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"No. Have you?" I asked.
"I haven't. It's so unlike him to be out of touch this long."
"Do you think something has happened to him or are you worried he's with someone else?"
"I don't want to believe he'd turn to anyone else, but things have been a little off between us the last few months."
"If you think there's someone else, do you have an idea who that would be?"
There was a long silence at the other end of the phone.
"Vicky?" I pressed.
"I don't know," she said. "And I shouldn't even be talking to you about this. It's between me and your father. I'm just worried about him. I'm going a little crazy."
"I'm worried, too." I licked my lips and said what I needed to say. "Do you think Dad is having an affair with someone in San Francisco?"
Vicky couldn't hide her quick intake of breath. "What do you know, Brynn?"
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
I thoughtabout how to answer Vicky's question for a long moment. "I know you were on Dunbar Street in San Francisco on Wednesday night."
"Oh, God, Brynn. You know, don't you?" Vicky muttered.
"That my mother didn't die twenty years ago? Yes. How long have you known she was alive?"
"About two weeks," Vicky replied.
Her answer surprised me. "Two weeks? What happened two weeks ago?"
"I saw a video online, and she was in it. I thought it had to be a mistake. But there were still photos, too, and in each one, her features were so clear. She'd cut her hair, dyed it a lighter shade of brown. But it was still her, with those same blue-violet eyes that you and Dani have."
"What was this video? Was it a music performance?"
"No, it was a news clip. She was at a school concert and that blues singer, Miguel Rodriguez, made a surprise appearance and had a heart attack onstage. Your mother did CPR and saved his life. There were news crews there to film his performance. It was all over the internet. I thought with your music connections, you might have seen it."
"I had no idea. I assume you told my father."
There was another long pause. "I didn't tell him," Vicky said, a note of defiance in her voice. "I didn't see the point."
"You didn't see the point of telling him that his wife hadn't died? You didn't see the point in telling me and Dani that our mother hadn't drowned in a storm?" My voice rose with the force of my emotions until I was almost yelling.
"I wasn't completely sure if it was her," Vicky replied.
"You're lying. You just said it was her. That's not why you didn't tell us," I said flatly.
"No, you're right, it's not," Vicky said, her voice louder now, too. "I didn't want her to be alive. If she didn't die, that meant she left; she ran out on her family. I didn't want to put you back into that place of grief. So, I didn't say anything."
"But then, Dad suddenly went out of town and became unreachable."
"He left Tuesday. He said it was a last-minute business trip. I talked to him Tuesday night. He told me he was in Portland. But I called his hotel the next morning and they had no record of him being a guest. I called a bunch of other hotels, too. I checked in with his office, and his admin said he'd made his own travel arrangements."
"So you figured he'd seen the video and gone to San Francisco."
"Yes. In fact, I wondered if that video wasn't why he went to New Orleans two weeks ago. I thought maybe he was trying to find information on how she died. I tried to reach him, but he didn't answer his phone. I got desperate, so Wednesday afternoon I flew to San Francisco. I went to the Harding School. Your mother was conducting some after school concert rehearsal. I waited for her to leave around six and I followed her home."
"Did you talk to her?"
