“She wasn’t more specific?”
“No. But she’d gotten threats in the past and nothing had come of it.”
“Were you worried that you might be in danger while you were over there?”
“I’m a big guy, I can take care of myself. But I always worried about my mom. Lots of psychos out there, you know.”
“When you were over there, did you ever see anything weird?”
“Nope. By the time I got home after school, I was pretty beat. Usually ate dinner, listened to some music, did my schoolwork, and then hit the sack.”
“You on a year-round workout schedule?”
He nodded. “We were runner-up for state, so everyone’s gunning for us. The team that beat us lost half their starters to graduation, while we’re still stacked. I was first team All-State as a junior. And even though I’ve got my scholarship offers, my take is I’ve got to be even better than I was last year. Weight room, cardio, playbooks, passing and blocking drills. Never stops.”
“Same way in college. And in the pros, it’s your life.”
“Maybe I’ll make enough money to buy my own team one day.”
“There you go. So you never saw or heard anything else troubling your mother?”
“Except for my dad.”
“What do you mean?” Decker said sharply.
Tyler suddenly looked fearful. “No, hey, I just mean, well, he’s like a little kid who never grew up. Nothing wrong with that. He just loves life, you know?”
“I get that, but was that the reason for the divorce?”
“Yeah, and there was some dumb tax issue that she was really upset about. This was about five years ago, after she became a judge. She filed for divorce pretty soon after that. I didn’t really get it. I mean, blow up a marriage over taxes? They both had plenty of money. Anyway, Mom didn’t like Dad’s lifestyle after the divorce, and she didn’t want Dad having his girlfriends stay over while I was with him. She didn’t think it was right.”
“What did you think about that?”
“Well, I have to admit, it was nice seeing the young ladies running around the condo in T-shirts and pretty much nothing else, or tanning themselves on one of the balconies or by the pool, but it did get old after a while. I mean, it was my dad! And they were only in it for his money anyway. Even though he does keep himself in decent shape, he’s almost fifty. Twentysomething ladies don’t go for that without the cash to back it up.”
“So, you were with your father last night? Here?”
“Yeah. I got home around seven. We had dinner, watched some TV, and I finished some schoolwork. Then I went to bed.”
“What time?”
“About ten thirty or so. I was beat.”
“And your dad?”
“I heard him talking in his office. My bedroom’s right next door. He has clients all over the world, so he operates in different time zones. Kept waking me up when he went on the Zooms. It’s like he thinks he has to talk loud because they’re in Asia and shit.”
“Happen to check the time when you woke up?”
“It was off and on. And I didn’t go back to sleep right away. Once was around one or so. I remember because I was thinking I had to get up at six to go for my run and I was pissed.”
“Okay.”
“And another time was after two. I remember looking at my Apple watch. And then again close to three.”
“Okay.”
“And while I was trying to fall asleep I heard him in his officebeforethen walking around and practicing his pitch, you know, what he says to his clients. He does that all the time.”