Chapter 5 - The Golden Son
Tyler met me in a diner off the highway wearing a watch that cost more than my first car.
He arrived late and complained that the waitress had seated him near the kitchen.
Some habits survived every crisis.
“You've made Dad look ridiculous,” he said before ordering coffee.
“I didn't take the microphone away from him.”
“You know what I mean.”
I let him talk.
Tyler had always mistaken silence for surrender.
He described Halcyon as a legitimate transport consultancy and called the false invoices clerical mistakes.
When I mentioned Ana Ruiz, he stared into his cup.
“Never heard of her.”
It was too fast.
A waiter approached, and Tyler changed the subject to my mother's death.
“You need to stop digging through old tragedies,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because people get hurt.”
He sounded frightened enough to be telling the truth about that much.
I asked whether Richard had ordered him to meet me.
“No.”
“Did he tell you what to say?”
Tyler's hand tightened around his spoon.
I saw the familiar boy who had once broken my mother's vase and watched Richard blame me.
He was older, wealthier, and still waiting for someone else to accept the consequences of his actions.
A notification flashed across his phone.
I did not need to read it.
He turned the screen down too quickly.
“Give me one reason not to tell investigators everything about Halcyon,” I said.
“Because it isn't just Dad,” he whispered.
“Who else?”
Tyler shook his head.
I pushed my chair back.
He caught my sleeve.
“Claire, if someone offers you the original ledger, don't open it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because one page names you.”
He released me as though the fabric had burned him.
Outside, I called Vance and reported the meeting through the approved channel.
I also told him about the ledger.
Twenty minutes later, Tyler called again.
His voice was shaking.
“There's a storage unit,” he said.
“I can show you where.”
Before I could reply, someone shouted in the background.
The call ended.
Vance traced the last known location through an urgent authorized request.
It placed Tyler at a commercial storage complex.
When the team arrived, his car was there.
The engine was running.
The driver's door stood open.
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And on the front seat lay a folder labeled CLAIRE BRADLEY — SUBJECT.
