Chapter 28

Rick Danfoss, Jason's father, thought it absurd that Kyle's father could have died while serving in a position with the government and yet no details of his death or even return of his remains seemed possible. Rick had been in the service as a young man and knew full well the traditions of "no soldier left behind". To him, that wasn't a tradition; it was a mandate. He asked himself how it could be that anything would be so different for Kyle's father. His first action was to review the newspaper in the city where Kyle's family had been living, in hopes of finding any news coverage of his death. The only thing he found was a one line entry listing his name among several local deaths reported in that issue — nothing else. There was no follow-up, no expanded obituary, nothing!

Rick Danfoss thought that to be very strange. By chance, he recalled that the Congressman for his district had scheduled a visit one of his local offices not far away. He called that office and asked for an appointment to meet with the Congressman about a matter of personal importance. When they met, he told the Congressman the story of Kyle's dad as he had been told by Kyle and Jill and even included the photo from the back paper cover of his latest book, and the dedication page that named Kyle.

"This young man has no idea what his father did. He only knows that his dad worked for the government in some position, left home for weeks at a time to travel to far-away places, and was killed somehow, in an unnamed country in South America where it is not even possible to recover his body. There has to be more to the story than this, more that a young man can know about his father." The more Rick Danfoss spoke about this, the more upset he became.

The Congressman expressed surprise at Rick's claim, but promised to check into it to determine what, if anything, he could learn. He cautioned that any information forthcoming may take some time to uncover, but promised to report on the inquiry as soon as he could.

As politicians do, the Congressman assigned one of his young staffers to look into Mr. Danfoss' questions, as strange as they may be. Two days later, the young staffer reported that a Mr. William Winston had worked for the government in some capacity, had been on an assignment, otherwise undefined, to a country in South America, and had died or been killed while on that assignment. No other details were available.

"What do you mean, no other details are available? What kind of bullshit answer is that? Who told you that? This is nonsense! Get me the name and phone number of whoever sent you that answer. I want to talk to that individual and find out what the hell is going on." The Congressman went on and on, obviously quite upset at the ridiculous response that his staffer had received. The staffer retreated to the safety of her desk and to get a phone number for her boss to call.

Despite her best efforts, the only additional information that she could convey was that "at his convenience, when next in Washington, he should stop by office 22385B in the Weaver Federal Office Building and ask for Harold."

Jill was busy also, having a verbal skirmish with the publisher of her brother's books. Even her attorney could not get any more information about royalties from a book that seemed to have sold quite well, staying on the "Hot 50" list for nearly two months. Sitting in her attorney's office, she was frustrated and losing patience with the publisher with whom she was speaking on the telephone.

"Why can't you tell me the answers to my questions? Why can't you release this money to my nephew?" asked a very exasperated Jill.

"Mrs. Harper, my suggestion to you, if you won't accept our answer, is to contact your Congressman."

"My Congressman? What does he have to do with this? My brother wrote a book and you are trying to cheat his son out of the royalties."

"Yes, we know what you believe, and really we are not trying to do that. Please, just talk to your Congressman and tell him the situation."

Jill was furious. This was a side of Jill that her attorney had never seen. He quickly phoned the Congressman's local office. If someone had planned it, the timing of this phone call could not have been better – or worse, depending upon one's outlook. Yes, the Congressman was in the office today, visiting, and yes, he would be delighted to take a call from such a prominent attorney, who then politely introduced the real caller and gave a brief basis for the call.

"Why, yes, Mrs. Harper, I do know who William Winston is, or was, I should say. Why do you ask?"