She looked stricken, but that didn’t stop the questions. “When? You’ve talked to her again?”

“About half an hour ago. For the first time in a month.”

“You don’t know how to get hold of her? You can’t call her and tell her to talk to Bryce and straighten this out? Is she staying away because she doesn’t want him to serve the papers?”

“I’m going to start at the beginning, but it’s not a pretty story, Mom.”

“You think I haven’t guessed that much?”

Touching traditions didn’t apply today. I covered her hand. “I’m going to tell you what Wendy told me, and then I’m going to tell you what I think about it. I’m not trying to make you choose between daughters. You need facts, and then you can make your own decisions.”

“Get it over with.”

I started with Wendy’s first phone call. I could see Mom was prepared to hear that Wendy’s absence was all about the divorce. She wasn’t prepared to hear that her older daughter might be accused of murder.

When I finished, she seemed dazed, as if she was trying to fit my words into a more acceptable pattern. “Wendy could be right,” I said. “She might be pulled into a murder she has nothing to do with. It can happen.”

“But if she didn’t know him, if she was just staying at the same hotel that night...”

“Unfortunately, that part’s not true.” I told her the basic details of Vítor Calvo’s murder, then about Wendy having a drink with him earlier in the evening. “She denied knowing him and said he was just a nice guy she met in the bar, but today the story changed. She admitted she’d been to Brazil twice to have cosmetic procedures at his clinic. So that connection makes it even more likely the sheriff might be interested in her.”

“Brazil? When did she go to Brazil?”

I explained and waited for Mom to insist I was wrong, that Wendy would never lie to her that way. Instead she shook her head, but not in denial, more as if she hoped a good shake would set the facts straight.

Sadly, the shake dislodged more questions. “Why is she telling you this? She wanted you to take care of the girls because at the time I couldn’t, I see that. But why is she telling you about the murder? If she lied about Brazil, surely she could have lied about her reasons for not coming home.”

“Not easily. Look how suspicious you’ve been. And she involved me because I have contacts and experience. She thought I could help her find the man who had drinks with her and the doctor that night.”

I finished telling her about the events right before Calvo died and Wendy’s explanation for why she was at the resort in the first place. Finally I told her about Milton Kearns.

“Wendy claims if the police can find and talk to Kearns and nail down his story, she won’t be a suspect.”