Chapter 5: What the Officers Found
The two officers were young, a man and a woman, and they were professional and calm in the way that people are when they've learned to be calm in houses where something has gone wrong.
I explained everything in the hallway.
The article.
The photo.
The name.
The text message.
Tyler showed them his phone without being asked, which I noticed, and which I think the officers noticed too.
The female officer, whose name tag read CARVER, looked at the screenshot of the article on my phone for a long time.
"You saved this two years ago?" she said.
"It frightened me when I read it.
I didn't know why I kept it."
She handed the phone back.
"Stay here, please."
They knocked on the basement door.
Officer Carver identified herself.
There was a pause, and then Marcus's voice came through, smooth and cooperative.
"Thank goodness.
Yes, please, I've been locked in here.
I think there's been a terrible misunderstanding."
They asked him to step back from the door.
They unlocked it.
Tyler gripped the leg of the hallway table.
I heard them ask Marcus for identification.
I heard him provide it without hesitation, which I knew meant nothing.
I heard Officer Carver ask him to wait, and then I heard her step away and speak quietly into her radio.
The other officer came back to us.
"Does the name Daniel Reeves mean anything to either of you?"
Tyler shook his head.
I thought about it.
"No."
"The ID he provided says Marcus Webb.
But we're getting a flag on the physical description." He paused.
"We're going to need him to come with us while we sort this out.
I want you both to stay calm."
From the basement doorway, Marcus — or whoever he was — spoke directly to Tyler, past the officer, his voice carrying up the stairs with complete control.
"Tyler, this is a mistake.
I will call you the moment this is sorted out.
Don't believe what she's telling you.
She has never wanted this for you."
Tyler stood up.
"Don't," I said.
"I'm not going to do anything." His voice was very quiet.
"I just want to look at him."
He walked to the top of the basement stairs.
He stood there and looked down.
I don't know what he saw in that moment.
I don't know what expression Marcus was wearing.
But Tyler stood there for a long time, and when he came back, he sat down on the bottom step of the main staircase and put his face in his hands.
Officer Carver came back up from the basement.
She looked at me directly.
"Ma'am," she said.
"That article you saved.
The case in Portland."
"Yes."
"He's a person of interest in that investigation." She paused.
"And two others."
The hallway felt very small.
"Two others," I said.
"We'll need your full statement.
Both of you."
Tyler lifted his head.
May you like
His eyes were red but his voice was steady.
"Whatever you need," he said.
