Chapter 6 - What Tyler Was Told
Tyler agreed to meet Laura only after she promised Renee would be present.
They chose the public library.
Neutral ground.
Tyler arrived in a baseball cap and sat at the far end of a study table.
He looked younger without his usual crowd around him.
Laura placed the torn thank-you card between them.
He stared at it.
“Why did you do that?” she asked.
Tyler said nothing.
“Not the shelf. The card.”
His eyes hardened.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you meant it when you wrote it.”
His face twitched.
Laura saw she was right.
Tyler looked away.
“My dad said the card could be used against us.”
“How?”
“Like I was admitting responsibility.”
“You thanked me for saving you.”
“He said lawyers can twist anything.”
Renee made a note.
Tyler noticed.
“Don't write everything.”
“That's why I'm here.”
He slumped back.
Laura asked, “Why did you tear it in front of the class?”
“Dad said you were trying to turn everyone against me.”
“By keeping a card in my desk?”
“He said you were telling people I owed you.”
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
The answer came too quickly.
Laura studied him.
“Then why?”
Tyler's hands clenched.
“Because every time I looked at you in that chair, I remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
His breathing changed.
“The shelf.”
Laura waited.
Tyler finally spoke.
“My dad told me the red tag was embarrassing for his company. He said some idiot worker had forgotten to remove it after the repair.”
“But there was no repair.”
“I know that now.”
“What exactly did he ask you to do?”
“Take the tag off. Check the lower brace. Tighten it.”
Renee interrupted.
“Why would a facilities contractor tell his seventeen-year-old son to repair commercial shelving?”
“He didn't call it repair.”
“What did he call it?”
“A five-minute favor.”
Laura closed her eyes briefly.
Tyler continued.
“He gave me a wrench and showed me a picture of which bolt to tighten.”
“Did you?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“The bolt wouldn't move. So I loosened another one to shift the brace.”
Laura's stomach tightened.
Tyler looked sick.
“I thought I could line it up better. Then someone came down the hallway and I panicked. I put everything back the way I thought it was.”
“You didn't.”
“I know.”
“The next day?”
“I came back after school.”
“Why?”
“My dad kept asking whether the red tag was gone.”
Laura remembered entering the storage room.
Tyler crouched beside the shelf.
“You were checking it.”
He nodded.
“I saw the frame moving. I was trying to figure out what I did.”
“And then it fell.”
His face emptied.
“You pushed me.”
“Yes.”
“I remember you screaming.”
Laura had never screamed.
At least she didn't remember it.
Tyler's eyes filled.
“You were under that thing and you kept asking if I was hurt.”
She looked down at her cast.
“I was making sure you were safe.”
“That was stupid.”
“No.”
His voice rose.
“Yes, it was!”
The librarian at the desk glanced over.
Tyler lowered his voice.
“You could've just moved.”
“And watched it land on you?”
“You didn't even like me.”
Laura almost smiled.
“Tyler, teachers save students they don't like too.”
His mouth trembled once.
He covered it with anger.
“You should hate me.”
“I am furious with you.”
He blinked.
“That isn't the same thing.”
“You got hurt because of me.”
“I got hurt because several people made bad decisions. You were one of them.”
He looked at her.
“My dad said if I admitted any of this, they'd charge me.”
“That is something your lawyer needs to advise you about.”
“He said I'd lose college.”
“Maybe there will be consequences.”
“You don't care?”
“I care enough not to lie to you.”
That silenced him.
Laura leaned forward.
“What I will not do is pretend you did nothing because your father frightened you. And I will not pretend he had nothing to do with this because you touched the bolt.”
Tyler's eyes dropped to the card.
“He told me to destroy it.”
“The card?”
“Yeah.”
“Today?”
“Last night.”
“Why?”
“He knew you talked to the union.”
“How?”
Tyler shrugged miserably.
“People tell him things.”
Renee exchanged a glance with Laura.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Laura asked the question that had bothered her since Mateo's porch.
“What does your father think will happen if the full truth comes out?”
Tyler whispered, “He loses everything.”
“His company?”
“More.”
“What more?”
Tyler stared at the table.
“There were other schools.”
Renee stopped writing.
“What?”
“My dad's company inspected shelves and cabinets all over the district.”
Laura felt a cold wave move through her.
Tyler continued.
“A year ago one fell at Brookside Middle.”
“Was anyone hurt?”
“A custodian.”
Laura looked at Renee.
Neither had heard about it.
Tyler's voice dropped.
“My dad made that disappear too.”
Before Laura could ask how, Tyler's phone lit up.
DAD.
He stared at it.
It rang until the call ended.
Then a message appeared.
I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.
Tyler's face drained.
Another message came.
DO NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD.
He stood so abruptly his chair scraped backward.
Laura said, “Tyler—”
“My dad knows.”
“How?”
Tyler looked around the library.
Then toward the glass wall behind Laura.
A black SUV sat across the street.
Grant Mercer was in the driver's seat.
May you like
Watching them.
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