Chapter 6
To try and wrap his head around what had happened with Johnny; Jed called in sick to work and stayed home with the boys for a few days. While off work, he and the boys went into Ridgecrest to one of the used furniture stores and spent some of Johnny's money on beds and other furniture they so desperately needed for the empty house. Jed believed this was just what they all needed to make a fresh start at the old place. While in town they also bought some new clothes for each of them. They ended up spending almost half the money from the coffee can and put the rest of it away for safe keeping.
When Jed went back to work, he started dropping the boys off at school like he had always done. Before they had gotten to school that day they talked it over and decided they were going to start ditching when Jed dropped them off. Once his truck was out of sight they hid from the school officials and then headed back home. By the time the school officials reported it to Jed they had already been ditching school for a few months. He was angry and frustrated the principal didn't let him know right away. From that point on he decided he wasn't going to fight the boys about school. He knew that he couldn't make them go if they didn't want to and he couldn't be with them every minute of the day to make sure they did go. He also knew that the boys weren't liked by any of the teachers or the students at school so he felt why should he make them go if they weren't welcome there?
During the time the boys had been ditching school they were spending their time with Skeeter and Samson. They were going through the tedious work of teaching the puppies how to respond to their commands. They didn't use the dog's names to get their attention; they used their own dialog to teach the dogs what they wanted them to do. They had certain sounds they made for every command they wanted them to follow. They wanted to make sure their dogs wouldn't listen to anyone else except them, just like Mister wouldn't listen to anyone except Joshua.
The first thing they taught the puppies was to not jump or chew on either of them while they were working with them. They used a treat reward system with the dogs to make them listen and they gave the dogs a lot of positive reinforcement. It was a slow process and a lot of constant repetition, but after only a few months, they were able to teach the dogs to sit, lie down, roll over, fetch, heal, go to the bathroom outside and not bark or growl unless given a certain command. Everything the dogs did had a special command the boys used just for them.
By the time the dogs were four months old they had taught them how to attack and grab a weapon from someone. For more advance training the boys got muzzles for the dogs and had them practice attacking the two of them. They taught them how to go for the throat when attacking a human. By the time they were six months old they were each over sixty pounds and still growing. The way they were growing they were going to be well over a hundred pounds each by the time they were grown.
After months of training the dogs to follow their commands they got bored with just practicing with dummy animals. They wanted something more exciting to do with them. It was like a person with a new guy that couldn't wait to use it. They wanted to find out how the dogs would react to killing a real live animal. Cooper said to Dalton, "Having these dogs is like having a bike in the garage and not being able to ride it. We have to find out what they can really do."
They soon came up with a plan to start taking the dogs out of the property to see what they could find and kill. When Jed came home from work, he would usually drink several beers or take some drugs until he passed out on the couch. After Jed passed out is when they took advantage of their opportunity and started taking the dogs out at night.
There were paths that connected the towns to each other and the locals had been using them for years. The paths were about four feet wide and worn clean from all the foot traffic over the years. Not too many people used them after dark so Dalton and Cooper felt safe with going out at night. They took the dogs and stayed on the paths where it was easier to travel during the night.
They began hunting for any type of animal they could find that was out and about searching for food or a mate. Sometimes it was a rodent, a squirrel, or a lone stray dog or cat. The dogs stayed right by Dalton and Cooper's side and didn't move or make a sound when hunting; not until they got a command to attack. By the time they were eight months old they had turned into vicious killing machines. When they spotted an animal it very rarely got past them.
At first the dogs were awkward and slow when they would attack the animal, but the boys were patient with them and worked with them over and over again. They started having the dogs attack from different angles to cut off the escape route their potential victims tried to take. That made it easier for the dogs to work together and catch their prey. One would go after the animal and the other would cut off its escape route. Once they killed the animal the boys just left it lying where it had been mauled to death. Most of the time it was a pretty gruesome sight with guts and body parts lying all around. By the time they were eight months old they had turned into vicious killing animal machines.
They took their dogs out as often as they could, without getting caught by Jed. When they got tired of killing the animals in Red Mountain they decided to move on to Johannesburg and then finally to Randsburg. It didn't take long before a lot of the people in the three small towns were starting to complain about losing their pets. Some of them believed there might be a couple of young mountain lions on the loose that was killing them, especially after they saw how their animals had been ripped apart and then just left there. People started carrying guns when they went out at night, just in case they spotted the animals.
It was a night just like any other hunting night for them when the boys took the dogs to Randsburg. They heard a dog barking in the distant so they decided to head for the sound. When they got close to the barking dog they saw that it was a border collie and it was outside its fenced in yard. It was standing in the middle of the road and just barking. Cooper chuckled and whispered, "Look at that stupid dog, he's not barking at anything at all. He seems to be barking just to hear himself bark." Dalton sneakered and whispered. "Big mistake for him."
The boys had the dogs move into position, one from the left and the other one from the right. The dogs stayed hidden in the sage brush as they crawled within about ten yards of the dog. By then the dog had spotted them and was going a little crazy. When the time was right, Cooper gave the command for them to attack. The dogs immediately jumped from their hiding places and charged toward the dog. They both hit him at almost the same time and they instantly had him on the ground ripping on him with their strong jaws and sharp fangs. The dog was yelping and growling and trying to fight back, but he was no match for the overpowering dogs. It only took a few minutes and they had ripped his body apart.
Once the dogs had killed their intended target the boys gave them a command to heal. The dogs instantly stopped what they were doing and returned to Cooper and Dalton's side. Each of the boys said, "Good boy," and patted their dogs on the head and back. The dogs were panting hard and their tongues were hanging out as they occasionally lapped it back in and looked up at their masters. They stood there like proud warriors and excited for what they had done.
Cooper and Dalton were also excited. They had already gotten back on the trail and were heading home and not paying any attention to a man that had come out of the house from where the dog lived. They had only gotten about a quarter of a mile away from the house when the dogs noticed that someone was following them. They each let out a low growl when they spotted the man. He was about two hundred yards behind them and he was moving pretty fast as he jogged in their direction. They stopped for a second and looked back as Cooper said to Dalton, "You take the dogs and get up ahead of me and I'll stay back and see what this guy is up to. When everything is okay I'll catch up with you." Dalton said, "Ok, I'll meet you up at the crooked bend in the trail." It was about a half mile from where t
hey were.
Cooper waited for the man following them to come along the trail and then he stepped out in the open and started walking toward him. When he got closer, Cooper could tell he was in his mid to late forties and he was carrying a rifle. His hair was messed up, like he'd just gotten out of bed. When Cooper first approached him, the guy stopped and took careful aim and was ready to shoot him. Cooper quickly put his hands in the air and said, "Hey Mister, don't shoot me. I'm unarmed." The guy could tell that Cooper was probably a high school kid as he said in an angry voice, "What the hell are you doing out here all alone at night? Haven't you heard there's some type of animal that is killing our pets around here?" Cooper played it cool and said, "Yeah, I heard that too, but I was just heading home from my girlfriend's house over there in Red Mountain."
Still angry, he asked Cooper, "Did you see the guy on the trail with a couple of large dogs?" Cooper replied, "All I saw was a guy walking his two dogs. Is that what you're talking about?" "Did you see what he looked like?" he asked. Cooper replied, "I couldn't tell much, it was too dark. Maybe in his thirties but he had two big dogs with him." The guy replied, "Yeah, well, I think those two big dogs just killed my dog. I caught a glimpse of them as they left my house, so I was following them to see where they went." Cooper then realized that he and Dalton were in big trouble with this guy. He knew he couldn't let him find out about them and where they lived. If they got caught they would end up being locked up for killing all the animals around the towns and even worse trouble with their dad. The police might even find out their last name was Bailey and not King and go after their dad and put him in jail.
Cooper said to the guy, "My name is Cooper, what's yours. He stuck out his hand to shake, as the man reluctantly stuck out his and said, "I'm Donald Pickens and I live back there in Randsburg." Cooper said, "Come on Mr. Pickens, I'll go with you and we'll see if we can catch up with that guy and his dogs. We'll find out if they were the ones that killed your dog." Cooper turned and started back in the direction of Dalton. Happy to have the company Donald said, "If we hurry, maybe we can catch up to them. I'll put a bullet in them for killing my dog. I may even shoot the owner for letting it happen." Cooper was angry that he was so willing to shoot someone he knew nothing about. Even though he could feel the blood rush to his face he kept his cool and calmly replied, "I don't blame you Mr. Pickens, I'd kill him too, if he let his dogs kill my dog."
As they made their way along the trail toward Dalton he was asking Cooper where he lived and who his girlfriend was. Cooper told Mr. Pickens he lived in the old King residence in Randsburg. As soon as he said that then it hit Mr. Pickens and he realized Cooper was one of the twins that had been causing a lot of trouble around the towns. He said, "Hold on there a minute son; I know who you are now. You and your brother are the ones that have vandalized the empty houses and caused a lot of other trouble around here." Cooper was very good at lying and he said, "You must have me mixed up with someone else Mr. Pickens. I don't even have a brother." Cooper was very believable as he denied everything Mr. Pickens was accusing him of. He then turned around and headed in the direction of Dalton. Mr. Pickens reluctantly followed behind him.
When they were almost at the bend in the trail where he was going to meet up with Dalton he told Mr. Pickens that he had to stop for a minute and take a leak. He said, "You go ahead, Mr. Pickens; I'll catch up with you in just a minute." Mr. Pickens didn't really know what to do because he wasn't really sure if Cooper was the kid he thought he was or if he was lying to him about everything. It didn't matter; he wasn't going to shoot an unarmed kid just because he thought he was one of the boys from Randsburg.
Cooper stepped off the path, pretending to go to the bathroom when he bent down and grabbed a rock about the size of a grapefruit. He waited until Mr. Pickens was about ten yards ahead of him and then he made the sound for Skeeter and Samson to attack. Just when Mr. Pickens turned back around to ask him what kind of sound that was that he had made, both dogs hit him hard from behind at almost the same time. They knocked him to the ground and his rifle was knocked from his hands and it went flying in the air. Mr. Pickens immediately flipped over on his back to try and fight them off.
In just a few seconds, Samson had him by the throat and Skeeter had grabbed him over his face and on both sides of his cheeks. Cooper moved in closer while Mr. Pickens was struggling to get free, He was smiling as he looked down at Mr. Pickens and said, "You should've stayed home, Mister Pickens. You shouldn't have been out here all alone at night. You were right; it was me and my brother that was causing the all the trouble around these towns and today isn't your lucky day."
While the dogs were holding him down Cooper hit Mr. Pickens three hard blows to the head with the rock. He then gave the dogs the command to kill. It only took a few more seconds and he lie dead and mangled on the path.
Dalton had come running up while the killing was going on and he had a frightened look on his face. "What did you do Cooper? Cooper said, "Relax Dalton, that guy was going to shoot you and the dogs when he caught up with you. He told me so himself." Dalton was visibly shaken as he said, "Ok, so you killed him before he killed us? Now what do we do with this guys body?" Cooper replied, "There are only two things we can do. We either have to carry him back to the house and bury him without Dad finding out about it or drop him in that old mine shaft down behind the old Silver Dollar Saloon. What do you want to do?" Dalton thought about it for a second and said, "Let's take him to the mine shaft. If dad wakes up and finds out what we did he'll be really angry. He might kill us himself."
Dalton picked up Mr. Pickens' gun then Dalton took his feet and Cooper grabbed him under both arms. They had the dogs stay on alert in case someone else might come along on the path as they carried him to the mine shaft. They took turns switching positions until they made it to the hole. They didn't waste any time as they quickly heaved his body over and down the deep drop. They waited until they heard the thud of his body as it hit the bottom and then threw his rifle in after him. When they were finished, Dalton said, "We better get back, it's getting late. I don't want dad waking up and finding us gone." Cooper just agreed with him as they headed back home.
When they got home Cooper was lying on the bed laughing about everything that had happened that night. He said to Dalton, "You should've seen the look on Mr. Pickens' face when Samson had him by the throat and Skeeter had him by the face. He looked like his eyeballs were going to pop out of his head. It was a funny looking sight." Dalton said, "You're sick Cooper." Cooper smirked back, "Yeah, I might be sick, but I'm glad we killed that guy before he killed you and the dogs." He told Dalton that he was happy they had gotten away with killing him without anyone seeing what they had done. He figured nobody would ever find out it was them so he was very pleased with himself.
It was about a week later when Jed came home from work and told the boys about what he'd heard from some people in town. He told them a family man that lived in Randsburg by the name of Donald Pickens had gone missing for about a week. His wife said her and her husband were sleeping when they heard something attack their dog out in front of the house. Mr. Pickens grabbed his rifle, loaded it, and went to see what was going on. She said that was the last time she ever saw him. She found their family dog lying dead in the gravel road out in front of the house and he looked like he'd been ripped apart by some wild animals.
To Jed, her story seemed eerily similar to what happened with Mister back when Joshua was taking him out to kill cats and other animals in Red Mountain so many years ago. People in the towns were saying pretty much the same thing then as they were now. After hearing some of the stories, the entire thing was starting to add up to Jed. He knew what the boys had been doing with their dogs and knew they were training them to kill. He didn't want to believe they were the ones killing all the pets around town, but he knew in his heart that it was true.
He looked over a
t the boys with an angry mean look on his face, "I know you've been training those dogs of yours to kill and that's exactly what Joshua did with Mister. Those dogs are big enough and strong enough to kill a man very easy, especially if they team up together. I believe you boys know something about what happened to that dog and Mr. Pickens so you need to tell me right now." He threw some things on the floor as he yelled out at them, "Have you been taking those dogs out at night and killing animals?" Cooper immediately spoke up, "No sir, we haven't been doing that." Dalton just sat there with a sheepish look on his face and didn't say a word. He was feeling very uncomfortable about Jed questioning them.
Jed looked over at Dalton and he was familiar with the squirming and feeling guilty attitude Dalton was going through. Joshua had acted the same way when Jed first asked him if he and Mister were the ones killing the cats in the area. He knew Cooper was lying to him so he directed his next questions to Dalton. He got right in Dalton's face, "Did you boys have anything to do with that dead dog and Mr. Pickens? If you did you better tell me right now or those dogs of yours will be at the dog pound tomorrow morning. Do you understand me?" Dalton couldn't bear the thought of losing his dog he'd trained and become so attached to. He immediately started to speak up as Cooper tried to intervene and say something. Jed said to Cooper, "Sit down and shut up, I don't want to hear from you right now. I want to hear what Dalton has to say." Dalton was speaking very slow and quiet and Jed could barely hear him "Yes dad, we do know what happened to him."
He then began to tell Jed the entire story about how they would sneak out at night once he passed out on the couch and how they had trained the dogs to kill other animals. He told him about how the dogs had killed Mr. Pickens' dog and then Mr. Pickens followed them with a gun and was going to kill them. He told him the dogs attacked Mr. Pickens and killed him while he was following them along the trail. He told him that Cooper also hit Mr. Pickens in the head three times with a rock just to make sure he was dead, before the dogs mangled his body. Jed screamed out, "So what did you do with Mr. Pickens' body after you killed him?" He could hardly hear Dalton as he replied, "We dumped his body in the old mine shaft, behind the old Silver Dollar Saloon. We also threw his rifle in with him."
After hearing the story, Jed had to sit down because he felt his knees buckle as he was backing away from Dalton. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. That was exactly what he and Justin had done with the Tweaker's body that Justin had killed on the same trail years ago. He felt like he had just gotten out of a fight as he softly and calmly said, "Did anyone see what you boys did?" Cooper tried to speak up and say something and Jed told him to keep his mouth shut. "I'm not happy with you Cooper, you lied to me and you shouldn't have lied to me about what happened. You should've told me the truth when I asked, just like Dalton did. You know I hate a liar." Cooper shut his mouth and didn't say another word. Dalton continued, "No sir, we were very careful not to let anyone see us and the dogs didn't hear or see anyone either." Jed was so angry that he didn't know what to do. He told the boys to go to their rooms and told Cooper that if he did anything to Dalton for telling the truth he would be in a lot bigger trouble than he already was in. On the way to their bedrooms he told them he may just take the dogs to the SPCA the next day and have them put to sleep.
As he sat there alone, Jed was reliving the entire nightmare over and over again with what happened that night, so many years ago with him, Justin and the Tweaker. He just couldn't believe what Dalton had told him. It reminded him of how much Dalton and Cooper were like Justin and his unremorseful behavior. He shivered from head to toe as he tried to make some kind of sense of it all. He knew he had to believe what Dalton told him was true and that they just killed Mr. Pickens to keep him from killing them. If he couldn't convince himself that's what really happened then he would have a hard time accepting what they had done. He knew he couldn't and wouldn't turn them over to the law; they would have thrown all of them in prison. They were also his own flesh and blood and he knew he would never be able to do something like that. He had to figure something out with them before it was too late. If he didn't do something drastic with the boys he was going to lose them forever and he didn't want them to end up dead, like Justin and Joshua.
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