A Ghostly Intervention: Greybeard Returns For Halloween

By Sherry Hutchison

Santiago sets out at his ranch in Phoenix, Arizona every Halloween and waits for an appearance from his friend, the legendary ghost man Greybeard.
It’s been six long years for Retired US Deputy Marshall Santiago Ramos since he lost his best friend Jimmy “Douglas” Greyson, better known as the son to the legendary Greybeard the Ghost of 489. This year everyone gets more than they bargained for as the famous Lone Trucker Ghost Man returns along with a passenger to rescue his great grandson Ramey Ramos when he is kidnapped along with three other children.
Have you done an immoral act? Hurt someone Greybeard cares deeply for? If so, you should steer clear of Route 66 near Superstition Mountains this Halloween as Greybeard returns to extract his own form of revenge on the guilty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sherry Hutchison
• Release date: Oct 15, 2023

Sherry Hutchison

I was that book geek hanging out at the library every Saturday. I stepped through those doors into a magical world where I could be anyone, do anything I wished. It's no surprise this led to a successful writing career in multiple genres.I reside with my husband Chris and two fur babies, Max & Maisie. I still stand firm in the belief that Fairies do exist. I am constantly chasing those lights!www.leaverealitybehind.comhttps://books2read.com/ap/8PMdok/Sherry-Hutchisonhttps://www.amazon.com/Sherry-Hutchison/e/B01M28PHJRhttps://www.bookbub.com/authors/sherry-hutchisonwww.facebook.com/authorsherryhutchisonwww.Pinterest.com/sherrylhutchisonwww.instagram.com/authorsherryhutchison

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Sherry Hutchison

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Copyright by Author Sherry Hutchison

October 15, 2023

All rights reserved. All works original copyright. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances to person's alive or dead are merely coincidental.

You may not replicate or reproduce any part of this book, in any form or by mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from said author.

Dedicated

FOR CHRIS HUTCHISON, my husband and collaborator for what became one of my most favorite series to create. You had the first concept for Greybeard, a lone trucker who became a ghost haunting the highway along route 66 in Arizona. Four books later and Greybeard still can’t rest. Thanks, babe, for sharing this awesome experience with me.

In memory of Shane Hutchison, your baby brother, son, father, husband, uncle, best friend, and OTR trucker taken much too soon. If you close your eyes, you can visualize Shane riding with Greybeard over the lone highways late at night.

Books in Series

Life Before Death Prequel

https://books2read.com/greybeardlifebeforedeath

Greybeard The Ghost of 489

https://books2read.com/greybeard489

Greybeard’s Love Everlasting

https://books2read.com/greybeardslove

A Ghostly Intervention

Greybeard Returns for Halloween

https://books2read.com/u/497ZNp

Chapters

One. Remembering Jimmy & Greybeard

Two. Philip & Ramey

Three. The Blue Book

Four. Haley

Five. Questions, Answers & Dots Connected

Six. Revenge

Seven The Halloween Party

Eight. Taken

Nine. The Search

Ten. All Gone Wrong

Eleven. Where Are the Kids?

Twelve.  A Ghostly Intervention 

Prologue

The Empty Bottle Bar & Grill on Route 66 near Superstition Mountain in Arizona, was very popular on Friday nights, especially during the month of October.

Halloween brought thrill seekers looking for excitement as well as ghost hunters hoping to get a peek at the legendary Greybeard, the Ghost of 489 who was murdered late one night in the late eighties. He was known to be sited driving his Peterbilt truck along the lone highway. No-one had ever gotten a photo for proof, so this spurred many to attempt to be the first to prove or disprove a legend.

It was also the well-known location where his son Deputy Marshall Jimmy Douglas ‘Greybeard’ Greyson had been the victim of a hit and run some seven years ago not far from the Empty Bottle. The driver never stopped. He or she was never caught. The fact that both father and son died within miles of each other, both only two weeks before Halloween gave a lot of speculation among gossipers who thrived on a story no matter whether the facts were straight or not.

It was a well-known fact if you wanted to hear a good story hang around a bar on a dark lonely night. Pull your hat down low over your head, keep your ears open, your mouth shut and soon enough you’ll hear something worth taking home with you.

Retired Deputy Marshall Santiago Ramos slouched down low in the corner seat where he nursed a beer. His thirty-eight special securely hugged his right hip. Noone paid attention to an old man seeming half asleep slumped over in his chair. He’d already tipped the waitress twenty dollars to leave him alone. His long dark wig he had on covered his short black, gray speckled hair. He’d been amazed he’d been in here twice the past couple of weeks, and no one ever recognized him.

Santiago was on a mission. He’d heard rumors that the man responsible for his best friend and former partner, Deputy Marshall Jimmy ‘Greybeard’ Greyson’s death, had been in here bragging about getting away with killing a Deputy Marshall several years just before Halloween. He’d been investigating, looking for his friend’s killer for years. He was going to find him, make him pay for what he did one way or the other. Retribution comes in many forms. It would happen this Halloween just not by Santiago’s hands.

Chapter One

Remembering Jimmy & Greybeard

Santiago reached into the Styrofoam cooler sitting next to his chair, as he grabbed another chilled beer. The sun had set hours ago, relinquishing its spot to a full moon. His wife would join him after she finished the dinner dishes. He’d retired from the Arizona Rangers six years ago where he'd worked with his best friend Jimmy Douglas Greyson for over thirty-five years. Santiago was a young sixty years old. He could have worked many more years; however, the sudden death of his best friend seven years ago took the life out of Santiago. His heart wasn’t in long night stake outs and lonely nights running Route 66 without his buddy by his side.

One year after Jimmy was killed by a hit and run driver, Santiago handed in his badge. He was determined to find Jimmy’s killer. He didn’t accept it was an accident. Route 66 was deserted late at night. Lone truckers could be heard squelching over the radios often looking for someone to share words with on their lonely drive. Both vacationers and sight seekers who chose to take a trip down Route 66 often made plans to stop somewhere after dark, so as to make sure they had fuel, and food available. No one wanted to have their vehicle break down with the nearest gas station or garage hundreds of miles away late in the night. That whole concept, however, was thrown out the window during the month of October if you traveled through Phoenix Arizona near the famous Superstition Mountains. Groups of ghost seekers looking for a sighting of the legendary Greybeard, the Ghost of 489, carried for miles. Douglas Greyson AKA Greybeard’s father was Navajo Indian, so he had grown up in the area.

Jimmy remembered the call out for help from another Deputy that fateful night. They had been off duty, so Santiago had his home radio silenced. He learned shortly after Jimmy’s death what had happened as their Sargent had called him on his phone. Jimmy should have never responded to that call. When he decided to Santiago had questioned afterward why he hadn’t called him to go with him. They had been on a six-day stakeout. Santiago was sure Jimmy wanted him to stay home with his wife and baby. The fact that he left his wife Sunni a widow was a sad fact of life afterward. How differently things may have turned out if Jimmy had just called him to go with him. Santiago was remembering how he and Jimmy had met. Jimmy had been a police officer in Oklahoma. He had applied as a US Deputy Marshall upon finishing his course at the FBI Academy. Santiago had been mere months ahead of him when they met and partnered up. They remained partners until the day Jimmy died. Santiago remembered how their paths had crossed, lined up as Jimmy came to Arizona to live and team up with him. They found out his dad who he never known had been Douglas Greyson AKA Greybeard, the legendary highway ghost man all the old-time truckers used to talk about seeing on Route 66 late at night. There were so many stories from various people who talked about the mysterious lone trucker who came to their rescue only to vanish into the night.

Santiago shook his head as he reached for a large blue folder laying on a small table near his chair. It had come in the mail for him earlier that day. There was no return address. It was date stamped however from a post office in Oklahoma near where Jimmy and his mother had lived when Santiago had met him. He decided to wait till later to open it, for some reason feeling it was important. His son and grandson would be stopping by soon. He drifted back in time as he did every year at this time.

The rumors of a lone ghost man driving a black Peterbilt truck with the number 489 on its door was legendary now back some sixty years or more. The story of a ghost who had become very personal to Santiago as well as the few who’s paths, he had crossed, had now become commercialized by ghost hunters looking for a story, people who had never been touched by Greybeards presence in life-or-death now thought they had a right to a ‘photo’ of the legendary black truck or the tall man with a cowboy hat, his gun at his side. Maybe it didn’t make them all bad, however, to someone who had become close to his son, who had in fact seen the ghost up close and personal; as Santiago had, this became very personal to him every year two weeks before Halloween.

It had to be more than coincidence that Jimmy had been killed almost to the same day and time as his father had so many years before. There had to be a story deep within the actual story. Santiago was going to find the answers. He had to have answers to his questions. Who killed his best friend? Did they have any connection to the human traffickers who had killed Jimmys dad, Greybeard all those years before? Jimmys death wasn’t just an accidental hit and run by some lone driver who panicked and kept on going.