“That’s not what I asked you,” she said smoothly.
His gaze went from her to Rodney and back to her again. “Probably in the elevator a couple months ago, I guess,” he replied cautiously. “Why?”
She studied him for a long moment and then answered his question. “She was found dead Sunday morning.”
He stared at Kate, and she watched him as almost shock and then maybe a hint of grief came into his eyes.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said quietly. “She was a lovely person.”
“And that will also explain why we’re here,” she added.
Immediately he shook his head. “I don’t follow. We literally haven’t had a relationship in over a year.”
“Maybe so,” she replied, “but you were her last boyfriend.”
“No, that’s not true. She was having a relationship with somebody in the office.”
“Do you know who that was?”
“No,” he stated. “I just saw her coming out of the offices late one day with this guy, and they were a little too cuddly. At least too cuddly to be just coworkers and too cuddly to be strangers.”
“I see,” Kate noted. “When was this?”
He frowned, grabbed his phone to check his appointment calendar, and said, “It was probably about three weeks ago. I was staying late,” Tyler explained, as he flicked through the screen on his phone. “Yes, it was that Tuesday, three weeks ago. Normally I’m not even here in the afternoons. We work really early mornings. But I was having issues with some accounts, so I was here late.” He shrugged. “When I went down, they came out themselves. She flushed, as if she were embarrassed, and even stepped back a little bit from him. So it was obviously one of those relationships that she either wasn’t ready to make public or didn’t want me in particular to see.”
“Did you say anything to her?”
He shook his head. “No, I’ve had several relationships since I broke up with her,” he admitted calmly. “Now, if you don’t have any other questions…”
She immediately asked for his whereabouts over the last week.
He stared at her in surprise. “Really?”
“Really,” she said blithely. “The sooner we have all the information, the sooner we can work on this.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” he replied. “I was at my girlfriend’s house on the island over the weekend. We took the five o’clock ferry out Friday, and we came back Sunday night. You can confirm that actually.” He checked his phone again, clicked through some emails, and then added, “Here’s our ferry tickets. I have receipts.” And he held up his phone for Kate to see.
“Can you send me a copy of that?”
He nodded, tapped on the phone a few times, asked for her email, and then sent it to her.
“Good enough. And these last few days?” Kate asked.
He replied, “I’m here at four o’clock in the morning every day of the workweek, and, usually in the afternoons, I go home and do a workout. Then I spend some time with my girlfriend. She works nights,” he added. “Yes, you can check with her,” and he gave Kate the girlfriend’s name and phone number as well.
“Thank you,” she replied. With the information in hand, she said, “We appreciate your willingness to provide the answers we need.”
“The sooner you get me out of the mix,” he noted, “the better. I had a lovely relationship with Cherry, and I’m very sorry she is gone because she was a really nice person, but I didn’t have anything to do with her death.”
“Do you know of anybody who might have had an argument or some problem with her?”
“No—oh, wait, one of the other women in the office,” he added. “She was jealous or something, but I’m not exactly sure when. But that would have been a long time ago. They had a problem, but I don’t even think she’s there anymore.”
“Do you know her name?”
He shook his head. “Cherry just said somebody didn’t like the fact that she was there. And the person left soon afterward. I guess you could ask down there and see if anybody knew about it. I don’t think it was a big deal though,” he noted. “You asked if there was anybody who didn’t like her, and I supposed that would qualify, but did the woman hate Cherry? Enough to kill her? No. I can’t imagine that.”
And, with that, Kate nodded and took her leave.