She pressed her lips together, her brow tightening as she took in the worry written across his face. She wasn’t sure what he meant by learning his lesson before, and she could tell now wasn’t the time to ask. “I appreciate you telling me this. But really, Joe, Tyler is innocent.”
“He may well be, but you have to admit some things don’t fully line up. I’m sure you can understand how the sheriff’s department is focused on him.”
“The sheriff’s department or Adam Boverman? You know he’s been harassing Tyler, right? Harassing me, too, in a way.”
“It’s not just him now. Edi Reeves is now considered a witness since she was at the bank with both Tyler and Sheila.”
“Now considered? Why wasn’t she a witness when they were accusing Tyler of Sheila’s death?”
“She was, but you know the situation with Edi.” He raised an eyebrow and gave her a pointed look.
Brooke rolled her eyes. There’d been rumors of nepotism when Edi was first brought onto the sheriff’s department. Her uncle was the outgoing sheriff, a man who had held the position for a dozen years but chose not to run for reelection. Instead, he ran for and won a state senate seat.
He still held that office, and there were rumors he planned to run for US senator or representative in the next election. Possibly even governor. His ambition was well known, and many believed Edi advanced by riding on his coattails.
Brooke didn’t know much about the inner workings of the sheriff’s department, but she had always liked Edi as a person. She was friendly and seemed to go out of her way to help people. She was a little awkward, but Brooke always assumed that was partly because of her size, tall and big-boned.
Since Edi was a couple of years older than Brooke, she had seen how mean school kids could be. She remembered being in elementary school and watching some of the girls pick on Edi. If she remembered correctly, she had been in first or maybe second grade, which would’ve put Edi in third or fourth. Edi had already been too tall and too heavy, and children could be cruel.
Joe continued, methodical and thorough. “I talked to a few people. Sheila and Monique were close. Best friends,actually, during high school. They were still friendly, but not as close as they had been. Tyler dated both of them, Sheila the summer after he finished high school and Monique early in his senior year.”
“I’ve heard this about Sheila. But who cares?” Brooke said, forcing conviction into her tone. “It was high school. Over fifteen years ago. And so what if he went out with Monique? Everyone went out with everyone. You didn’t grow up here, but I did. It’s the way it is in a small town.”
“Might be, but people have killed for less.” Joe closed his notebook. “I’m not saying Tyler did this. I’m saying the evidence points in his direction, and you need to see it clearly.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you’re my friend. Because we nearly died when we trusted the wrong person. Kelsey fooled us. Fooled all of us. I’m not going to let that happen again.”
“Tyler’s not Kelsey,” Brooke said.
“How do you know?”
“I just do.”
“You need to be smart about this.” Joe’s voice was gentle but firm. “How many times have we looked back at what didn’t click with Kelsey at the time, only to see it clearly now?”
The words stung because they were true. There were signs. Small things Brooke had explained away or ignored. The tension that sometimes crept into Kelsey’s voice. The way she’d been so insistent about certain routes. The phone calls she’d walk away from the group to take.
All of it made sense in hindsight.
“What else?” Brooke asked quietly.
Joe hesitated. “The fire that killed Tyler’s wife and son. The official ruling was accidental, but there were notesfrom the investigator. Questions about the timeline, about Tyler’s alibi, about the insurance payout.”
“Adam Boverman had it in for Tyler, even back then. That’s why there are questions.”
“Boverman wasn’t the person in charge. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, DCI, was called in. That investigator was the one who had questions. Adam was new to the force, but he agreed with the investigator.”
“But those questions were answered. The case was closed.”
“The case was closed because there wasn’t enough evidence to bring charges. That’s different from being cleared.” Joe leaned forward. “The DCI investigator revisited the case annually until he retired. He didn’t say he thought Tyler was guilty, but he made it clear he wasn’t convinced it was a freak accident.”
“That...that doesn’t mean anything. Besides, Adam has it out for Tyler. Everyone knows that.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he’s been right all along and nobody wanted to believe it.”
“What about the investigator? The DCI one. Have you talked to him?”
