Behind the Badge

A New Kind of Justice is Coming. Texas Ranger Justin Graves and his rebellious daughter, Christy, are dead, both murdered by her drug-dealer boyfriend, Billy Denton. Due to Justin’s dedication to the department and long hours away from home, he blames himself for her life of crime, 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 devil his dues, the souls of killers who’d gotten away with murder.

In Book 10 of the Justin Graves Horror Short Story Series, bad cops use deadly force against a teenage boy who's arguing with his mother about joining the army. They know that firing a gun while on duty is a serious matter, but these cops have contingency plans in case they get brought up on charges. It's called a 'drop.' They may have fooled the internal affairs investigators, but they haven't fooled Justin Graves. In hell, guns are not allowed.

This story was inspired by the 2003 killing of Paul Childs, a distraught teenage boy who was shot by Denver police officers when he wouldn't obey their commands to drop a kitchen knife he was holding to his own chest. The cops claimed they feared for their lives, and the shooting was ruled justified.