George Martin and his partner Mike live a comfortable life in Jacksonville with their Irish setter, but something's missing. Maybe George, a captain in the sheriff's office, has just been working too hard again. There's been a rash of break-ins in the area, and the homes targeted all seem to belong to older gay men.<br><br>Then when the time finally comes for George and Mike to take their vacation, they pack up and head to their mountain cabin for two weeks-only to find a small boy living in their generator shed. Robbie, who bonds with George right away, has witnessed an unspeakable tragedy, but that is just the beginning of the trouble.<br><br>Alone in the world apart from a very ill maternal grandmother, Robbie stands the very real risk of becoming a ward of the state if George and Mike can't convince a bigoted judge to change his mind. Meanwhile, George still has a job to do: solve the break-ins-and a murder -- and track down who's responsible.

Break and Enter

“I’m in a Camel Rider kind of mood.”


THE MAJORITY OF the sandwich shops in Jacksonville are owned by people from the Middle East. Mostly of Lebanese or Syrian origins, and mostly Christian, many of them had been in the city for several generations. All of the sandwich shops offered a variety of sandwiches, many of them served in pockets of pita bread. The Camel Rider was a favorite of ours, and Richard’s at Five Points made what was, for our money, the best one in town. Mike and I had a nice, if somewhat hasty, lunch at Richard’s, and I returned to the office.


At my Monday afternoon meeting with my lieutenants, I learned that a meeting had been scheduled in an interrogation room the next morning with the gay burglar/murder suspect, his public defender, and the prosecutor. The four of us decided to attend as observers.


“Who’ll be doing the questioning?” I said.


Chapter 75