“Her ex hit the window with his palm.
Tyler went outside after him.”
“To calm him down,” Tyler added.
“What did you say outside?”
“Nothing relevant.”
Charlotte gave a small, broken laugh.
“You told him Hannah was already out of your life.”
Tyler’s face hardened.
“Stop talking.”
That command changed something in Charlotte.
Until then, she had looked frightened.
Now she looked humiliated.
“You told him you were leaving her,” she said.
“You said your marriage had been over for months.”
A fork clinked against a plate somewhere behind them.
Officer Morrison wrote the statement in her notebook.
“What happened next?”
“He got back into the truck,” Charlotte said.
“He was furious.
He pulled away so fast his tires slipped on the wet pavement.”
“And neither of you called the police?”
Tyler spread his hands.
“For what? He yelled.
Then he left.”
“He left angry, in heavy rain, driving recklessly,” Janet said.
“Two minutes later, he hit your wife.”
Tyler looked at the cracked phone inside the evidence sleeve.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that the accident had not occurred in some distant part of Hannah’s life.
The truck had come from the same curb where he had chosen to sit with Charlotte.
While Hannah was trapped in crushed metal, he had been returning to his plate.
But shame lasted only a second before self-protection replaced it.
“I didn’t cause the crash.”
“No one said you did,” Janet replied.
“I’m asking why you withheld information about an agitated driver who had just confronted you.”
“I didn’t know he hit anyone.”
“You knew your wife had been hit.”
Tyler glanced toward the surrounding tables.
“She made it sound minor.”
Officer Morrison removed Hannah’s phone from the evidence sleeve just far enough to read the message aloud.
“I was in an accident.
I’m at Riverside General ER.
Dislocated shoulder and concussion.
Can you come get me?”
She looked at him.
“Which part sounded minor?”
Tyler said nothing.
Janet read his reply next.
“Can’t leave right now.
Charlotte’s ex is bothering her again.
Just get an Uber.
Sorry, babe.”
The woman at the neighboring table lowered her eyes.
The restaurant manager’s mouth tightened.
Charlotte stared at Tyler.
“You told me Hannah was at a work dinner.”
“She was supposed to be.”
