Hush Hush (12 page)
March 13, 2014, Tyner Gray’s office
March 13, 2014, Tyner Gray’s office
| | SPEAKER 1: Melisandre Harris Dawes | |
| | SPEAKER 2: Tyner Gray | |
| | INPUT: MHD | |
| MHD: | | Okay, I think I’ve done it all correctly—I didn’t bring the light, but the light here in your office is fine unless you’re vain. I have the app I’m supposed to use, and the camera is set on the tripod so I don’t have to hold it. Checked voice level. So—go. |
| TG: | | I don’t really understand why I’m doing this, Missy. As your lawyer, I’ll probably forbid you to use anything— |
| MHD: | | Just tell the story. That’s what Harmony does. Says. She gets people to tell the story, tries to stay out of the way. It’s like I’m not here. Ignore me. |
| TG: | | No one has ever been able to ignore you, Missy. |
| MHD: | | You did, the first time we met. Do you remember? |
| TG: | | Impossible. If I was ignoring you, then I hadn’t seen you for whatever reason. So, no, I don’t remember it that way. |
| MHD: | | It was in a restaurant downtown. That cute old-fashioned diner on Redwood with the wooden booths and tiled floors. You stopped to talk to my boss on your way out. You both ignored me. I had to introduce myself. I was a baby lawyer, with nothing to contribute to the conversation, but still. I wasn’t used to men ignoring me. |
| TG: | | Werner’s. I was probably distracted. Lunch there was always a big networking thing. And that place was hell to navigate in my chair. Very narrow aisles, so many people. But I will apologize for ignoring you. What has it been, twenty years? |
| MHD: | | Twenty. Exactly twenty. Almost to the day. It was February 1994. I saw you in the courthouse a week later. That’s probably what you remember. I was stalking you. |
| TG: | | Very funny, Missy. |
| MHD: | | I was. The moment I saw you I realized you were someone I had to get to know. You were kind of legendary. You had worked so hard to achieve something, to make that Olympic team, and then it was taken from you, through no fault of your own, and you had gone on, without bitterness or rancor. You are the strongest man I’ve ever known, Tyner. |
| TG: | | There was bitterness at the time it happened. Some would say I’m bitter still, but I always had a prickly temperament. It just got pricklier. Missy, why are you doing this particular interview? Especially after everything that’s happened this week. Isn’t it enough to produce and star in the film? Do you have to be your own crew, too? |
| MHD: | | Today’s the only day that Harmony can meet with another one of the subjects and we’re behind schedule. I didn’t know it was possible for a documentary to get behind schedule. I thought you just lived it. But Harmony is concerned about the budget. She was accused of exceeding her budget on her second film. It matters to her. And I guess it should matter to me, as it’s my money. But I’ve never cared about money. |
| TG: | | Who is Harmony interviewing? |
| MHD: | | I think it’s Poppy. My roommate at the psychiatric facility. Anyway, let’s establish how we know each other and then we’ll talk about what happened to me. At the end. |
| TG: | | I have known you— |
| MHD: | | Not me. I mean, you can’t say you . You—Tyner—are talking to the camera, to the audience beyond the camera. I’m not here. Talk about me as if I’m not here, as if you’re telling other people about me. I always wanted to know what you said to other people about me. |
| TG: | | Missy—Okay, fine, here goes. I’ve known Melisandre Dawes since 1994. She was Melisandre Harris then. I first became aware of her in the courthouse—she was working as a young lawyer with one of the bigger firms in Baltimore, Howard, Howard & Barr, but she said she was interested in coming to work for me. She was not well suited to my one-man practice. I took on associates for two to three years, but tried to avoid anyone who hoped to have a partnership. My office is a good place for a lawyer to apprentice while studying for the bar, then move on. Melisandre was past that. Besides— |
| MHD: | | Tyner? |
| TG: | | Yes? |
| MHD: | | That’s almost thirty seconds of silence. If this were film instead of digital, you’d be costing me money. And it screws up the transcription, if the silences go on too long. I think that’s what Harmony told me. |
| TG: | | Sorry. |
| MHD: | | Now finish the sentence. Why didn’t you want me to come work for you? I lobbied pretty hard for the job. |
| TG: | | I didn’t hire you— |
| MHD: | | Say, “I didn’t hire Melisandre.” |
| TG: | | Sorry. |
| MHD: | | Why do you keep saying sorry? |
| TG: | | Because I’m screwing up, aren’t I? Okay. Deep breath. Focus. I didn’t hire Melisandre Dawes—Melisandre Harris—because I was interested in her. In dating her. It was the Anita Hill era, or not long after. I had dated some of my other young hires. Before. And it was consensual. I really hadn’t thought too much about it. If one works long hours, where does one meet people? But I saw that I had, in fact, abused my position. To be clear, no one ever complained. I like to think that was because I was always very—up-front. I was up-front with all the women I dated. I had no intention of marrying, no intention of having a family. Do men still say that, up-front ? Does anyone believe them if they do? A lot of women didn’t believe me when I told them what I wanted. They really thought it was just a matter of me meeting the right woman. But not even Melisandre Harris could change my mind, and she was one of the most alluring and charming young women I had ever known. We dated for six months, a long time for me. She ended the relationship on December thirty-first, 1994. |
| MHD: | | You remember the exact date? |
| TG: | | It’s not hard to remember being stood up on New Year’s Eve. |
| MHD: | | I didn’t stand you up. I called you that morning and said it was time to move on. That I needed a commitment or there was no reason to go forward. |
| TG: | | Yes, you did. |
| MHD: | | No you s, Tyner. |
| TG: | | We broke up on December thirty-first, 1994, at her initiative. It seemed like the next thing I knew, she was dating Stephen Dawes, a friend of mine. Well, acquaintance. We knew each other through the boathouse. He rowed, I coached. Our paths crossed a lot. I might have even introduced you—Stephen and Melisandre. All I know is it happened very fast. He proposed to you three months after the Charm City Sprints. |
| MHD: | | He proposed to Melisandre. |
| TG: | | He proposed to Melisandre three months after the Charm City Sprints. He did it up in a big way, planned a surprise party at the boathouse. He even arranged for people to arrive on a shuttle, so there would be no cars in the lot, which would have been unusual at that time of day. The ring was in a jewelry box dangling from a tree by a ribbon. He proposed to her there, near the site where they had met, then took her into the boathouse to celebrate, where friends and family waited with champagne. He was very sure that she would say yes, I guess. |
| MHD: | | How do you know the details of the proposal? Were you there? |
| TG: | | I was invited to the party. No hard feelings. Everyone was an adult. Melisandre had broken up with me because she very much wanted a husband and children. Stephen wanted a family, too. It was a whirlwind courtship. |
| MHD: | | You consider getting engaged in three months to be a whirlwind courtship? |
| TG: | | I do. |
| MHD: | | Could you repeat that back in full? |
| TG: | | I do consider three months to be a very swift courtship, yes. |
| MHD: | | How long did you and your wife date before you married? |
| TG: | | I don’t think that’s important, Melisandre. |
| MHD: | | Don’t address me by my name. That’s like saying you . |
| TG: | | I don’t want this to be part of the documentary, Missy. |
| MHD: | | I just—I mean, I’m entitled to ask. How did you end up marrying? After all those years of saying it wasn’t what you wanted? |
| TG: | | I changed, Melisandre. People do change over a twenty-year span. I’m not the man you knew. And I didn’t change my mind about children. I didn’t have the temperament for fatherhood. When Tess comes over with her little girl, I find it charming. For about twenty minutes. Kitty, as a doting aunt, is good for the whole visit, but even she sighs with relief when Carla Scout leaves. I had thought the only reason to marry was to have children. Kitty—Look, I don’t want to talk about this. |
| MHD: | | On film, or at all? |
| TG: | | At all. I’ve told you several times now, I’m very happy. I have no regrets. |
| MHD: | | I think you also told me once that anything modified by the word very is suspect. |
| TG: | | Move on, Melisandre. |
| MHD: | | Did you see much of Melisandre Dawes after she married? |
| TG: | | Baltimore is small in its way and you’re apt to run into people, so, yes, probably here and there. I remember sending gifts to each child after their births. |
| MHD: | | What did you send them? |
| TG: | | Okay, I had my secretary select and send the gifts, but I wrote the notes. I was very happy for you—for Melisandre. She had what she’d always wanted. |
| MHD: | | Did you ever see her alone? |
| TG: | | Once. |
| MHD: | | When was that? |
| TG: | | Missy. |
| MHD: | | It matters. You have to talk about this. |
| TG: | | On August eighth, 2002. The day she killed her daughter. |
| MHD: | | And what happened? |
| TG: | | She came to my office. |
| MHD: | | And what did she say? |
| TG: | | I cannot tell you. Because two weeks before that visit, Melisandre Dawes had retained me as her attorney and all conversations subsequent to that time are privileged, in my view. |
| MHD: | | Did you, in fact, serve as her attorney when she was charged with murder? |
| TG: | | No, I referred her to a criminal attorney who had more experience with the insanity plea. But as of that morning, I was technically her attorney. She had never told me why she wanted an attorney of record, only that she did. I didn’t think it meant anything. She told me she was scared and in trouble, but she wouldn’t tell me anything more. |
| MHD: | | Can you tell us what happened that day? |
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