Page 66 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“Us,” Tyler said. “All the kids walking home.”

“Do you know his name?”

“No.”

“How old?”

“I don’t know. Looking back, I’d say maybe sixty. He seemed old to me then and a little off.”

“Off how?”

“He’d talk to you,” Tyler said. “If you were by yourself.”

“What kind of talk?”

Tyler shifted, uncomfortable now. “He’d scold you like you were doing something wrong. He’d tell you not to walk alone. Ask where you were going.”

JP narrowed his eyes. “Did he ever touch anyone?”

Tyler shook his head. “No. Nothing like that.”

“Did he threaten anyone?”

“It sounded like a threat when he scolded.”

JP gathered more information about creepy guy’s house so he could follow up.

“Was Hannah afraid of him?”

Tyler let out a breath. “She hated that part of the walk because once she was lingering behind us and he scolded her. He told her it wasn’t safe for little girls to be walking alone. She ran like crazy and caught up. She’s the one who first called him creepy guy. She’d say it with a whisper, like if she said it too loud, he’d hear her. After that, we all said it that way.”

“What did you do when Hannah didn’t catch up to you that day?”

“We kept looking back, especially when we got to that house, but she never showed. Megan wanted to go back, but we didn’t.”

“Because you convinced her not to?”

“Look, I feel bad about this every day. Maybe if I’d gone back, she’d still be alive.”

“Do you believe Hannah’s dead?”

“Don’t you? It’s been almost ten years, and she hasn’t shown up. Do you have a reason to believe she’s alive?”

“I don’t know any more than you do, but I’d like to believe she’s still alive.”

Silence hung for a moment. Then Tyler added, quieter now, “We didn’t tell it like that.”

“How’d you tell it?”

“We just said that she didn’t show.”

“Why?”

Tyler looked at him. “Because it sounded better,” he said. “For us. Then after a while, I was going to tell, but Megan convinced me not to. She said it wouldn’t help anything, and we would only get in more trouble.”

“Did you see Hannah at all that day after school?” JP asked.

“Maybe. We had started walking, but I kept looking back. I think I saw her come out of the school, but then I couldn’t see her after that.”