That afternoon, Jed knew he had to tell Chelsea about Justin or he was going to explode. He told Joshua he was going to go to see her and tell her all about what had happened to Justin. Jed didn’t want to leave Joshua alone. “I’ll take the truck and you can come along if you’d like, but they won’t let Mister in the bar.” Joshua said, “Me and Mister will wait in the truck, Okay.” Jed was fine with that so they loaded in the pick-up and headed for “The Joint.”
When they got there the place was a little busy so he stuck his head inside and got Chelsea attention, motioning for her to come outside. She immediately knew something was wrong since he didn’t go inside like he normally did. She told the bartender she’d be right back and hurried outside. Jed was waiting for her just outside the door. He stood there with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets and tears running down his face, “Justin’s dead.” She put her hands to her face in shock as she said, “Oh my God, Jed, what happened?” Jed could hardly get the words out, “Justin must’ve been out peeping on women again because someone from Red Mountain shot him, twice. He shot him once in the chest and once in the back, but he made it back home before he died.” Chelsea couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She asked, “Did you call the sheriff’s department?” Jed was nervously shuffling his feet on the sidewalk. He tried to explain to her, “I can’t go to the sheriff’s department or let anyone else know about his death. They’ll do an investigation into how and why he died and they’ll take Joshua away from me. I can’t let that to happen. I won’t lose Joshua too.” She knew he was right. “What did you do with Justin’s body?” Jed said, “We buried him right next to mom and dad in the back yard.” Chelsea still couldn’t wrap her head around what she was hearing. She asked Jed, “Do you know who shot him?” Jed just shook his head no and said, “I don’t have a clue who did it. Right now I wish I did. The way I feel.” Chelsea saw that the entire conversation was becoming too much for him. She pulled Jed close to her body and held him very tightly with both arms wrapped around him. She said, “I’m so sorry Jed! That just kills me inside! Is there anything I can do?” Jed shook his head no and replied, “Just knowing you’re here for me is enough.”
Jed told Chelsea that Joshua and Mister were with him so she took a few steps toward the pick-up and waved to Joshua and she saw that he was crying. He had his mouth half open and his eyes were squinty as he raised his hand with a half-hearted wave back to her. She asked Jed if he wanted to come in for a minute to just collect himself. He said, “No, I just needed to let you know what happened. I need to spend some time alone with Joshua and make sure he’s alright. He needs me right now.” Chelsea asked Jed if he wanted her to take the rest of the night off and be with him. He told her that he wouldn’t be much fun to be around for a few days. He told her that he would see her soon, once he felt Joshua was a little better. In his heart he knew he also needed time alone to come to grips with losing Justin. They gave each other a kiss and said they would talk to each other later. She wiped the tears away as she turned and went back inside to finish her shift.
Jed spent the entire following week hanging out with Joshua and trying to reconnect with him. They went to town, bought a video game player and played video games with each other. They spent time going into Ridgecrest and eating at some of the fast food restaurants and taking Mister with them.
He called Johnny and found out that Princess had eight puppies. She had two pure white, four that were black and white and two completely black, like Mister. They were already almost two months old. Jed took Joshua to Palmdale for the day so he could spend some time with them. Joshua loved that trip, but Jed had a hard time pulling him away from the puppies. He wanted to bring one of the black ones back with them. For that entire week, Jed didn’t let Joshua out of his sight and Joshua loved all the attention. They both were having a hard time missing Justin. That was one of the most difficult things for Jed to get over, Justin had always been right there by his side since the day he was born.
Jed knew he had to get up to Randsburg and see Chelsea. He told Joshua he was going to head up that evening to check on her. It had now been over a week since he told her the news about Justin and he was missing his time with her. He really needed to see her and talk with her. He asked Joshua if he wanted to come along to keep him company, but Joshua told him he wanted to stay home and play the video games. He was really enjoying the games and was starting to get hooked on playing them. He also somehow knew he would just be in Chelsea and Jed’s way if he tagged along.
When Jed got to “The Joint” Chelsea gave him a big hug and a kiss, then asked him if he was doing better as she led him to a table. He told her he was a little better and sat down to visit with her. She curled up next to him then carefully pulled a piece of folded up paper out of her pocket. She had scribbled at the top “Neighborhood Watch” and below it she had the names and addresses of six people. One was circled. Chelsea said, “I’ve been waiting to give this to you. It’s the names and addresses of the six neighborhood watch guys that were out patrolling Red Mountain when Justin was killed. The one circled is the guy that’s going around bragging about shooting the peeping tom. Everyone was having a hard time believing him because they never found a body. You have to promise me you won’t do something stupid.” For a split second, just the thought of someone shooting Justin sent a wave of rage all over him and his face turned red. He clenched his fists and bit his lip. He wanted to kill the guy, but reason took control of him. He knew he couldn’t get away with it. He said, “I won’t do anything, I promise.” Chelsea said, “Here, it’s yours just in case you change your mind and decide you want to turn the guy in for killing Justin.” Jed looked at her and asked, “Where did you get these names?” She said, “I overheard people talking at the bar about the different neighborhood watch guys and wrote down their names. When I got home I looked up where they all lived.” Jed knew there was nothing he could do, except take the law in his own hands and he wasn’t going to do that. He knew if he did, he would lose not only Joshua, but Chelsea too. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the list but he thanked Chelsea for it and stuck it in his shirt pocket.
When he got home later that night, he walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water and took the note out of his pocket and threw it on the kitchen table. He wasn’t giving it much thought at that point, it was just a list of names to him. He then went in and checked on Joshua to make sure he was okay before he went to bed. He asked Joshua, “You doing alright Joshua? I’m going to hit the sack, I’m tired. If you’re okay, I’ll see you in the morning.” Joshua didn’t look up as he just kept playing the game he was playing and said, “Okay. See you in the morning, Jed.”
About an hour after Jed went to sleep Joshua went into the kitchen to get a snack before he went back to his game. That’s when he saw the folded note lying on the table. He picked it up, opened it and looked at it. He could see it was a list of people’s names and addresses, but didn’t know what it said at the top of the paper. He took the note and stuck it in his pocket. The next day, when he and Jed were playing video games together, they stopped to take a break. Joshua took the note out of his pocket and said to Jed, “You left this on the table. It looks important so I wanted to make sure you didn’t lose it. Joshua knew it was something important or Jed would’ve just thrown it in the trash as soon as he got home. Jed grabbed the note from Joshua’s hand and said, “It’s nothing, just a list of people that live here in Red Mountain.” Joshua had the feeling Jed was trying to hide something from him. He asked Jed, “What does it say at the top of the paper?” Jed didn’t really want to explain it all to him, but he replied, “It says neighborhood watch.” Joshua had never heard that term before so he asked Jed what neighborhood watch meant. Jed was a little hesitant to tell Joshua because he didn’t want him asking too many questions about it. Jed could tell he wasn’t going to let it go until he told him what it was and what it
said. He reluctantly said, “It’s a group of people that keep an eye out in the neighborhoods to see if someone is doing something bad or illegal.” Joshua asked Jed, “Do they carry guns?” Jed stumbled through his words very carefully as he said, “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.” By then Joshua believed he had figured out what the note meant as he yelled to Jed, “They’re the ones that killed Justin, aren’t they?” Jed crumpled up the note and stuck it in his pocket, “We don’t know that for sure Joshua.” He really didn’t know what else to tell Joshua at that point so he said, “Let’s get back to our game.” Joshua stopped talking about it and just glared angrily at the video screen, as they started playing the game once again.
Joshua knew there was a reason Jed had the note and now he was sure he knew what it was. He believed Jed knew the people on the note were the ones that had killed Justin even though he didn’t tell him they were. For the rest of the day he followed Justin around waiting for him to do something with the note that was stuck away in his pocket. Jed didn’t realize what Joshua was doing as he followed Jed from room to room and watched his every move. There was a point when Jed went into the kitchen alone and took the crumpled up note and threw it in the trash bag under the sink. He hadn’t noticed that Joshua was peeking around the corner of the room and watched him throw it away.
Later that night, after Jed went to sleep, Joshua went to the trash bag in the kitchen and retrieved the note. By now he was convinced these were the men who had killed Justin. He began to memorize the names and addresses before he hid the note in his room.
Things were going pretty smooth between Jed and Joshua and they spent as much time with each other as they could over the next few weeks. Jed was able to spend time with Chelsea when Joshua was busy with the video games and didn’t want to leave the house. One night when he was going to see Chelsea, Joshua asked if he could go and just wait in the pick-up until Jed was ready to go. Jed told him it was no problem and gladly let him and Mister tag along. When they loaded up and headed toward Ransburg Joshua asked Jed if they could make a circle around Red Mountain before he went to see Chelsea. Jed thought that was a strange request because Joshua had never shown too much interest in the town before. Jed had come to realize with Joshua he never knew exactly what he was feeling or thinking so he just went along with it.
As they drove around Red Mountain Jed didn’t realize that Joshua was memorizing the names of the street. While making their round Joshua asked Jed, “What does the numbers on the houses mean, Jed?” Jed told him, “Each person’s house has a number and that way they can get all their mail sent to that address and it also helps the police find a person if they need too.” Now Joshua had figured out how he could find each person that was on list that he had memorized. He had made up his mind that it was just a matter of time before he was going to kill the ones that had killed Justin. He wasn’t going to let Jed know about his plan and kept everything to himself.
The neighborhood watch group had pretty much fizzled out after Jake Crider went around town bragging to everyone that he shot the peeping tom. A few of the guys didn’t want to claim any responsibility for the shooting and immediately gave up on the program. Jake was a single, middle aged man and many people from Red Mountain believed he just used the neighborhood watch group as an excuse to do exactly what he did and that was shoot someone. The others that were left in the group hadn’t seen anyone creeping around for a few weeks after Justin was shot so they soon quit going out at night.
Joshua started pretending that he was going to be playing his video games for hours as Jed left to go see Chelsea. He told Jed, “Don’t worry about me Jed, I’ll just be playing games while you’re gone. I’ll be okay.” As soon as Jed left, Joshua started sneaking out with Mister and checking out the names and addresses he had managed to memorize. Over the next several nights, when Jed was gone, he was able to locate the house of each person that was on the list.
Jake Crider was going to be one of the first people he went after, but he had to figure a way to kill him. He spent a lot of time sneaking around Jake’s property after dark, until he felt comfortable sneaking up close to him. Jake would get drunk a lot of the nights so he was easy to sneak up on. Joshua figured that once he killed a few of neighborhood watch guys, Jed would find out and stop him but Joshua was going to try and kill as many as he could and as quickly as he could, before Jed found out. He was even going to try and kill at least two of them on the same night.
Another person on Joshua’s list was Mark Crisfield. He was the father of the high school girl that Justin enjoyed peeping on so much. He worked in Ridgecrest and didn’t get home until just after dark on most nights, unless he stopped at Tommy T’s or one of the other bars on his way home. Since the shooting of Justin, he seemed to stop at one of them more often than he normally did. Joshua had figured out where he parked his car near the house every night before he went inside.
Joshua pretended to be just like Jed and Justin as he waited for just the right time. It was a night when Jed had left to go see Chelsea and it was a dark and windy outside. Joshua put the charcoal on his face and patted Mister on the back as they headed toward Mark Crisfield’s house. They crept along slowly, making sure no one saw them until they were up close to where Mark usually parked his car. He wasn’t home yet so Joshua and Mister hid in a large bush right next to the house until he got home.
When Joshua finally saw the lights of Mark Crisfield car pull in, Joshua told Mister, “Get ready boy. It’s time to kill him.” Mister didn’t make a sound as he stamped up and down in anticipation. As soon as Mark parked his car, Joshua darted over to the car, opened the passenger door before Mark had gotten out of the car. He let Mister in and immediately gave him the signal to kill. Joshua then ran around to the other side of the car to make sure Mark couldn’t get out. Mark was screaming and kicking as Mister clamped onto his neck and didn’t let go. It happened so quick Mark didn’t have time to reach for his gun under the driver’s seat. He struggled for a few minutes, trying to reach the gun before his body went limp.
Joshua had brought a small sledge hammer with him from home. He opened the driver’s door and Mark’s head and shoulders fell out. He was now lying half in the car and half out. Joshua gave Mister the signal to retreat and he quickly backed out of the car. Joshua slammed Mark in the head with the hammer three times just to make sure he was dead. He didn’t want Mister to have all the fun, he wanted to get his own blows in on one of the guys that killed Justin. It was over in just a few minutes, but Mark’s wife heard the commotion and went running to the door yelling to see if Mark was alright. She caught a glimpse of Joshua and Mister as they ran from her yard, but it was too dark to make out who or what they were. She ran over to the car and saw Mark lying there dead and immediately started screaming. Joshua was laughing to himself as he could hear her screams become faint in the distance as he moved toward Jake’s house. He said to himself, “That one’s for you Justin.”
When he got to Jake Crider’s house, he crept over to the window and made sure he was inside. Jake was sitting at the kitchen table with his back to the back door and he was eating his dinner. Joshua waited with Mister for a few minutes and then went to the back door and it was unlocked. He and Mister crept slowly inside the house, making sure they didn’t make a sound. Joshua tiptoed over behind Jake and was standing just a few feet behind him. He snickered a creepy little smirk just to get Jake’s attention. He wanted Jake to see his face before he killed him. Jake heard the noise and turned around in his chair with a startled look on his face. By then Joshua and Mister were only inches from him. Joshua smiled at him and said, “You killed Justin. Now you’re going to die.” He gave Mister the signal to kill and in an instant, and before Jake could stand up, Mister had him by the throat. Jake dropped to the floor, on his back and was squirming around trying to get free. He still had the steak knife in his right hand. He had been using it to cut the food he
’d been eating, before he got interrupted. He was swinging wildly with the knife, trying to stab Mister with it, but Joshua went over and stepped on his arm. He then hit Jake in the head with the sledge hammer and he immediately dropped the knife and went limp. Joshua let Mister’s attack continue for a while, before he gave the retreat signal. Joshua then went over and gave Jake two more hard blows to the head with the hammer, just to make sure he was dead. He said to Jake, “Those last two hits were for Justin.”
Mark Crisfield’s wife had called the sheriff’s department and they had their sirens on as they made it to her house. They began several hours of investigation and they determined Mark had been killed by either a large animal or blows to the head, they weren’t sure which until they could do an autopsy. When they asked Mark’s wife what she’d seen, she told them that all she saw was a dark figure and a large dark animal as they darted away. The sheriff’s department knew they had a homicide on their hands, but who, or what, was responsible was yet to be seen.
Jake’s body wasn’t found until the next day when one of the neighbors went over in the morning to pick him up for work. He knocked on the door several times before he looked through the window and saw Jake’s mangled body lying on the kitchen floor. He called the sheriff’s department and they came out again. After their investigation, they knew it had the same M.O. as Mark Crisfield’s murder. Now they had two homicides and the only thing they knew for certain was they now had some type of a serial killer on their hands.
Joshua waited until the next night when Jed was with Chelsea once again to go after his third victim. It was Tom Silvers and he was one of the ring leaders of the neighborhood watch group. He was an older retired man who lived with his wife. His kids were grown and gone so it was just him and his wife living in Red Mountain. They didn’t go out much except to go into Ridgecrest occasionally and watch a movie. He foolishly was the one pushing the rest of the group to shoot first and ask questions later. A mistake that would soon cost him his life.
That night, Tom’s wife was going to be gone until later in the evening. It was her night to play bridge with a few women in Johannesburg. Joshua had gone through all his preparations of putting on all the dark clothes, putting on the charcoal, then getting Mister ready. He was still angry about Justin’s death and wasn’t going to be satisfied until he killed every last one on the neighborhood watch list. His anger had heightened as he arrived at his next target. Tom was lying on the couch watching television and he looked like he was half asleep when Joshua looked through the window at him. Joshua took Mister around to the unlocked back door and they very quietly snuck in. He tiptoed and Mister crept slowly along the carpet, over to where Tom was laying. Tom had his head turned away from them toward the front door. Joshua and Mister were only a few feet from him when he thought he heard something and started to raise up. Joshua gave Mister the signal to attack and he lunged at Tom’s throat. Tom tried to fight off Mister’s attack as he kicked him back with his feet and arms. Joshua rushed him and said, “You killed my brother. You killed Justin. Now you’re going to die.” He hit Tom several times in the upper chest and head until Mister had him by the throat. Tom struggled violently as he fought for his life. While on the floor, with Mister on top of him, Joshua went around and hit him a crushing blow to the head. He instantly stopped fighting back. Joshua gave Mister the signal to finish the job. Mister mangled Tom’s body as Joshua went over and gave him a few more blows just to make sure he was dead. Joshua said, “This is for the neighborhood watch.” He then turned and he and Mister quickly left the house.
When Tom’s wife got home she found the mangled body of Tom and called the sheriff’s department. They came out yet again, but when they came out this time there were four cars that came out on the call. They had two that stayed at Tom’s house investigating the murder while the other two deputies drove up and down the streets looking for their suspects.
Joshua was already hiding at his fourth target’s home by the time the sheriff’s deputies started looking all over town for him and Mister. They were using their flashlights and the lights on their cars searching everywhere for Joshua and Mister. Realizing they were looking for him, Joshua got scared and told Mister, “come on boy, we gotta get home.”
Joshua and Mister had made it almost home when they were spotted by Deputy David Stokes. He was the same deputy that had chased Jed and Justin that night in Randsburg when Justin had got bitten by the snake. When he was within fifty yards of them he jumped out of his car with his gun drawn and yelled for them to halt. He thought, Man, look at the size of that dog, it’s huge. Joshua didn’t pay any attention to him as he continued to head, for what he thought, was the safety of his house. When Joshua didn’t stop, Stokes fired a warning shot in the air, but Joshua still acted like he didn’t hear the shot, and he just kept heading home.
Joshua and Mister made it to the fence and snuck quickly through the gate, closing it behind them. Once they were inside the property they didn’t go inside the house, Joshua knew Deputy Stokes was right behind him so he took Mister to the secret hiding room outside the house. Joshua coaxed Mister to jump to the floor of the room as he tried to help him down. Mister almost made it, but went stumbling across the floor when he hit the bottom. Joshua, wrapped his arms around him and tried to comfort him as he said, “You’re okay boy, you’re okay? Seeing that he was, Joshua took Mister to a corner of the room and quickly threw a tarp over the two of them. He had just his head peeking out to see if Stokes had followed them in. He was shaking and afraid as he and Mister sat there all alone.
When Stokes approached the gate to the property that Mister and Joshua had just gone through, Sophie saw him and attacked the fence. She was barking furiously as she lunged her body against the tin wall. When she hit the wall, it was so load that it startled Stokes and he immediately jumped backwards. He was shouting the entire time, “Get back! Get back!” Even though Sophie was on the other side of the fence he was still a little afraid to make another move without backup. He believed Sophie was the huge dog he had seen with the dark figure he chased into the enclosed property.
Stokes called for back-up, “I found our suspects. I followed them to a house with an enclosed fence at the south end of town. It looks like our suspects are a guy and a huge, I mean a huge dog.” He gave them the address and soon, all the deputies from the sheriff’s department had the property surrounded, their car lights flashing and guns drawn. They shot Sophie with a Taser gun as they went through the gate and one of the officers took her and tied her to the fence and out of the way. While he was doing that, the deputy yelled to Stokes, laughing as he said, “Hey sissy, the dog doesn’t look that big.” Figuring they had the dog under control, they then started looking for Joshua. They very carefully searched every inch of the house and property, but couldn't find him. They called the animal control department to come out and take care of Sophie while they continued their search.
After searching the entire property and about to give up, Stokes said, “Let me look out back just one more time. I know he’s here somewhere.” He was shining his light around in the back of the house when he stumbled across the trap door opening to the secret hiding room. He slowly lifted the door with the leather strap. It was pitch black inside. He couldn’t see anything so he shined his light down and into part of the room. He thought to himself, Oh man! I don’t know if I want to go down there or not. If he has a gun he’ll kill me before I can defend myself. He called the other deputies over and said, “I think I’ve found him, I think he’s down there.” He pointed to the room below the trap door. The other two officers pulled their guns and pointed them at the opening of the room. Stokes peeked his head down into the room and yelled out, “Whoever is in there, you better come out now, or we’re coming in after you.” There was no response from Joshua, because he was too scared to move. He was sitting in the back corner of the dark room, now trembling with fear. Not
only was he afraid for himself, but afraid of what they might do to Mister.
One of the other deputies laughed and said, “I don’t really think anyone is down there.” Stokes replied, “He has to be down there, we’ve looked everywhere else and I know I saw him go through the gate. The fence is too high for him to get over and we’ve already checked to see if there were any holes in the fence where he could’ve escaped.” Then Stokes yelled down into the room again, “We know you’re down there, so you might as well come out right now. Come out with your hands in the air and you won’t get hurt.” He wasn’t really convinced the guy he’d seen was hiding down there, but he didn’t know where else he could be.
Joshua and Mister weren’t moving, as they sat there under the tarp, not making a sound. Joshua wasn’t about to surrender because he knew they would take Mister away from him, just like Jed said they would. His hands were trembling as he tightly held onto Mister and whispered, “It’s okay boy. You’re okay.” Mister could feel the tension in Joshua’s body and was starting to get a little antsy. Moving nervously, he let out a low growl. Stokes peeked his head down through the corner of the opening and shined his light as far back as he could, but still couldn’t see all the way into the corner of room. He said to the other two deputies, “There’s no use, it’s just too dark in there for me to see all the way to the back. I guess I have no choice, I have to go down and check it out.” One of the deputies joked as he smirked and said, “I’m glad it’s you and not me, man. Keep your weapon drawn just in case he’s down there.” He looked over at the other deputy and smirked again. He didn’t really believe anyone was there.
Stokes had just about made it to the bottom of the ladder when Joshua realized they had been caught. He wasn’t going to give up Mister without a fight so he gave Mister the signal to attack Stokes. Mister immediately charged Stokes and had him by the leg as he sank his fangs deep into his thigh. Stokes let out a painful scream as he yelled out, “He’s down here. The dog’s got me by the leg.” Realizing Mister had him in a death grip, he pointed his gun in the direction of Mister’s body and shot three times. There was a yelp from Mister and he was hit in the upper chest and head area. As Mister dropped to the floor Stokes immediately felt the release from his leg. Mister lay on the floor and was fighting to take his last breath. By then Stokes was standing at the bottom of the room trying to figure out what had just happened to him.
Seeing that his best friend now lay dying on the floor sent Joshua into a rage. He had his hammer raised and ran full force at Stokes yelling, “You killed my dog! You killed Mister. I’m going to kill you.” He started hitting Stokes with the hammer wherever he could hit him. Stokes temporarily lost his gun as it dropped to the floor when Joshua hit him on the arm. Stokes used his flashlight to ward off the hammer attacks by Joshua. Joshua hit Stokes a few more times before Stokes was able to push Joshua back with his arms and legs. Joshua was relentless and continued to attack Stokes. “He was crying and just kept yelling, “You killed my dog! I’m going to kill you!” Finally, Stokes was able to push him away just long enough to retrieve his gun that was laying on the floor. When Joshua came at him again Stokes was able to fire two rapid shots at him. One of the bullets hit Joshua in the neck and upper chest and he instantly fell to the floor. As soon as he dropped to the floor, he crawled over to Mister and wrapped his arms around him. As he took his last breath, Stokes could hear him say, “I love you Mister.” Although Stokes was in a lot of pain from the attack of both Mister and Joshua, he shined his light around the room to make sure there wasn’t anyone else down there, ready to attack him.
As Joshua and Mister lay dead on the floor, Stokes shined the light on Joshua’s face and said, “Man, he’s only a kid.” The other deputies helped pull Stokes up and out of the room and had him immediately see the paramedics who’d been on standby. The two deputies then went down into the room and checked things out for themselves. When they shined the light on Mister one of the deputies said, “Holy crap! Look at the size of that dog. Stokes was right, he’s a monster.” They then shined the light on Joshua and the deputy said, “Stokes was right about him too, he’s just a kid. A strange looking one at that.”
After Jed left Chelsea’s he made it to within a quarter of a mile from his house when he saw all the flashing red lights from the sheriff’s cars that had his property surrounded. He brought his pick-up to an abrupt halt and turned off the lights. He knew something serious was going on. He waited a few minutes, but couldn’t see what it was. He then got out of the truck and crept up as close as he could to the property, without being seen. He waited and watched from a safe distance as an ambulance vehicles loaded a person in it and a coroner’s vehicle loaded up a person. He could tell the person that got in the ambulance was a Deputy and he was able to walk into the ambulance on his own. He then watched as several animal control people carried a large dead animal out and laid it near the road. He instantly knew it was Mister and he got a deep sinking feeling in his stomach. He now believed that Joshua had done something terribly wrong. He didn’t see Joshua come out of the property so he figured that he must’ve been the one who had been put in the coroner’s vehicle. When the driver of the coroner vehicle and the police weren’t near the vehicle he snuck up as close to it as he could get from the dark side of the vehicle and peered in the window. They had a white sheet over him, but Jed thought it could possibly be Joshua. He quickly retreated back into the darkness and far enough away that no one could see him. He went behind some Yucca plants and sat down and tried to collect himself. He had all kinds of thoughts going through his head. He was both angry and sad about Joshua, but feared now for his own life. He knew that he would never be able to go back to that house again. After sitting there for a few minutes, he decided to head back to his truck and get out of there before someone spotted him and realized he was Joshua’s brother.
The only place he now believed he was safe was back at Chelsea’s house. Once he got there, he had to see if she would drive down to his house and find out for sure what had happened to Joshua. He explained to her about all the Sheriff and Police cars surrounding his property and that he needed to find out what was going on. When he told her about what he had seen, her first reaction was, “Oh my God! This can’t be happening.” Jed was shaking and tears were starting to roll down his face, “I don’t really know yet, but I need to find out if Joshua is dead. I know Mister is dead and I think Joshua is too. Maybe we can drive down and see if you can find out for me? I’ll stay hidden in the car while you talk to someone.”
They took her father’s car and drove down close to Jed’s house, but stayed far enough away not to be noticed by the police. When they got there Chelsea said, “Stay down and I’ll find out what happened.” By then, there were several Red Mountain neighbors that were standing around talking about what had taken place. She went running up to one of the women standing there watching and said, “What happened here?” The woman immediately told her everything she knew as she said, “A boy that lived here and his dog killed three people in Red Mountain over the past two days and the sheriff’s department deputies followed him back to this property and killed him and his killer dog after they attacked the deputy.” Chelsea let out a gasp and put her hands to her face as she said, “Oh! That’s horrible!” She didn’t tell the woman she knew the boys that lived there and the woman didn’t have time to ask her if she did, before Chelsea thanked her and immediately ran back to her car. Once inside the car, she put her face in her hands and cried. She told Jed what the woman had told her. It was just as Jed had suspected. He sat back in the seat and began to cry. Chelsea turned the car around and headed back to her house. Jed was totally devastated as he cried out in anger. He wasn’t really talking to Chelsea when he said, “I can’t believe he did that. I told him over and over again to stay inside the property. I told him we couldn’t get revenge on anyone for Justin’s death. Why didn
’t he listen to me?” Chelsea said, “It wasn’t your fault, Jed. You did everything you could do. You can’t go back there or they’ll know who you are and want to question you about everything. You can stay with us until we can figure out what we need to do next.”
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Chapter 22 - Leaving Red Mountain
Night Crawlers Page 21