“Trust me, neither do we. Are you going up to Dover to get your dad’s remains?”
Tyler shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Because of what else they said.”
“Which was?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, Tyler. You chose to ride home with me. You must want to talk to me.”
Another mile went by without either of them breaking the silence.
“They said there wasn’t enough left of my dad to put in a coffin,” he finally said.
Michelle jerked the wheel and the truck did a little wobble across the lane before she righted it. “What! I thought he was shot?”
“He was. Only a mortar hit right at the spot where he had gone down. It… it sort of blew him to pieces.”
Now Tyler put his sleeve up to his face and quietly wept into his arm.
Michelle pulled the Land Cruiser off onto a side road, put it in park, and handed him some tissues from her console. He took them without looking at her. She wanted to lean over and hold him, but decided that might be unwelcome and more than a little awkward under the circumstances.
So she simply sat there staring straight ahead and watched shimmers of heat vapor lift off the hood of her truck and disappear into the darkness.
“Thanks.”
She turned to Tyler and accepted the crumpled pieces of now wet tissues. She tossed them into the backseat.
“Why didn’t they tell you that before?” asked Michelle. “Why wait until now?”
“I don’t know,” said Tyler softly.
“What did Jean say to all this?”
“Not much. She just took it all in and then started crying so hard the men in suits got up and left.”
“Very compassionate of them to drop the hammer and then flee the scene. What did you do?”
“I went up to my room and locked the door.”
Michelle reached out an arm and lightly touched him on the shoulder.
He glanced over at her. She read apprehension on his features.
“Tyler, why were you so determined to hire Sean and me? Your father was dead. Nothing would change that. Any other details would be hard to come by since his death happened in Afghanistan. It’s not like Sean and I can fly there and start investigating.”
He shrugged but said nothing.
“There has to be something, Tyler. You’re a smart young man. You don’t strike me as the type to just jump into a decision without thinking it through.”
When he still said nothing, Michelle asked, “Will you be driving Kathy to school next year?”
He glanced at her in surprise. “Kathy? How did you know about that?”
“I spoke to her at Panera. She really likes you. And she’s worried about you.”