They stood for another moment, neither quite ready to leave. Then Brooke opened her car door.
“Tomorrow,” she said.
“Tomorrow,” Tyler agreed.
She drove away, watching him in her rearview mirror as he headed to his truck. Her heart was pounding, her mind racing with questions about what she’d just done.
She believed Tyler was innocent. Phil believed it too. But belief and proof were different things. And getting involved with him—even just to talk, even just to help—was risky in ways she couldn’t fully calculate.
Brooke couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d just made a decision that would change everything.
For better or worse, she was choosing to trust Tyler.
Chapter 16
Tyler
Tyler arrived at Irma Brew ten minutes before closing time, parking down the street so his truck wouldn’t make it obvious which shop he was going into. The last thing either of them needed was more fuel for the town gossip mill.
He stayed in his truck for a few minutes, waiting and replaying the day. Sue and Robert had gone to Sheila’s funeral, as they said they would. They came in afterward and told him all about it.
“Adam Boverman was there,” Robert had said with a tilt to his eyebrows. “In uniform.”
“That was just weird,” Sue said. “It made people uncomfortable. I was actually surprised more people didn’t go. There were a few people from the bank and others I recognized from around town, but really not that many. Her ex-husband was there. The most recent one—at least that’s what people said. Randy or something.”
“Rusty,” Robert corrected. “We’ve done work for him before. You know him?”
Tyler had shaken his head, unable to put the name with the face.
“Has that old Trans Am.”
“Oh, yeah. Him. Works at that new factory on the edge of town.”
“Yup, he’s the one,” Sue said. “If you ask me, they should be looking at him for her murder. You know whoelse was there? The game warden. The one that came up to the trailhead that day. What was his name?”
“Henry,” Robert said, his tone clipped.
Sue gave him a questioning look, to which he shrugged. “What? His name is Henry.”
“Anyway,” Sue said. “Someone told me they dated.”
“Sheila and the game warden?”
“Yup.” Robert’s nod said more than the single word.
Tyler wondered if Adam Boverman was harassing Henry the same way he was harassing him. After all, he, too, had been on the mountain that same day, a man who had dated Sheila and answered the call of a dead body. That sounded suspicious to him, but somehow he knew Boverman would explain it away. As far as he was concerned, Tyler was his man.
He checked his watch. Two minutes to six. He took a breath and headed for the door.
Through the front window, he could see Brooke moving around inside, clearing tables and wiping down surfaces. The shop was empty of customers, but she had yet to turn off the open sign.
The bell chimed as he entered. Brooke looked up from where she was arranging chairs, and her expression softened when she saw him. Not fear. Not wariness. Something warmer that made his chest tight.
“Hi,” she said, moving to the open sign and switching it off.
“Hi.” Tyler felt suddenly awkward, standing near the doorway of her business like a teenager picking someone up for a first date. “I can come back if you need more time to close up.”
“No, you’re fine. I let my staff go home early. I’m almost finished, but...” She gestured at the chairs she’dbeen stacking. “Want to help? It’ll go faster with two people.”
