Page 60 of Is Anyone Listening?
Tyler suddenly reached out and put his hand on my leg. "You're safe, Cassidy. Just keep breathing."
"I need to get off this road."
"We're almost there. Two miles to go."
It only took five minutes to reach his house, but it felt like forever. When he pulled into the driveway, I practically jumped out of the car and immediately leaned over, fighting the urge to throw up. Tyler waited for me to pull myself together and then he let me into the house without comment. I felt another wave of relief when he turned on the lights.
I flopped down on the covered couch in the living room, happy to have the support beneath my shaky legs.
"I'll turn on the heat," Tyler said.
I nodded, rubbing my hands together as I tried to get warm.
He returned a moment later. "Can I get you something to drink? Something to eat?"
"Not yet. My stomach is still churning."
"Understandable." He sat down in the chair across from me. "I'm sorry about what happened, Cassidy."
"Me too." I paused. "The car is gone. It wasn't mine or Tessa's. She borrowed it from her roommate. We're going to have to buy her another car." I didn't know why I was focusing on that when I had so many other things to worry about.
"One step at a time. You're in shock. Don't try to fix anything right now."
"I couldn't fix it, even if I wanted to." I met his gaze. "Someone tried to kill me tonight. It wasn't an accident, even though Sheriff Holloway wanted to make it seem like I'd just gotten jumpy with someone coming up fast behind me. That wasn't what happened."
"I believe you."
His quiet reassurance helped more than he could know. "Thank you. But who would have taken the trouble to set me up like that, to create the obstacle in the road, the detour sign? How would they even know I'd be on that road? I know someone hit my car and forced me off the road, but I suppose it's possible they weren't responsible for the tree being down. Maybe they were following me from the hospital, and they took advantage of the opportunity. But I didn't tell anyone I was going to see Tessa, except you." For a split second, I wondered if I should have taken Finn or the sheriff up their offer to drive me back to the inn.
"I didn't tell anyone," Tyler said. "But I'm sure Ellen knew you were going to visit Tessa at some point today. Maybe Finn, too. He knows she's in the hospital. That means his family knows, and word gets around. He was also coming from that direction."
I let out a sigh. "You're just broadening the possible list of suspects," I said grumpily. "That's not helpful."
He gave me a brief smile. "Sorry. You've had a rough time. I don't have much in the way of food, but I have some fruit and cheese. Let me make you something to eat."
"Okay." I wasn't hungry, but I needed a moment alone to think about what happened.
As Tyler left the room to go into the kitchen, I pulled my bag over my head and set it on the couch next to me, trying to breathe slowly, to calm down. When I started to feel better, I pulled out my phone, seeing a bunch of missed messages from Morgan. I skimmed through them to see if there was anything urgent to attend to, but it was mostly just updates on the sponsorships and inquiries about what was going on here.
I would talk to her later when I had my wits about me. Right now, there was no point in worrying her or Tessa. Morgan couldn't do anything to help me, and Tessa needed to focus on getting well.
A few moments later, Tyler brought out two paper plates filled with peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, apple slices, carrots, and crackers. He set them on the coffee table and joined me on the couch. "You're not allergic to nuts, are you?"
"No. And I've eaten plenty of peanut butter in the last few months."
"Why is that?"
"I lost my job three months ago, and I live in a very expensive, very small studio apartment in Manhattan, so I've been watching my money."
"You've been living on peanut butter, but you still thought it was a good idea to come to Maine and spend a week at the inn and chase down an old mystery?"
"When you say it like that, I don't come off that smart."
He smiled. "Sorry."
"You're not wrong. But the podcast could be profitable, so Tessa and I thought of this as a work trip."
"What does she do for a living?"
