Chapter 8: Everything on the Table
We met at the house on Saturday morning.
Tyler made coffee without being asked, which meant he was nervous.
He only cleaned and made things when he didn't know what to do with his hands.
Richard sat at the kitchen table with the folder in front of him.
I sat beside Tyler.
"Before you give me your answer," Richard said, "there's something you need to know."
Tyler looked at me.
I gave him nothing.
This was his to hear.
Richard told him everything.
Daniel.
The site.
The collapse.
The official report with his name on it.
The second report.
Garrett Finch.
The falsified materials documentation.
The open investigation.
The contact made at the firm last week.
Tyler didn't interrupt once.
When Richard finished, the kitchen was very quiet.
Tyler looked at his coffee cup.
Then at Richard.
"You've been under investigation for over a year."
"Yes."
"And you want me to come into your firm while that's still open."
"I want you to come in knowing exactly what you're walking into.
That's different from what I originally planned." Richard glanced at me briefly.
"I was advised to be honest with you before you signed anything."
Tyler looked at me.
"You knew."
"I found out yesterday," I said.
"I told him he had to tell you."
Tyler was quiet for a long moment.
He turned the coffee cup in his hands.
"The second report," he said to Richard.
"The independent one.
Is it solid?"
"My attorney believes so.
The structural engineer has thirty years of experience and no connection to my firm."
"And Finch — the supply coordinator — you said he made contact with someone at your office last week.
Do you know who?"
Richard's expression shifted slightly.
"Not yet.
I'm trying to find out."
Tyler set the cup down.
"That's the part that worries me."
"Me too," Richard said.
"Because if he's trying to interfere with the investigation," Tyler said slowly, "and he finds out you're bringing someone new into the firm, he might see that as a threat.
A new set of eyes.
Someone who might find something."
Richard looked at Tyler steadily.
"That thought had occurred to me."
"Is that part of why you want me there?"
The question landed hard.
I watched Richard's face.
"No," Richard said.
"But I won't pretend it isn't a factor I've thought about.
You're sharp.
You notice things.
If Finch has someone inside my firm, a fresh pair of eyes that he doesn't know to watch for — yes, that could matter." He paused.
"But that is not why I drew up that contract.
I drew it up because you are exactly the kind of person this company needs and exactly the kind of person Daniel was."
The kitchen was quiet again.
Tyler looked at the folder.
"Can I see the second report?"
Richard slid it across the table.
Tyler read it carefully.
All of it.
He turned pages slowly, the way he used to read instruction manuals as a kid — thoroughly, without skipping.
When he finished, he closed the folder and pushed it back.
"I'll sign," he said.
Richard blinked.
"You're certain."
"You told me the truth when you didn't have to.
You could have waited until after I signed and I never would have known." Tyler looked at him directly.
"That matters more to me than a clean record."
Richard's hand went to the folder.
He didn't speak for a moment.
"There's one condition from my side," Tyler said.
Richard looked up.
"We find out who Finch spoke to at your firm.
Before my first day.
I'm not walking into a building with a leak I don't know about."
Richard nodded slowly.
"Agreed."
I picked up my coffee.
May you like
It had gone cold.
I drank it anyway.
