Dad keeps telling me that I have an old man's head on a young body. What he means is that I have seen too many acts of violence, revenge and hatred, and they have all left their mark. In my heart I know he is right, because it happened to him too. I can see the lines that crease his forehead on a permanent basis and the sadness in his eyes as he deals with a particularly difficult case. I could see the sadness in his eyes as he collected me from the airport, although he did his best to hide it.

You see in our line of business; Dads and Joe’s and mine I mean, you take each case personally. Every distraught mother or grieving husband becomes a part of you and you want to make their pain go away, want it more than anything in the world. So you stay up late and you go without dinner in an effort to track down the missing child, or the drunk driver.

Most of the time you do find them, and the solace that brings to the family, even if it is only temporary, it is enough to reward you, to let you finally sleep peacefully for a night. But you know that tomorrow or maybe the next day there will be someone else putting all their trust in you, someone else for whom you are their last hope.

Don’t get me wrong though, Joe and I never had any doubts about our choice of career after college.

We chose to study Criminology on the West Coast, and took the opportunity to brush up on our surfing skills at the same time! College was a blast, although it was tough, we both took the accelerated program because we wanted to get home and get stuck into some cases as soon as possible.

Being part time detectives whilst in college had its advantages, one of which was having enough money to rent our own apartment right on the beach front and only ten minutes away from college, rather than sharing overcrowded and noisy dorm rooms.

There was another reason too, although neither of us has ever admitted it openly to each other. There had been too many incidents in the past where Callie, Vanessa or the guys have been targeted by people looking to get back at us or at Dad. I think we hope that by getting their own place away from campus they would only have each other to look out for.

Besides, Callie called round regularly, as did Tony and Chet who had all chosen courses at the same college as us. Vanessa, Joes girlfriend had been accepted to the prestigious MIT, as had my best friend Phil. Both were computer whiz kids. Joe missed Vanessa a lot but would never get in the way of an opportunity to study in one of the most famous US colleges. Besides they saw each other every opportunity they got and talked incessantly on the phone (you should see Joe’s phone bills!)

Mind you there were plenty of arguments too. Joe found the accelerated program tough, not least because he spent most of his time surfing, playing his guitar or working on that heap of junk he calls a ‘classic car’! At times I used to despair of him ever passing an exam, but he always did, although he mostly relied on gut instinct.

The thing is Joe’s instinct is usually right. Sometimes he can feel things; he knows when we are in danger. I have to admit he has probably saved our lives on more than one occasion.

At the end of the day I always knew I could trust Joe, and that he would always look out for me, my shadow, just like I have been there to pick him up when he falls. Ever since we were kids I’ve looked out for Joe, I can’t really explain it but we are close, I mean we fight now and again but mostly we are there for each other.

Except for that one time.....

But I guess I’ve skipped some of my story, I should go back to the beginning, before our lives were almost destroyed.

Still are being destroyed…..