An Unusual Gift: A Mystery, of Sorts — Tom Larsen

For the past two years, Jason (Jayce) Freeh has conducted surveillance operations for one of the largest private investigative firms in the Northwest. He doesn't consider himself a real detective, but with his fiftieth birthday approaching and no pension plan, he knows he'd better get some more lucrative work, or else return to his previous job as a union pipe fitter.

When a wealthy doctor from Arizona offers him one hundred thousand dollars to get the goods on a shadowy individual who calls himself Paladin, Jayce decides he could be a detective -- albeit an unlicensed one -- on this particular case. To help his HIV-positive son end his life, the doctor has made a deal with Paladin. The doctor wants to honor his son's wishes, but he also wants Paladin, a Vietnam War protestor with past experience in assisted suicide, to pay for what the doctor considers to be a sin.

Jayce takes the down payment, and over the next seventy-two hours his life is thrown into a tailspin as he deals with his married girlfriend, a self-admitted killer, and members of a rightwing religious group -- the Centurions for Christ. He soon wishes he was back wrestling pipes for a living.