Chapter 6 - Tyler Had Created The Proof Michael Wanted
Tyler's lawyer eventually allowed him to give a limited statement.
I did not attend.
I heard the relevant part later through my own counsel because the federal inquiry involved misuse of my name.
Tyler admitted making the separation notice.
Not the endorsement.
The fake notice that said I'd left military service nine years earlier was his.
He built it from public documents.
Changed dates.
Changed the reason.
Saved it as a PDF.
Sent it to Michael.
My mother called me afterward.
“He says it wasn't supposed to go anywhere.”
I was standing outside a rehabilitation clinic getting my wrist checked.
“Where was it supposed to go?”
“To Michael.”
“That counts as somewhere.”
“I know.”
“What was the point?”
Emma hesitated.
“Tyler says Michael was panicking.”
“About the endorsement?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He asked Tyler if there was any chance you weren't really serving anymore.”
I laughed.
“He asked Tyler.”
“Yes.”
“Not me.”
“No.”
Tyler had answered the question Michael wanted answered.
He created proof.
But why?
The first version was pathetic enough to be believable.
He said he was scared.
Northline had promised him a full-time business-development position if the police pilot went forward.
When the endorsement was questioned, his job disappeared.
Michael became furious.
Tyler needed the problem to belong to somebody else.
So he told Michael that I had probably been lying online about my career.
Then built something that supported it.
My mother said:
“He says he thought Michael would calm down.”
I almost dropped the phone.
“By telling him I was committing a federal crime?”
“He wasn't thinking.”
“No. He was.”
That was worse.
Tyler had thought carefully enough to create a document.
He had simply thought only about himself.
Then Emma told me something that made me stop walking.
“Tyler also says Michael told him to get you on video.”
I stood beside my car.
“What?”
“Michael wanted you to claim the rank in front of him.”
“Why?”
“He said if he recorded it, he'd have proof.”
Proof I was impersonating an officer.
That explained Tyler's phone coming up the instant Michael entered the kitchen.
This had never been spontaneous.
Michael came in armed.
Tyler came in recording.
Emma had invited me.
I was the only person who thought the night was supposed to be a conversation.
“Did Tyler know Michael planned to cuff me?”
“No.”
“Gun?”
“He says no.”
I believed that part provisionally.
Tyler had looked smug when the recording started.
Not frightened.
Then Michael drew down on me and Tyler kept recording because he thought the confrontation was still going his way.
I asked:
“Why did he stop when the SUVs arrived?”
Emma was quiet.
Then:
“Because he knew the separation notice was on his phone.”
Specific.
Human.
Cowardly.
But there was another problem.
“You said he admits the separation notice.”
“Yes.”
“What about my endorsement?”
“He still says he didn't write it.”
“Do you believe him?”
Emma took too long.
“I believe he knows who did.”
May you like
That was not the same thing.
And for the first time, I wondered whether Tyler's forgery had begun as damage control for somebody else's lie.
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