Wings of Deception by Pamela Carron

with handling babies and qui te good at it. In case she was not able to be there for any reason , there was a long list of names and numbers of women in the church who would drop most anything to get a turn with the pastor’s baby girl. Motherless she might be, but she never lack ed for f e m ale attention.
    Dwight still mourned Kim , but since his ‘ dream ’ , he was more at peace with her death . He took extr e m e delight in watching their baby go through all the baby stages . S ometimes looking so much like her mother it hurt and sometimes looking so much like him it was funny. She had golden red hair and the bluest eyes that sometimes had a hint of green in them when she cried.
    He was also very content at Faith Chapel. A wonderful congregation of a hundred if not a few more, that w ere good people . Unlike some churches he had worked in , this one believed what the Bible said and not what man said it said. Another thing he had grown to love was that the people had such a real love one for another. When there was work to be done, they were ready to help , s ometimes even waiting to get a turn to help each other . The few probl e m s they did have , they worked out with prayerful consideration. Not a perfect bunch but might y near and Dwight felt honored to be called their Pastor. If he was not happy, he was at least content with his life .
    The grandparents all visited as often as they could to spend time with Gem and him . They were always a welcome interlude to his single parenting life. It was also a time when he could go hunting and fishing with some of his friends from the church. He loved the outdoors and Gem loved being spoiled by grandparents.
    His mourning for Kim was quiet and soulful and though his outward cheerful facade did not fool his relatives , they were reluctant to invade his private grief for fear theirs would become greater. So the months went by and he suffered in silence with no one to share his pain. He had learned that no matter what happened in the world, good or bad, life stopped for no one.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
                                                                             FIVE
     
    Jacks settled in to his new surroundings as easily as he had ever done anything. The realtor did a fantastic job in finding just what he envisioned. A cabin built in the late sixties , overlooking the Ross Barnett Reservoir , recently listed on the market . W ith the five year lease advanc e m ent promised by his new e m ployer, he made a down payment. It needed a lot of work , mostly minor stuff but the upside was that he could almost fish from his back yard. The swing was hanging from an old oak tree instead of the porch , but he thought he could live with that , too.
    His position with the ACAA turned out to be much more interesting than he had originally thought. The Abused Children Advocates of America reached far beyond Mississippi’s borders and he was working with some genius legal brains from every where, including New York. He had not realized the extent of the opportunity given him until he became familiar with some of these people. To head a department such as this was probably a greater privilege tha n being a state senator would have been , and much more satisfying.  
    He was terribly upset and disturbed when he found out that Sheila married Morgan Belk . He wonder ed how it could have happened and blam ed himself for taking her to the dinner that night. She was way out of her league and nothing good could possible come from being married to him . She was a Christian married to a known atheist and some claimed he was involved in Satanist activities . She would not return his phone calls , so he finally stopped trying to reach her .
    When it came to work, Jacks kept it straight up. He fought hard and he fought tough and he got things done, earning him admiration from the rest of the staff. He