“And you helped them?”
“I helped her, yeah.”
Boverman made a note. “So, no alibi for Friday night. No one to confirm what time you actually arrived on Saturday morning.” Adam leaned back in his chair, the picture of casual confidence. “No playing darts? Going out with your buddies? Out with Brooke?”
“No.” Tyler’s jaw tightened. “Brooke went out with a friend on Friday night.”
“Which friend?”
“Steph. They’d planned it a few days earlier.”
“What’d you think about that? Your girl dumping you on a Friday night for a friend.”
“Dumping me? Brooke can see her friends whenever she wants.”
“Still, that had to sting. Friday night should be date night, right?”
Adam flipped open the folder. Papers rustled, too loud in the quiet room. “Here’s what we know. Both victims—Sheila Jones and Monique Stanton—knew you. Both went to Irma High School at the same time as you. Both died after you returned to Basin County.”
He looked up, his eyes hard. “Your wife died under suspicious circumstances before you skipped town in a hurry. The pattern is clear.”
“There’s no pattern. I didn’t kill anyone.”
“Then explain how two women you knew from high school end up dead within months of your return.”
“I can’t. I don’t know anything about their deaths.”
“And the fire?”
Tyler sighed.How many times do I have to tell this bonehead deputy the same thing?“The fire was ruled accidental.”
“Officially.” Adam’s smile was cold, satisfied. “But we both know the truth, don’t we? You collected the insurance money and ran. Now this.”
Tyler’s hands clenched into fists under the table. He supposed it looked bad. He could almost even see Adam’s perspective—the lack of an alibi for Friday night, only Robert to verify Saturday morning. And Robert was his boss, his friend, someone whose testimony would be seen as biased.
The connections to both victims were undeniable. His history of tragedy followed him like a shadow he couldn’t shake.
But seeing it and accepting it were different things.
Someone was setting him up. Someone who knew his history, knew the victims, and knew exactly how to make him look guilty. Someone smart enough to frame him so perfectly that even the woman he was falling for was starting to doubt his innocence.
But who? And why target him specifically? What had he done to deserve this level of calculated destruction?
“I didn’t do this,” Tyler said, forcing each word out clearly while he held eye contact. “I don’t know who did, but it wasn’t me.”
“That’s what they all say.”
The interview lasted another hour. Adam asked the same questions in different ways. Where were you? Who can verify? How well did you know them?
Tyler’s answers stayed consistent because they were true. But truth didn’t seem to matter when suspicion had already taken root.
Adam closed the folder with a snap. “We don’t have enough to hold you.Yet.But don’t leave town, Tyler. We’re watching. I’m watching. And when I find that one piece of evidence that ties you to these murders—and I will find it—you’re done.”
“You won’t find anything,” Tyler promised. “I’m not involved. Listen to what I’m telling you and you might find the actual killer.”
Adam narrowed his eyes. “I’ve found him.”
Tyler glanced at the other deputy, but he was staring off in the distance, purposely avoiding Tyler’s gaze.
