Free Mystery: Family Ties: Mystery and Suspense by James Kipling

him. Asa had noticed that David often talk about having a child and thought that it really bothered him that he still hadn’t got one.
    David’s political views were rather fanatic. He was following politics rather closely, like a shepherd, who carefully tracks the movements of the wolves. Asa had heard him say that his biggest fear was that someday the government would sweep in from Washington, DC to take away from him the way of life he loved.
    Gabriel had told her that David believed in the old family values and wanted to keep the government out of his own affairs, blaming it for all his misfortunes. His big loves were his ranch and family, which was in a funny way represented by the hat he was wearing. “It was my fathers,” Gabriel had explained. “And when David put it on after my father’s death, he accepted the responsibility for the whole family.”
    Asa imagined the narrow-minded, confrontational man, who chewed tobacco inside the house and spat it without regards to the rest of the people in the room and wondered how he could be related to Gabriel.
    Grandpa Joe Kimble, on the other hand, was already seventy-one years old and although he was old and frail, he still had the spirit of his old self. The man was blissfully ignorant of the world out there and preferred to live in the close quarters of the ranch rather than face the outside world. He had told Asa that his favorite past time was sitting on his front porch, cursing at invisible people and smoking his tobacco pipe. And yet, she had noticed that his grandchildren and even their neighbor, Ezekiel Warren, see the old man as a living icon of their ranching way of life.
    Jane Kimble followed the example of the men in the family and supported her husband in everything he was doing. Asa had noticed her fear that she was having too much influence on Gabriel and was distrustful of her. Jane had told Asa that she never wanted anything else from life. In her opinion, what she had now was more than enough for her. All she wanted was a big happy family to live together on the ranch.
     
    Asa supposed that in these parts of the country, her values and work ethic made her an attractive woman for all the ranchers and farmers. And yet, she couldn’t stop wondering why Jane accepted that way of life for herself.
     

Chapter 17
     
    The next day, Asa Clark woke up late and was running very late for work, but couldn’t seem to get out of bed. She was still under the spell of the beautiful dream she had been having of her and Gabriel together, making love. The images of the two of them rolling around on her bed were too powerful for Asa to forget so easily. She was really starting to fall for him and for the first time in her life that thought wasn’t scaring her.
    So, that Monday morning special FBI agent Asa Clark arrived late for work at the FBI field office. No one seemed to notice, except Todd Gibson, who came out of his office and called to her in a sturdy voice. “Agent Clark could you come into my office for a moment?” He asked and Asa could tell from the other side of the room that the man was angry and wanted to tell her in person what he thought of her.
    “Agent Gibson,” Asa spoke, as soon as the door closed behind her. “I don’t appreciate you calling me like that in front of everyone.”
    “And I don’t appreciate the fact that you are being so easily lulled into a state of complacency,” he chastised her. “You are aware that there is an ongoing investigation, right? Instead, you come to work late, look like some love stuck school girl and forget all about why you are here in the first place.”
    “That is not fair,” Asa protested. “I can assure you that I have been following the instructions given to me from the Deputy Director and trying to get closer to the locals.”
    “You might see it that way, but to the rest of us, things look very different,” Gibson insisted. “If you don’t get yourself in line, I might have to take over