Detective Jack Stratton Box Set Read online

  “What’s your favorite color?” he repeated.

  “Green.”

  “Like your eyes?”

  “Yep.” She perked right up. “What’s yours?”

  “Black, like my heart.” He laughed.

  “Seriously, what’s your favorite color?”

  “Pink.”

  “Hey. You started this.” She crossed her arms.

  “Fine. Red. Like your lips.” Jack grinned.

  A tide of crimson rose from somewhere he couldn’t see, up her neck, and over her cheeks. “Okay,” she said, pretending nothing had happened but clearly enjoying the game, “I start next. Favorite movie?”

  Jack smiled. “Rocky.”

  “That boxing movie you made me watch?” She rolled her eyes.

  “It’s a great movie. It won an Oscar! Whatever. What’s yours?”

  She wrinkled her nose as she thought. “The Wizard of Oz.” She sighed. “It’s like my life.”

  “Your life?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “And who are you, Dorothy?”

  “Yes. You’re in it too.”

  Jack sat up. “Me? Who? The Tin Man?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head and impishly grinned.

  “If you say the Cowardly Lion…” Jack scowled.

  “Nope.” She giggled.

  “The Scarecrow?”

  “No brain? A possibility but… nope.” She hugged her legs to her chest.

  “Who’s left? The Wicked Witch of the West? Glinda?”

  “Toto.”

  “The dog?” Jack looked at her in disbelief.

  “Yeah. You’re always running around, barking at me, yapping at my heels. You follow me everywhere but… you’re loyal too.”

  “Seriously?”

  “See. There you go, getting yappy, but if I give you a pat on the head you’re all lovable again.”

  Jack frowned.

  “Why do you think I gave you that ringtone?” Her hands shot up.

  “The stupid barking dog? That’s for Toto?”

  She burst out laughing. Jack shook his head, but he still smiled.

  “Favorite sport, Toto?”

  Jack winced and shifted his leg.

  “Do you want me to drive?” she offered, concerned.

  “No. I’m fine. Baseball.”

  “Football,” she shot back. “Superhero?”

  “Iron Man.”

  She closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, they were glistening. “Batman.”

  He remembered—Chandler was Superman, and he was Batman.

  “Thank you for coming back,” she said softly. They smiled at each other. “TV show?”

  “The Rifleman.”

  She laughed. “Never heard of it.”

  They kept playing the game until they reached Fairfield. As they drove into the town, they both drifted off into their own private thoughts. The silence that followed ended the game, but it was a companionable silence.

  Jack parked the car and looked at Replacement. Her eyebrows rose, and he understood the unspoken question. Jack started to get out of the car.

  Replacement reached out and grabbed Jack’s hand. “Do you want me to do it?”

  “No, I got this one.”

  Walking slowly, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders, focused on what he had to do. He wasn’t looking forward to this, but he knew he had to do it himself. A few moments later, he stopped and stared down at the ground.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” he muttered. “I put off… coming to speak with you.” He inhaled deeply. “I didn’t want to… you know… but I need to tell you what happened. They caught the people responsible for Michelle’s murder. It was this guy who worked at the psychology center with Michelle. Him and Michelle’s roommate. They’re both dead. The Sheriff’s Department is opening cases to look into the other people they murdered. They’d been killing people for years, and the victims’ families should know what happened.” Jack cleared his throat. “Alice should get the credit. If it weren’t for her…”

  He stopped talking. He wrung his hands together and waited. He was nervous when he heard nothing but silence.

  Jack tried to keep going. “She’s going to stay with me now. I’m going to get a two-bedroom apartment. My landlady already offered me the apartment below mine. She said the people moved out because the guy above them was too loud.” Jack shrugged and smiled faintly. “That’s me. Anyway…”

  He closed his eyes and exhaled.

  “I miss you. Both of you. I’ll take care of Alice and Aunt Haddie. I promised her I’d stop by a lot.”

  He walked forward and placed a flag on the left side of the tombstone and flowers on the right. Then he looked up and sighed.

  “I’ve been thinking about it. If it weren’t for Replacement, no one would have known what happened to Michelle. More time would have gone by, and we might never have known. You can tell she’s your sister. She has your courage, Chandler. You should have seen her at The Pit.” He laughed. “Michelle, she said you taught her computers. She’s pretty amazing. Anyway, I see both of you in her.”

  Jack started to turn to go, but stopped.

  “Thank you, for everything,” he whispered.

  He closed his eyes. He could almost see them. Michelle was riding her bike, and Chandler ran alongside her. They both waved and smiled. Jack laughed and waved back.

  He returned to the Impala.

  Replacement looked up at him, hopeful.

  “How did it go?”

  Jack gripped the steering wheel. “Good.” His fingers tightened until the leather creaked, and then he relaxed his hands. “Ready?”

  Replacement grinned and cracked open her window. “Ready.” She smiled, and they headed down the road… together.

  Epilogue

  Alice’s hand covered the phone, trying to muffle the beep. She held her breath as she peered back at the couch. Jack was still sleeping.

  She bit her lip and her eyebrows knit together. He hadn’t slept the whole night through since their ordeal at the lab.

  He moaned and rolled over again. She waited a minute until she was sure he hadn’t woken up, then she picked up Jack’s phone to check the email that had set it off. She tapped the display and the message appeared.

  Hi Jack,

  Just checking in. Hope you’re feeling better. I just read about your exploits in the paper. Like to get together sometime?

  Marisa

  P.S. If you need any nursing, I give great sponge baths. ☺

  “He doesn’t need your nursing,” Replacement muttered, and stabbed the close button.

  She turned back to the computer and continued her hunt. Every night for the last few days, Jack had woken up screaming and covered in sweat. He wouldn’t tell her what the nightmares were about, but she heard him muttering in his sleep.

  He was looking for his mom.

  As the case had grown and the police had found additional victims, Jack had grown more and more restless. She wondered whether the victims who were prostitutes had something to do with his struggle.

  Alice had wanted to help, but she knew he’d say no, so she hadn’t told him she’d started a search of her own. Every chance she had, she scoured through online records and hunted databases for clues.

  The first thing she found out was that Jack’s adoptive father, Ted Stratton, had hired a private detective to track down Jack’s birth mother for the adoption. Reading through the court documents was frustrating, because Jack’s birth mother’s name had been blacked out on every page.

  But now, pay dirt. She discovered one page where the photocopy of the old records had bled through.

  Jack’s birth mother’s name was Patricia Cole.

  She followed the woman’s trail through the police database. The mug shots told the tale; prostitution and drugs had worn down the beautiful woman into a shell of who she once was. Alice compiled the photos into a sort of facial smash. They showed Patricia’s descent into drugs and despa
ir, like one of those Scared Straight campaigns.

  The arrest records stopped a few years ago; it was as if she had fallen off the planet, and Alice thought Patricia Cole might have died. But then she came across an address scribbled in the margins of the paperwork.

  She looked back at Jack and bit her lower lip.

  How do I tell him?

  He groaned and turned over.

  Alice got up and walked to the window. Her resolve started to fade as she stared into the darkness. How could she tell him?

  Jack, your mom is alive but… she’s institutionalized.

  She exhaled.

  And I think there’s more…

  Read the next book in the series:

  JACK KNIFED

  Here’s a preview of the next book in the Jack Stratton Collection:

  “Why do I keep doing this… thinking about her? It was so long ago, but I can’t get what happened out of my head. I shouldn’t let any of that junk define me, but I still do. I’m driving in circles, caught in some loop that I can’t break out of. I want to know why she abandoned me. But some things, I guess, I’ll never know…”

  Constant nightmares have forced Jack to seek answers about his rough childhood and the dark secrets hidden there. With Replacement by his side, Jack travels to Hope Falls to solve a murder that occurred before he was born. Everyone in the small town remembers the unsolved murder of Steven Ritter, but after twenty-seven years, no one thought that someone would look into it. They don’t know Jack.

  A heartrending mystery-thriller about lost love, betrayal, and murder, Jack Knifed will keep you on the edge of your seat.

  It’s on sale today!

  Click below to purchase:

  JACK KNIFED

  The Detective Jack Stratton Mystery-Thriller Series

  The Detective Jack Stratton Mystery-Thriller Series, authored by Wall Street Journal bestselling writer Christopher Greyson, has 5,000+ five-star reviews and over a million readers and counting. If you’d love to read another page-turning thriller with mystery, humor, and a dash of romance, pick up the next book in the highly acclaimed series today:

  And Then She Was GONE

  A hometown hero with a heart of gold, Jack Stratton was raised in a whorehouse by his prostitute mother. When his foster mother asks him to look into a missing girl’s disappearance, Jack quickly gets drawn into a baffling mystery. As Jack digs deeper, everyone becomes a suspect—including himself. Caught between the criminals and the cops, can Jack discover the truth in time to save the girl? Or will he become the next victim?

  GIRL JACKED

  Guilt has driven a wedge between Jack and the family he loves. When Jack, now a police officer, hears the news that his foster sister Michelle is missing, it cuts straight to his core. The police think she just took off, but Jack knows Michelle would never leave her loved ones behind—like he did. Forced to confront the demons from his past, Jack must take action, find Michelle, and bring her home... or die trying.

  JACK KNIFED

  Constant nightmares have forced Jack to seek answers about his rough childhood and the dark secrets hidden there. The mystery surrounding Jack’s birth father leads Jack to investigate the twenty-seven-year-old murder case in Hope Falls.

  JACKS ARE WILD

  When Jack’s sexy old flame disappears, no one thinks it’s suspicious except Jack and one unbalanced witness. Jack feels in his gut that something is wrong. He knows that Marisa has a past, and if it ever caught up with her—it would be deadly. The trail leads him into all sorts of trouble—landing him smack in the middle of an all-out mob war between the Italian Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza.

  JACK AND THE GIANT KILLER

  Rogue hero Jack Stratton is back in another action-packed, thrilling adventure. While recovering from a gunshot wound, Jack gets a seemingly harmless private investigation job—locate the owner of a lost dog—Jack begrudgingly assists. Little does he know it will place him directly in the crosshairs of a merciless serial killer.

  DATA JACK

  When Replacement gets a job setting up a computer network for a jet-setting software tycoon things turn deadly for her and Jack. Can Jack and Alice stop a pack of ruthless criminals before they can Data Jack?

  JACK OF HEARTS

  Jack Stratton is heading south for some fun in the sun. Already nervous about introducing his girlfriend, Alice, to his parents, the last thing Jack needed was for the dog-sitter to cancel, forcing him to bring Lady, their 120-pound King Shepherd, on the plane with them. The dog holds Jack responsible and wants payback. On top of everything, Jack is still waiting for Alice’s answer to his marriage proposal.

  When his mother and the members of her neighborhood book club ask him to catch the “Orange Blossom Cove Bandit,” a small-time thief who’s stealing garden gnomes and peace of mind from their quiet retirement community, how can Jack refuse?

  The peculiar mystery proves to be more than it appears, and things take a deadly turn. Now, Jack finds it’s up to him to stop a crazed killer, save his parents, and win the hand of the girl he loves—but if he survives, will it be Jack who ends up with a broken heart?

  JACK FROST

  Jack has a new assignment: to investigate the suspicious death of a soundman on the hit TV show Planet Survival. Jack goes undercover as a security agent where the show is filming on nearby Mount Minuit. Soon trapped on the treacherous peak by a blizzard, a mysterious killer continues to stalk the cast and crew of Planet Survival. What started out as a game is now a deadly competition for survival. As the temperature drops and the body count rises, what will get them first? The mountain or the killer?

  JACK OF DIAMONDS

  All Jack Stratton wants to do is get married to the woman he loves—and make it through the wedding. It seems like he is finally getting his wish until he responds to a police distress call and discovers his old partner unconscious in an abandoned house. Investigators insist it was just an accident, but Jack fears there may be more to it. Sketches of women cover the walls, and among them is one sketch that makes Jack’s blood run cold—a sketch of Alice, pinned up beside an invitation to a very special wedding—his own. As Jack and Alice fight a deadly killer, their long, happy future together seems like it’s just inches from slipping away. This time, “till death do us part” might just be a bit too accurate.

  ___________________________

  Hear your favorite characters

  come to life in audio versions of

  the Detective Jack Stratton

  Mystery-Thriller Series!

  Audio Books now available on Audible!

  Listen Now

  ___________________________

  Novels featuring Jack Stratton in order:

  AND THEN SHE WAS GONE

  GIRL JACKED

  JACK KNIFED

  JACKS ARE WILD

  JACK AND THE GIANT KILLER

  DATA JACK

  JACK OF HEARTS

  JACK FROST

  JACK OF DIAMONDS

  Epic Fantasy

  PURE OF HEART

  Psychological Thriller

  THE GIRL WHO LIVED

  ___________________________

  You could win a brand new

  HD KINDLE FIRE TABLET

  when you go to

  ChristopherGreyson.com

  Enter as many times as you’d like.

  No purchase necessary.

  It’s just my way of thanking my loyal readers.

  ___________________________

  The Adventures of Finn & Annie — MiniMystery Series

  In these heartwarming short stories, join Finn and Annie as they investigate their way through murder, arson, theft, embezzlement, and maybe even love, seeking to distinguish between truth and lies, scammers and victims. A MiniMystery series that will touch your heart and leave you craving more!

  Finnian Church is trying to piece his life back together. After losing his leg serving in the Army, he is starting a new career as an insurance investigator. Joining hi
m is newly hired videographer Annie Summers— a woman who lost her hearing and is trying to make it as a single mother of two. The world might see them as broken and battered souls, but as they come together to solve mysteries, they discover that they make a great team.

  The Case of the Attic Door

  A man mysteriously murdered in his house. Nothing stolen, and no apparent suspects. It seems like an open-and-shut case, but is it?

  The Case of the Dropped Groceries

  Was it a simple trip and fall or is someone trying to scam the insurance company?

  The Case of the Wayward Ride

  A minister is killed in a car crash on an isolated road, and a convicted prostitute is found injured in the passenger seat. What will Finn and Annie uncover about the clergyman’s fateful ride home?

  The Case of the Phantom Pet

  Recently involved in a car accident, a man now claims that his precious dog, Bun, was injured during the crash, too. Can Finn and Annie solve the case and discover what really happened to Bun?