"You don't know that, and I can't stop worrying about you, Brynn. Yesterday, I felt like my life was finally going in a good direction, but now it has hit a brick wall. I kind of hate Mom for putting us through all this again. If she hadn't told that nurse to call you, we'd just be living our lives. We wouldn't be dealing with any of this."

"Well, we can't go back in time. I'll call the investigator, and we'll go from there."

"Call me back after you talk to him."

As Dani clicked off, I retrieved the number for the investigator from her text and punched it in.

A moment later, a man's voice came across the line. "Warren Investigations," he said.

"I was given your name by Steve Garfield, an attorney in Carmel. I'm his sister-in-law, Brynn Landry."

"Right. Your mother has come back from the dead."

"She has, but she was shot yesterday, so there's a chance she could die for real this time. I'm trying to figure out why she left twenty years ago and what she's been doing for the past two decades and who might want to kill her now."

"When can we meet?"

"I'm free now."

"Where are you staying?"

"I'm at my mom's house in Haight-Ashbury."

"Got it. Why don't you meet me at McElroy's Bar on Haight Street in thirty minutes?"

"Okay, I'll be there. Thanks for agreeing to help."

"Write down as much pertinent information as you have and bring it with you. We'll take it from there. Twenty years is a long time to trace."

"I know. And we need information fast. Someone is still trying to kill my mother."

"Understood."

"How will I find you?"

"From what I understand, you look just like your sister, so I'll find you."

As I set down the phone, Kade came down the hall and into the family room. "Who were you talking to?" he asked.

"A private investigator that Dani found for me. He works here in the city, and he's agreed to meet me in a half hour."

Kade nodded. "An investigator is a good idea. I'd like to go with you, Brynn."

I hesitated. "I don't know, Kade. Don't you think we're getting too tangled up?"

"Oh, we're definitely tangled up, which is why I need to go with you. My mom is mixed up in this, too, now. I need to know what's going on. You want to protect your mother; I want to protect mine."

He made a good point. "All right. You can come with me, but the priority is finding out who's trying to kill my mother. I don't think she was shot because she was sending money to your mom."

"I hope that's true, but we don't know anything for sure."

CHAPTER TWELVE