stalemate dragged on, Boies Schiller resorted to the bare-knuckle
tactics it had become notorious for. Brille let it be known that if Tyler
didn’t sign the affidavit and name the Journal’s sources, the firm
would make sure to bankrupt his entire family when it took him to
court. Tyler also received a tip that he was being surveilled by private
investigators. His lawyer tried to make light of it.
“It’s not a huge deal,” he said. “Just don’t go anywhere you’re not
supposed to be and remember to smile and wave to the man in the
bushes outside your house when you leave for work.”
One evening, Tyler’s parents received a call from his grandfather.
George said Holmes had told him that Tyler was responsible for most
of the information the Journal had and was being completely
unreasonable. Tyler’s parents sat him down in their kitchen and
pleaded with him to sign whatever Theranos wanted him to sign at the
next opportunity. Otherwise, they would have to sell their house to pay
for his legal costs. It wasn’t that simple, Tyler replied, unable to say
much more. He badly wanted to explain to them what was going on,
but he was under instructions not to discuss the negotiations with
Theranos with anyone.
To allow Tyler to update his parents about where things stood,
Taylor arranged for them to have their own legal counsel. That way he
could communicate with them through attorneys and those
conversations would be protected by attorney-client privilege. This led
to an incident that rattled both Tyler and his parents. Hours after his
parents’ new lawyer met with them for the first time, her car was
broken into and a briefcase containing her notes from the meeting was
stolen. Although it could have been a random act of theft, Tyler
couldn’t shake his suspicion that Theranos had something to do with
it.
—
I HAD NO IDEA any of this was happening. After Tyler’s anxious call the
evening he had dinner at his parents’ house, I tried to check back in
with him. I sent an email to his Colin Ramirez address, which he’d