Long lost

"What about you? Do you plan to go back to work?"

"I'm going to have to soon," I answered. "Our insurance doesn't cover all the medical expenses. Certainly not the legal expenses."

"But how are you feeling? Are you ready to go back to work?"

I sipped my iced tea and didn't answer.

"When I was with the Bureau, I had to shoot somebody," Payne said.

"Kill him?"

He concentrated on his glass. "I got shot in the process. Three months medical leave. A lot of counseling. I think I told you that's when I put on all this weight and left the Bureau. It took me a long time to feel normal again."

"Normal's a complicated word. I wonder if I can feel normal again. In my previous life, it's like I was blundering around in a world of hurt but was too stupid to realize it."

"And now?"

"I think Kate's right to be careful of what's going on around her. Anything can happen. One moment, I was standing on a ridge, admiring the scenery. The next moment, my brother shoved me into a gorge."

"Caution's a virtue."

"So I've learned. You asked me if I pla

"Oh?" Payne studied me.

"Taking care of my family. It's my job to love Kate and Jason as hard as I can, to thank God for every moment I have with them, to hold them and cherish them and do my damnedest to keep them safe."

Payne's concentration was powerful. "You know what, Mr. De

"Please call me Brad."

"The more I get to know you, the better I like you."

About the Author

My father was killed during World War II, shortly after I was born in 1943. My mother had difficulty raising me and at the same time holding a job, so she put me in an orphanage and later in a series of boarding homes. I grew up unsure of who I was, desperately in need of a father figure. Books and movies were my escape. Eventually I decided to be a writer and sought help from two men who became metaphorical fathers to me: Stirling Silliphant, the head writer for the classic TV series "Route 66" about two young men in a Corvette who travel America in search of themselves, and Philip Klass (whose pen name is William Te