I know Dad’s told you Tyler definitely didn’t have anything to do with that car crash and I’m not saying he did, but I know for a fact Tyler isn’t the nice sweet guy Dad thinks he is. Dad thinks anyone who likes Steely Dan and wants to learn the guitar must be a good guy, but Tyler isn’t.
He gets really pushy with girls when he’s drunk, he’s done it to lots of friends of mine. Dad feels sorry for him, he thinks Tyler’s desperate for love or something, because his parents aren’t very nice to him, so he thinks it’s all harmless but it isn’t. Anne-Marie only went out with Tyler a couple of times, and he started talking about them getting married. Dad thought that just showed Tyler wants a proper family of his own, but Anne-Marie was really freaked out by him being so intense and possessive when they’d only dated twice and Tyler was really angry she dumped him and was talking all kinds of shit about her.
Another girl I know called Zeta had a bad experience with Tyler as well but she never went to the police about it, even though a bunch of us said she should, but she said she had no proof. I don’t want to say what happened because she might not want to talk about it but you can try and talk to her. Her number’s 07700 942369.
Tyler and me were sort of friends when we first moved in opposite, because I used to feel sorry for him and my mum had just died and he was nice about that. He’s a bit slow, and I could tell he was unhappy at home, but then he started making excuses to come over to our house all the time and I think he only took guitar lessons with Dad so he could try and flirt with me. Tyler’s the type that thinks if a girl’s nice to him she wants to get with him. When I told him I had a boyfriend he turned really nasty and stopped coming for guitar lessons and his gran started being horrible to me.
Anne-Marie was one of my best friends though and honestly half the reason I wanted to go interrailing was so I didn’t have to think about her dying all the time and also people were kind of ganging up on me too, because Dad was going round defending Tyler to everyone and people thought I must think the same because Tyler and I used to be friends.
I can’t prove Tyler did anything to the car that night, but him packing up and leaving Ironbridge is really weird, because he never wanted to live anywhere else before. Dad can’t complain I’ve told you the truth, just because he doesn’t want to hear it.
Seconds after Robin had finished reading this message, Strike called her.
‘Hi, where are you? Can you talk?’