Chapter 9
They continued to steal from houses as often as they thought they could get away with it. It wasn't long before some of the old timers in the area were starting to talk about the "Night Crawlers" being back again. Even though Jed had a good job in Ridgecrest, some of them were even starting to suspect him and his two sons that had moved into the Bailey house a few years earlier. Some of the talk was just because they lived there and some of it was because they knew the boys had a couple of large dogs in the enclosed property. People very rarely saw the boys because they slept during the day and only went out at night.
Jed tried to keep up with working the job in Ridgecrest and going out three or four nights a week to scope out a place or to break into one with the boys. Things had become very stressful for him. Because of the stress he began taking more drugs to try and keep up with all the things he was doing. The boys noticed the change in Jed and started telling him that he needed to slow down on the drugs. They told him he was starting to get a little reckless when they went on some of the break-ins. They told him he wasn't as cautious and meticulous as he had been before. Jed wouldn't to listen to them because he couldn't stop the drugs so he couldn't stop breaking into houses. He felt like there was nothing he could do to change the way things were going in his life. He felt stuck, he couldn't quit his job, and he couldn't stop doing the drugs.
Then it happened, what the boys feared most. It was just another break-in like so many others they'd been on, but this time Jed got a little sloppy in his surveillance and didn't wait to see if everyone had left the house. He just assumed that everyone had left. That was out of character for him because he was always extra careful. Because the people in the Rand area were becoming more aware of the "Night Crawlers" some of them began to set up decoys to try and catch them. They would pretend that they were leaving their houses when all they did was have someone else pretend to be them while they stayed at home. A lot of them began staying home and keeping an eye out for someone trying to break in. They were also well prepared with their rifles and pistols to shoot and kill anyone they caught breaking in.
That was exactly what happened on this break in. Jed didn't take his time and scope out the house like he usually had done. When he saw the car drive away from the house he thought it was the owner that had left, but it wasn't. It was a decoy that he had take his place. Thinking the owner was gone Jed and Cooper slowly approached the house while Dalton kept guard by the fence. Cooper had an uneasy feeling as he said to Jed, "Something just doesn't feel right about this dad. I think we should wait for a few minutes and check it out a little longer." Jed was so strung out that he said, "No, we're ok. Come on, let's get this over with."
When they crept up to the house Jed broke the window to the room they intended to climb through. He usually waited for several minutes to see if he heard any noise inside the house, but this time he seemed to be in a hurry and didn't wait. He was just starting to raise up the window when two shots from a rifle rang out from inside the house. Both of the bullets hit Jed, one in the chest and the other one in the shoulder. He immediately went down and took a few tumbles rolls on the ground. All the while, his instincts were telling him to retreat from the property. He was bent over and scuffling away as Cooper grabbed him by the arm and started helping him to get out of there as quickly as they could. The man caught a glimpse of them as they were leaving and took two more wild shots at them. Both of those shots missed his intended target as Jed and the boys took off as fast as they could go.
Jed was having a hard time getting back home from the wound to his chest. The boys partly carry him and partly drag him to the place they always waited to see if anyone had followed them. When they got there they sat down for a second and he said to the boys, "I'm not going to make so I want you boys to bury me out in the back of the house." Dalton cried out, "Don't say that Dad, you'll make it." Jed could barely whisper, "I love you boys. Get me back home, I don't want to die out here." Cooper and Dalton were both crying as they carried Jed the rest of the way home.
Just before they got to the gate entrance Jed's body started going limp. Once inside the property, Dalton quickly locked the gate behind them while Cooper carried Jed the rest of the way into his bedroom. By the time he laid him on the bed, Jed took his last breath and was gone. Cooper and Dalton were in total shock as they just stood there for a few minutes and looked down at their dad. When reality finally set in and they realized he was dead they both screamed out in deep pain and began to sob. They were crying for two reasons, one, because they had just lost their dad and the other one was that they knew they were now all alone. From now on it was just the two of them and their dogs.
The man that shot Jed was fifty four year old Jacob Smallwood and he lived with his wife Lisa. They had two grown kids but they had moved away several years earlier. After he shot Jed, Lisa immediately called the Sheriff department and reported what had happened. It took about thirty minutes before the deputies arrived with their lights flashing. A couple of nearby neighbors had heard the shots and went to Jacob's house with rifles in hand to see what was going on. They were still there with Jacob and Lisa when the deputies arrived.
The deputies asked Jacob what had happened and he told them everything step by step. The deputies took about forty five minutes and did a thorough search of the area and didn't see or find anything or anyone. They then took a statement from Jacob and Lisa. Jacob told them that he swore he shot one of the guys that were breaking in, but he got away.
After they had been there a few hours, the deputies and neighbors left and Jacob and Lisa were left all alone. Because they were so hyped up it took another couple of hours for them to finally get to bed that night. As they crawled in bed Jacob had the rifle loaded and standing against the night stand by the bed.
The boys sat on the bed with Jed for a few hours and the rage had begun to build in Cooper, "I'm going to go get that guy Dalton. I'm going to kill him for doing this to dad." In his anger Dalton angrily agreed with him, "That sounds good to me, when do you want to do it." In his haste to get it done Cooper said, "I'll get the dogs ready to go and then we'll leave after everyone is gone from his house and that guy is alone and asleep. We'll have Skeeter and Samson rip him apart while I torture him."
They waited until about two in the morning and took Skeeter and Samson with them to Jacob and Lisa's house. Everyone was gone and the lights were out. Jacob and Lisa appeared to be asleep for the night. Once in position, they waited and watched everything for several minutes before they made any kind of move. Everything seemed quiet and normal.
The boys stayed very low and snuck up close to the house with the dogs. Much to their surprise, the window that Jed had broken earlier was tacked down with just a sheet. Cooper thought that was a stupid thing to do since they just had someone try and break into their house. Maybe Jacob didn't think the thieves would return after he shot one of them. Cooper slowly pulled the sheet back and snapped the tacks loose one by one and held them in his hand.
The boys picked the dogs up one at a time and lifted them through the window. Cooper climbed in first after the dogs and then Dalton followed quickly behind. Once inside they sent the dogs to find the guy they were after. They gave the dogs the command to attack and they immediately ran to the bedroom looking for their intended target.
It only took a few seconds and the dogs had Jacob and Lisa pinned down on the bed. Cooper and Dalton then ran into the bedroom where the dogs had their surprised victims each by the throat. Before they left their house, Cooper had grabbed a long, sharp butcher knife from the kitchen and tucked it in his belt. The first thing he did when he went into the bedroom was go over to Lisa. She was crying and begging for her life, but Cooper didn't pay any attention to her as he quickly took one big swing with the butcher knife and slashed her throat. Blood was spurting all over as he pushed her body to the floor next to the bed.
He went over to Jacob and quickly cut the tendons to Jacob's feet and he screamed out in pain. Cooper said, "Do I have your attention now?" Jacob was in a state of terror as he looked up at him and nodded yes. Cooper growled, "That was our dad that you shot and killed earlier tonight. Now we're going to kill you, but I want you to die a slow death for what you did to him." Jacob started to cry out and Cooper reached in his mouth with his left hand and grabbed his tongue and cut it out. He laughed as he said, "Now try to scream, tough guy."
Dalton didn't care too much for all the torture and slow death thing, "Come on Cooper just kill him and get it over with and let's get out of here before somebody catches us." By then Cooper was way past listening to anyone or anything except the crazy person in his head. He tortured Jacob for a few more minutes and then finally took the knife and put it under Jacob's chin and shoved it as hard as he could up and into his brain. He then cut his throat just to make sure he was dead. When they were finished, they had the dogs heal as they left through the back door. They made their way back home and stopped at their familiar spot and made sure that nobody had seen or followed them.
When they got home they continued grieving for the rest of the night as they sat on Jed's bed. It was around ten in the morning when Cooper finally told Dalton they needed to make a coffin for their Dad and bury him. Dalton knew he was right and he knew it was what their dad wanted them to do. Even so, it was still a hard thing to do it. He slowly got up and headed for the back door. Cooper began to dig the hole in the back yard while Dalton made the coffin. They weren't in a very big hurry to do either as they took their time getting ready to bury him.
Once Jed was buried and it was over Cooper sat on the couch with Dalton, "We are all alone and it's just you, me and the dogs from now on. We have to take care of each other because nobody else in this world is going too." They were sixteen years old and they felt they were capable of taking care of themselves.
The next day neighbors called the Sheriff department again and this time they reported that they had found the tortured and mutilated bodies of Jacob and Lisa Smallwood. The deputies went out once again and this time they spent the entire day investigating the two murders. They put out the word in Red Mountain to be on the lookout for a guy with a couple of large dogs.
Not taking their time and planning out the murders was a huge mistake for the boys and it had now jeopardized their ability to live in Red Mountain. People knew they had big dogs and would have law enforcement checking them out in connection to the murders.
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