SEEING THE PHOTO WAS perhaps the biggest shock of Daniel’s life. He packed the folders back in, moving quickly. He knew that his mum and George were far away, but he couldn’t help feeling that they could come back at any moment and catch him. He left the house in a hurry. Somehow, knowing that his mother had lied, he couldn’t bear to stay there.
At the flat, Louise had just come in from the shops. She was busy putting things away in a cupboard, but something about the way Daniel carried himself made her pause and stand up to look at him. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘The photo,’ he blurted out at once. ‘She’s got the same photo. It’s nearly the same anyway. It must have been taken at the same time.’
‘Hold on,’ she said. ‘How do you know this?’
Quickly, he told her about searching his mum’s files and finding the photo.
‘You shouldn’t have done that,’ she said.
‘If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t know, would I? She’s got it well hidden, and she lied to me.’
‘If it’s the same photo, she could have forgotten about it.’
‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’
‘All right,’ Louise told him. ‘No point in arguing about it now. But what I said before is still true. She must have a very good reason for hiding it.’ She paused, thinking about it. ‘What are you going to do? Will you ask her why?’
Daniel shook his head. ‘How can I? I’m not going to believe anything she tells me, for a start.’
‘You have to do something,’ Louise said. ‘I know you. You won’t just forget about it.’
‘I’ve been thinking about it. First, I don’t want to tell her that I searched through her private things. That isn’t going to help. Second, if she straight out lied to me, you’re right that she’s got some reason and she is not just going to tell me. I’ve been thinking my whole life that my dad was dead. If I had known, I would have found him, one way or another. Maybe he doesn’t even know I exist.’
‘He was holding you in the photo,’ Louise pointed out quietly.
Frowning, Daniel walked over to the window and looked out at their patch of garden. It was a sunny day and the rose bush at the back was blooming for the first time, but somehow his mind couldn’t take in what he was seeing. ‘All we have is Brownjohn’s word. And what does he know?,’ he asked, without turning to look at Louise. ‘But even if he does know about me and he doesn’t even care, I still need to see him.’
‘You’re talking as if you believe he’s alive and he’s out there somewhere.’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘That’s the whole point. But I have to find out.’
He had a plan of action worked out. It was clear that he couldn’t rely on his mother to tell him about the photo and the man with her. He would have to find out for himself. ‘I’m going to phone old Brownjohn,’ he told Louise. ‘I’m not sure I got all he knows out of him.’
Brownjohn’s voice on the telephone sounded cautious and withdrawn, as if he wasn’t sure that he wanted to talk to Daniel.
‘It’s about my dad,’ Daniel said point blank.
There was a silence on the other end.
‘I don’t know any more than I’ve told you,’ Brownjohn said after what seemed a long while. ‘They were a nice couple. I didn’t know their friends. I met the sister once or twice, but that was all.’
‘That was useless,’ Daniel said to Louise when he hung up the phone.
‘Maybe you should just wait and talk it over with your mother.’
Daniel shook his head firmly. Louise didn’t get it, he thought. All this wasn’t simply about finding his father. The way his mum had acted meant that she had some kind of trouble which she had kept to herself during the whole of his life. She needed help, and going over to accuse her of lying wouldn’t help. The only way to fix things was to find out what was going on.
‘I’m going back to the house,’ he told Louise.