Excerpt from the Book

Today was Tuesday. On Tuesdays, I had lunch with the senator. My schedule for the rest of the day would depend on whether or not the senator had read my one-page weekly briefing sheet.

Even though I’d met with the senator every Tuesday for the past six years, I couldn’t predict what would happen when the two of us sat down together to eat our Cobb salads at precisely eleven-thirty.

I hated Cobb salad.

If the senator had read my briefing sheet, then our lunch meeting would be short, and I could still be on time for my two o’clock appointment. I might even be able to grab a burger along the way.

If he hadn’t read it, then he’d ask me to give him the bullet points, and he’d spend the rest of the time asking me questions. In the meantime, I’d be dying of hunger, and I’d be late for my appointment.

Would I be tempted to let him know his questions were all answered in the document he hadn’t bothered to read?

Oh, you bet.

Would I yield to that temptation?

Not if I wanted to keep my job.

Believe me, I wanted to keep my job.

I worked in the office of Senator Davis Allen.

I was his chief investigator.

Very few senators had a full-time investigator on their payroll, but Senator Allen, the senior senator from Missouri, was the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and, according to him, his position required it.

One of the Judiciary Committee’s main responsibilities was to conduct investigations into the backgrounds of the President’s judicial nominees to the federal courts or to investigate the President’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, if such a vacancy occurred.

Each of the senators on Judiciary was allotted a supplemental budget to pay for the investigative work required of the committee. Some senators used these funds to hire a part-time investigator, but most of them preferred to use the money to add extra support staff.

However, Senator Allen, who used to be a federal prosecutor, had chosen to have an entire investigative team operating out of his office, and he was more than willing to allocate extra money out of his operating budget to pay for it.

His investigative team, which he referred to as the R & I Group, consisted of a chief investigator, a deputy investigator, and a data specialist.

Six years ago, when the senator hired me as the chief investigator for the R & I Group, I asked him about the name. At the time, he told me the initials stood for Research and Investigations.

Later, Nathan Lockett, the senator’s chief of staff, swore the senator told him the R & I was short for Rumors and Innuendos.

When it came to the type of fact-finding the R & I Group conducted on a nominee, it hardly mattered.

They both amounted to the same thing.

Want to know more about the book?

Mylas Grey is a private investigator but don’t call him a private detective.
That title belongs to his father—not to him.

Mylas is the Chief Investigator for Senator Davis Allen, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His job is to run background investigations on the President’s judicial nominees.

But then Lizzie, the Senator’s daughter, goes missing from her apartment.
And just like that, Mylas finds himself back in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri.

Discovering why she disappeared isn’t easy . . .
Lizzie has a reputation for doing the unexpected, so it’s possible she left town to be alone for a while, or to conduct research for her college newspaper, or simply to visit friends.

Staying focused on the investigation isn’t easy . . .
Mylas finds himself getting distracted from the investigation when he meets a beautiful photographer who makes him question his rejection of Christianity.

Identifying a suspect isn’t easy . . .
Did Lizzie’s boyfriend play a role? Is a judge connected to Lizzie’s disappearance? What about Lizzie’s roommate?

So many suspects. So little time.

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About the Author

Luana picked up her first adult spy novel when she was eleven years old. Today, as an award-winning author, minister’s wife, and former missionary, she continues to have a passion for spy thrillers and mystery novels.

Luana and her husband have been residents of Norman, Oklahoma for the past twenty-five years, after having lived in the Midwestern part of the U.S. for many years. Along with her husband, she previously served as a missionary in Costa Rica and Venezuela.

Luana began writing the Titus Ray Thriller Series when her husband retired from the senior pastor position of a large congregation. Now, she claims she writes from an undisclosed location, trying to avoid the torture of mundane housework, grocery shopping, and a retiree’s golf stories.  However, she occasionally comes out of hiding to visit with her two grandsons or to enjoy a Starbucks caramel macchiato.

Occasionally, Luana reports on the experiences of newly converted Christians for Baptist Press, a national news service for Baptists. As a weekly columnist for The Indiana Baptist several years ago, she told the stories of ordinary people who became followers of Christ.

Luana is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers. For more information about Luana, you’re invited to visit her website: LuanaEhrlich.com.

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