“Well, we are young, and we do have our whole lives ahead of us.”

She hugged me tight and said, “It’s wonderful to have you back.”

I looked at the Montauk Lighthouse and remembered when I’d sailed away from here ten years ago. I had no idea where I was going, or if I was ever coming back. And it didn’t matter – because in my mind, and in my heart, Susan had been with me every day at sea. I spoke to her often, and I believed, wherever she was, she knew I was thinking of her.

I showed her the world, in my mind, and we watched the stars together, weathered bad storms together, and sailed into safe harbors together – we even walked the streets of London together. She’d never really left my side for ten years, so this was not a reunion, because we had never been apart, and this voyage we were about to take would be our second together.

And if Fate had already decided that we would not return from the sea, then that was all right. Every journey has to end, and the end of the journey is always called Home.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As in all my novels, I’ve called on friends and acquaintances to assist me with technical details, professional jargon, and all the other bits and pieces of information that a novelist needs, but can’t get from a book or the Internet.

First, thanks to my very old friend U.S. Airways Captain (retired) Thomas Block, contributing editor and columnist for many aviation magazines, and co-author with me of Mayday, and author of six other novels; Tom is a great researcher, and as a novelist himself, he understands what’s needed to give fiction the ring of truth.

Thanks, too, to Sharon Block for her careful reading of the manuscript, her excellent suggestions, and for giving Tom a reason to get up every morning.

Once again, many thanks to my good and longtime friend, John Kennedy, deputy police commissioner, Nassau County Police Department (retired), labor arbitrator, and member of the New York State Bar. John has given me invaluable advice and information in those areas of The Gate House that called for knowledge of law enforcement. I took some literary license, where necessary, and any errors or omissions are mine alone.

Also in the area of the law, I’d like to thank my attorney and good friend, David Westermann, who read (pro bono) the sections of this book having to do with wills, estates, trusts, and related matters. Dave gave it to me straight, but again, I took literary license where necessary, and I made up some law for fun.

Many thanks to Daniel Barbiero, a great friend and a great sailor, who read the sections of the book pertaining to sailing, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, and related subjects. It was fun doing the research at the Seawanhaka bar, the Rex bar in Saigon, and all the other bars over the last half century.

Thanks, too, to John E. Hammond, historian and author of Oyster Bay Remembered (Maple Hill Press), for sharing with me his amazing knowledge of Long Island’s Gold Coast. Once again, I need to say I exercised my novelist’s right of literary license, and any errors or omissions of historical fact are mine alone.

This book truly would not have been possible without the hard work, dedication, and professional craftsmanship of my excellent and very patient assistants, Dianne Francis and Patricia Chichester. I’m going to let them write my next book.

Very special thanks to Jamie Raab, publisher of Grand Central Publishing, editor of Nelson DeMille, and a great friend. Jamie was the biggest fan of The Gate House long before I wrote the first word, and she’s been there every step of the way. So in many ways, I share the authorship of this book (but not the royalties) with Jamie.

It’s always a good idea to thank the CEO, even if you don’t mean it, but in this case, my thanks are most sincere to my friend David Young, chairman and CEO of Hachette Book Group. David, like Jamie, believed in a sequel to The Gold Coast even when I had doubts – doubts that were dispelled with judicious quantities of single malt Scotch whisky. Cheers, David.

I’d also like to thank my mother-in-law and father-in-law, Joan and Bob Dillingham, for some insightful tips on Episcopalians as well as funerals, weddings, and related church matters; any resemblance in this book to fact is purely coincidental.

And, I have saved the best for last. Every author needs a spouse or a significant other to help prevent the common affliction of writers known as Swollen Head Syndrome, and I have been fortunate to have found such a person: my bride of less than two years, Sandra Dillingham DeMille. Sandy, in addition to editing some of my most annoying traits, is a very good manuscript editor, and also my source of information on the more subtle points of the world of the WASP. For all of this, and for giving me James Nelson DeMille, I thank you, and I love you.

The following people have made generous contributions to charities in return for having their names used for some of the characters in this novel: Diane and Barry Ganz, A. J. Nastasi, and Jake Watral, who all made contributions to the Crohn’s amp; Colitis Foundation of America; Dan Hannon, who contributed to the Diabetes Research Institute; Roger Bahnik, Dave Corroon, and Diane Knight, who all contributed to the Boys amp; Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich; Stephen Jones and Matthew Miller, who made contributions to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund; and Christine Donnelly, who, with her family, contributed to the Mollie Biggane Melanoma Foundation.

Many thanks to those caring and public-spirited men and women. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing your names as characters in The Gate House.

And finally, I used two additional names in this book – Justin W. Green and Joseph P. Bitet – in honor of their service to the country as soldiers serving in Iraq. Welcome home.