"It is and it isn't. He doesn't always answer me right away, but he usually answers Dani or his wife, Vicky. The fact that none of us has heard from him is disturbing. What's also weird is that earlier today when I went to my mother's school, I thought I saw him. I probably just imagined it was him."

Kade gave me a challenging look. "Do you really believe that?"

"I want to. With everything going on with my mom, and the suspicion about why she left my dad, I don't think it would be good if he was here when she was shot."

"Maybe he came after she was shot. He could have heard the news, same as you."

"That's true. But why isn't he calling us back?"

"The police can probably track his phone."

"They'll probably do that. He's a person of interest, but he's not a violent, angry person. He wouldn’t shoot anybody. He's an executive, a business sales guy. He never even raises his voice. When he gets mad, he gets quiet. I can't imagine he would even know how to shoot a gun." I paused. "I'm sorry to dump all this on you, Kade. You just took a room in someone's house. I'm sure you didn't expect to be caught up in all this."

"Life is full of the unexpected. I've learned to roll with it."

"I thought I had learned that, too. But I'm having trouble rolling with this one."

"I think it's impressive that you want to fight for your mother even though she…"

"Didn't fight for me," I finished. "I'm not just doing it for her, though. I'm doing it for me and for Dani. My dad, too, I guess." I let out a breath. "How did we get back to me? We were talking about you. When did you start painting?"

"After my father died, I had a lot of anger issues. I couldn't sleep at night. I was exhausted during the day. My mom made me talk to a shrink. The doc suggested I write down my feelings so I could get them out of my head. I tried to do that, but it wasn't words that came out—it was art. I could express myself through sketching and painting. It made a tremendous difference in my life, and it just grew from there. By the time I was thirteen, I was painting everywhere, including the buildings in my neighborhood." He smiled. "That wasn't always appreciated."

"You were a graffiti artist?"

"I was. The world became my canvas. If I thought I could add to something, I did. I got myself into some trouble along the way."

I wasn't surprised. Kade definitely had a bad-ass kind of vibe.

"What kind of trouble?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

He was being cagey again, but I didn't think I could persuade him to open up on his past, so I went back to art. "What themes inspire your painting?" I asked.