Cat and Tate hadn’t discussed how they were going to bring up the touchy subject. They weren’t asking about the weather. This was far more tricky and sensitive.
Hey, was your work buddy a pussy-hound?
Cat and Tate glanced at one another, not sure how to proceed. It was a delicate subject.
“Tyler’s parents asked me to get some photos off of his phone for Alexa,” Tate explained. “It turns out he has two phones, and one of them?—”
“I think I know where you’re going here,” Greg said, interrupting Tate’s explanation. “What is it exactly that you want to know?”
Tate opened his mouth, but he didn’t seem to know what to say.
“Tyler was seeing several women, correct?” Cat said, jumping in. “He had girlfriends all over where he traveled.”
Greg cleared his throat and grabbed the napkin from the table, wiping his mouth before replying.
“Listen, Tyler was a good friend of mine.”
“And mine,” Tate said. “But no one is perfect. Was he seeing multiple women? It doesn’t make him a bad person.”
Unless he was lying to them, and it looks like he was.
Greg shook his head and sighed.
“Tyler was a good friend,” he said again. “He was the kind of guy who would be there for you, no matter the time of day or night. No questions asked. He was loyal to a fault.”
“To his friends,” Cat said, completing the sentence that Greg hadn’t. “But not necessarily to Alexa.”
“Alexa is a sweet woman,” Greg said. “And she sure as hell deserved a better boyfriend than Tyler, although he treated her great…for the most part.”
Sure, Tyler only lied to her behind her back. That’s no big deal.
“He traveled a lot, and he met a lot of women,” Tate said. “That seems to be what we’re seeing on his second phone.”
“That goddamn phone,” Greg muttered. “I told him that he was going to get caught, so he decided to get a second phone. Then, I told him that he could still get caught, but he said he had a foolproof system. The women would never know.”
Eww. Now I want a shower.
“A foolproof system?” Tate questioned. “What was it?”
“I dunno,” Greg replied with a shrug. “I never asked, because I wasn’t looking to cheat on my wife. But it seemed to work for him. We traveled for work all the time, and Tyler had girlfriends in those cities. I made a point of not getting involved. I told him it was risky, but damn, he was like a danger junkie. He got off on the thrill of juggling as many girls as he could. Hell, he may have had more than I knew about. But he loved the challenge.”
Tyler hadn’t cared for those women. He had been all about the conquest. Cat had met men like that during her career. She’d even dated a few.
Assholes.
“He was open about this?” Tate asked.
“Not really. I only knew because I traveled with him, and it was kind of difficult to hide when he would be picking up womenin the hotel bar right after talking to Alexa in the cab from the airport.”
“Did he have a girlfriend here in Winslow Heights?” Cat queried. “There were some rather threatening messages from her to him.”
“He started coming here quite a bit about six months ago, but it sort of slowed down. I didn’t come with him. I only heard about it later. He did mention a woman, saying she was hot but crazy. He never liked it when they demanded more of his time and attention. That’s when he would break it off.”
Had WinHeights wanted more than Tyler was willing to give? She’d threatened him and said he’d be sorry.
“Did he say anything else about her?” Tate pressed. “Did he say that she threatened him?”
“No, but like I said, he didn’t talk about them much unless he was complaining and about to end things. I know that makes him sound terrible, but he was basically a good guy who liked women.”
