on it.”
Abby frowned. “I don’t understand. How did you end up spending eighteen months in jail if you were given probation?”
Tinker smiled sardonically. “Because after my civilian trial, the Marines took their turn.”
“How? Isn’t that double jeopardy?”
“Not under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The military is federal, so they were able to charge me separately. Technically different charges, but for the same reason. The lawyer who handled my civilian case advised, but the military defense council had the lead since it was a military court. He recommended a judge-only trial. He knew the assigned judge had a soft spot for violence against kids. I got eighteen months, busted down to E-1—the lowest rank—and forfeiture of fifty percent of my pay for one year.”
He tucked his hands into his pockets again. “So, that’s what I did and why I did it.”
Abby assessed the man standing there. She looked past the baggy faded jeans and the black T-shirt and the tattoos. And she saw the boy he had probably been. Seventeen with the responsibility of a sister thrust on him and no idea how to navigate a world he should have been guided through.
“I have some questions, if you don’t mind answering them,” she said softly.
“I’d be surprised if you didn’t,” he said.
“When did you start working for Graham?”
Tinker straightened and frowned. He looked confused, like he hadn’t expected that to be her question.
“Twelve years ago, I think. Maybe more. I’m not sure. I’ve been with Graham and Paige since the beginning, before they were even Leonidas.”
Abby nodded. “How did you meet them?”
“In Iraq, actually.”
“Before all of this happened?” she asked.
