Night Stalker - Justin Graves Series, Book 2
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Transcript of Night Stalker - Justin Graves Series, Book 2
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Night Stalker
Copyright © 2010 by Terry Wright
ISBN: 978-1-892851-34-5
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission of the publisher, except in
the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or book reviews. This is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or
dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Published by New Line Press
Cover Art Work by Terry Wright
Typography by Shadow Productions
For more information, visit NewLinePress.com
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NIGHT STALKER Justin Graves Series, Book 2
Written by
Terry Wright
A new kind of justice is coming.
Texas Ranger Justin Graves and his juvenile-delinquent daughter,
Christy, are dead, murdered by her gang-banger boyfriend, Billy Denton.
Justin blames himself for her life of drugs and prostitution, so he makes
a deal with the devil to save her soul: one hundred bad guys in exchange
for her pardon from hell. Now, in his rotting corpse, he returns from the
grave to deliver the souls of killers who got away with murder.
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EXCERPT
Fred Regar pushed through the swinging door of Deckers Saloon and
bulled his way toward the bar. His long coat smelled like the stockyards,
and his rubber butcher’s boots squeaked across the hardwood floor.
Country music blaring from the jukebox emitted an irritating twang.
“Give me a beer, ya old cow,” he shouted to the bartender.
Rita, a busty broad with two missing front teeth, looked up from the
beer she was pouring for another patron. “God damn it, Fred, no trouble
tonight, you hear me?”
“Screw you, bitch.” He claimed his regular barstool off by himself
near the back wall.
Nobody liked Fred. A ruffian and a troublemaker, they all figured he
was just born mean. Another grueling day at the slaughterhouse had done
nothing to sway his reputation. And like every night after work, an awful
thirst burned in his throat.
“Hurry up with that beer, Rita.”
Scowling, she slid him a full mug. “You behave yourself or I’ll call
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the cops.”
“Crawford had it coming.” Fred spat and took a swig of beer. “He
started the brawl last night. Bastard shouldn’t be stickin’ his nose in my
business.”
“And you shouldn’t be beating that girlfriend of yours.”
“She deserved it.”
Rita leaned on the bar and put her butt‐ugly face in front of his nose.
She smelled like dirty dishwater. “So tell me, Fred, why haven’t we seen
Sarah about lately? You beat her up so black and blue she can’t be out in
public?”
Fred showed Rita a fist. “Keep talking. You’ll get some of this
yourself.”
“You don’t scare me, Fred Regar.”
“You should’ve been born a man.” He cackled at his insult and went
back to drinking his beer.
Rita waddled off to wait on somebody else.
Fred put down his mug and caught a whiff of rotting meat. He
figured it was his coat, at first, but the odor quickly fumed up so badly his
eyes watered. Pressure ballooned in his chest. In all his years of gutting
animals, he’d never smelled anything so rank. His stomach threatened to
burp up bile.
Swallowing hard, he noticed the odor wafted in from his left. An old
man had just sat in the adjacent barstool. The stranger wore a dusty
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cowboy hat and a long coat caked with dirt. His sunken face bore prickly
stubble, and his gray eyes sat in deep, dark sockets. A gold ring on the little
finger of his right hand looked out of place against his leathery skin.
Fred fanned the air with a hand. “You need a bath, mister.”
The old man started flicking the ring in circles around his bony
finger. “My name is Justin Graves,” he said in a raspy voice. “But you can
call me Justice.”
Fred almost barfed up his beer. The old man’s bad breath was worse
than his B.O. “Ever hear of breath mints?”
Turning slightly on his barstool, Justin lifted the lapel of his grimy
brown coat, displaying a rusted circle‐star badge. “I’m a Texas Ranger.”
“You should see a doctor,” Fred wheezed. “You don’t look so good.”
“I never felt better.”
Fred chugged beer, hoping the ranger wasn’t here about Laura.
Getting arrested wasn’t in his plans for the night.
Setting his mug on the bar, he figured he’d better be nice to the old
fart. “So what brings you to Deckers?”
Leaning forward, the old man whispered. “Laura.”
Fred’s chest tightened, but he forced calm. “She died five years ago.”
“Last month her husband was executed for killing her,” Justin stated
matter‐of‐factly.
“She shouldn’t have married the bastard.”
“He didn’t kill her.”
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“Of course he did.” Lucky for Fred, the cops botched the
investigation. “You guys fried him in the chair.”
“We made a mistake, but now I know the truth.”
“You don’t know anything, old man.”
Justin examined the ring on his finger then said, “I talked to her, you
know?”
Yeah, right. He talked to a dead woman. “How much have you been
drinkin’?”
“She told me what you said.”
“She told you nothin’.”
Justin glared at Fred with cold gray eyes. “This one’s for pinky. That’s
what you said, wasn’t it?”
Fred felt as if he were shocked with a cattle prod. Laura was the only
one who knew about pinky, how he’d get all excited, and how she’d make
him wait. “After we’re married,” she’d said. But pinky didn’t want to wait.
Neither did Fred.
How could Justin have known that..? Unless he actually talked to
Laura. Hell no! Fred wasn’t drunk enough to believe it. “Nobody can talk
to dead people.”
“I got myself killed a while back.” Justin opened the flap of his
grungy coat. “Took three bullets in the heart.”
Holding his breath, Fred braved a look. Three holes, dead center in a
soiled gray shirt, just like he’d said. A worm wriggled out a bullet hole.
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Fred drew back aghast. “You’ve gotta be shittin’ me.”
“Dead people can talk to dead people.”
Fred threw down a slug of beer. Common sense told him the old man
was crazy. But still, he looked dead enough. And he certainly smelled dead
enough...
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About the Author, Terry Wright
There’s nothing mundane in the writing world of Terry Wright. He thrives on adrenaline. Tension, conflict and suspense propel his readers through the pages as if they were on fire. Published in Science Fiction and Supernatural, his mastery of the action thriller has won him International acclaim as an accomplished screenplay writer. A longtime member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, he runs their annual Colorado Gold Writing Contest. Terry lives near Denver with his wife, Bobette, and a Yorkie named Ginger, who is really the boss of the family.
Learn more about Terryʹs books, short stories, and screenplays at
terrywrightbooks.com.
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Enjoy reading Terry’s other short stories and novels:
The 13th Power (Gardenia Press, 2001)
Trade paperback novel from TWB Press, Amazon
Science Fiction Thriller
Scientists are building bigger and faster particle accelerators to smash atom into smaller pieces. They are looking for the Higgs boson, The God Particle. What if they find it?
The Gates of Hell ( New Line Press, 2010) Justin Graves Series, Book 1 eBook and Kindle short story
Supernatural Thriller
When Justin Graves and his daughter are murdered, he makes a deal with the devil to save her soul: one hundred bad guys for her pardon from hell.
Night Stalker (New Line Press, 2010) Justin Graves Series, Book 2 eBook and Kindle short story Supernatural Thriller Justin Graves goes after a night stalker who killed a young bride on her wedding night and got away with the murder.
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Black Widow (New Line Press,2010) Justin Graves Series, Book 3 eBook and Kindle short story Justin Graves seeks out a beautiful woman who kills her lovers. She’s every man’s dream date, but don’t disappoint her...or else!
Z‐motors, The Job from Hell (New Line Press, 2010)
eBook and Kindle short story
Horror
In this satire on zombies in the workplace, the dark side of the auto repair business is exposed, and a mechanic’s quest to overcome unemployment leads his family down a disastrous path.
The Duplication Factor (Essential10 Publishers, 2010)
eBook novel and Kindle
Science Fiction Thriller
Speculation has it, in scientific circles and the press, that in some secret lab somewhere, a human has already been cloned. The truth is there were two clones, a corporate tycoon and a mass murderer. The consequences were horrific.