The Weight (46 page)

The scar’s impossible to see now. Where there used to be a space in my eyebrow, there’s a black tattoo.

The woman with me, her name is Lynda Leigh Lynch. We got married in Chicago, six months ago.

If I have to go back to work, I will. But on my own. No more planners, no more partners.

Crime wasn’t on my mind, not the way it used to be. I have to make up my own rules now.

But I won’t have to do that alone. Never again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, and a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for “aggressive-violent” youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youths exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material, including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a “children’s book for adults.” His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in
Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy
, the
New York Times
, and many other forums. A native New Yorker, he now divides his time between the city of his birth and the Pacific Northwest.

    The dedicated Web site for Vachss and his work is
www.vachss.com
.