Nightcrawlers: Reign of Terror

by Ron L. Carter

  Chapter 12

  He waited until Friday and it was the middle of the afternoon when Cooper loaded up Skeeter and Samson and headed to Red Mountain. When he got there, he used his charm when he stopped a woman walking her dog and asked her if she knew where the Larson's lived. Feeling comfortable with him, she gladly told him where they lived and even gave him directions on how to get there. Once he knew where they lived he went back to the ravine and parked his truck to wait for darkness to fall.

  He used the same technique he'd used when he broke into the houses, he wore all black and he painted his face with charcoal. When it was real dark, he took the dogs and they hiked the three miles back to Red Mountain and very close to the Larson house. Kerry's black pick-up was parked in the driveway next to another older pick-up and a car. Cooper could tell it was a younger person's truck because it looked like a four wheeler. It was raised off the ground about two feet and had all the bells and whistles. He had the dogs lie down and just relax as he watched to see if he could get a good look at Kerry if he came out of the house.

  He waited a few hours before Kerry came out and it looked like he was dressed to go out for the evening. Cooper chuckled to himself, "Look at that chubby belly on that big slob. He's either used to his mommies cooking or he drinks way to much beer." He figured Kerry had to be in his mid thirties. After he got in his truck and left Cooper said, "I got you sucker, it's just a matter of time, now." He then hiked back to where he had his pick-up hidden and cleaned the charcoal off his face before he headed back to the little shack.

  The next day, after he got up, he took the dogs and starting looking through the desert for wood. He carried bundle after bundle and threw it in the back of the pick-up. He continued to do that for the next few days until he had a pile of wood about five foot high and about ten foot wide. He stacked it out behind the shack, about twenty yards from where he parked his truck.

  After the week-end was over he figured if Kerry had a job he would be getting up early each morning and going to work. He drove back to Red Mountain just before daylight. He had the dogs with him as he parked hidden down by the old Silver Dollar Saloon. He waited there to see if Kerry would leave Red Mountain. He figured that if Kerry had a job he had to pass right by there in order to get to where he was going.

  He figured right and it was about seven thirty in the morning when Kerry came tearing past him in a big hurry like he was late for work. He pealed rubber as he turned north onto highway 395. Cooper slowly pulled in behind him and kept a safe distance between them. When he got to the turn off that went east to Ridgecrest Kerry went west into the tiny town of Inyokern. He went into a quick stop store and after a few minutes came out, with what Cooper believed, was a cup of coffee. He then got back onto the road that went into Ridgecrest. From the 395 turn off it was about a ten mile stretch east into town. You could see cars coming and going for miles in either direction. Cooper followed him to where he worked and once he was satisfied, turned around and left. He knew his plan for Kerry was now in place. He knew he could get him either while he was going to work or on his way home from work.

  The next day Cooper got up early again and he followed Kerry without the dogs with him. He didn't want to have any distractions when he grabbed Kerry. On this morning, when Kerry went in to get coffee at the little store, Cooper jumped out of his pick-up and went over and nailed a large spike in Kerry's right front tire while he was still inside. The air was slowly hissing out as Kerry got into the truck and quickly headed toward Ridgecrest. He was in such a big hurry that he didn't notice the tire was starting to go flat. He had gotten about three miles when he pulled off to the side of the road with the flat tire. Cooper waited until there wasn't any traffic coming or going for several miles in either direction and pulled in behind Kerry's truck.

  When he got out of his truck Cooper was smiling and being friendly as he asked Kerry if he needed any help. Kerry was pissed off and not in a very good mood to really be bothered by anyone at the moment. He said in an angry voice, "No, I can handle it myself." Cooper replied, "I'd be glad to help out if you need a hand?" Kerry didn't say anything as he started trying to figure out how he was going to change the tire. He had already removed the tire and had his jack out by the time Cooper went up next to him and was just standing there trying to talk to him.

  Cooper waited a minute or so for him to bend down and try to loosen one of the nuts holding the tire. That's when Cooper pulled a hammer out that he had tucked in the back of his pants and hit him in the side of the head with it. He didn't hit him hard enough to kill him, just enough to knock him out. Kerry went down like he'd been shot and Cooper quickly grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and drug him to the back of his truck. He let down the tail gate and lifted him onto it and into the bed of the truck. He then quickly duct taped his mouth and eyes. He put Kerry's hands behind his back and wrapped them and his feet with the duct tape several times. He then hog-tied him, (his feet to his hands), so he couldn't move once he woke up. After he was loaded up Cooper headed back down towards Ridgecrest and the little dirt road that led to the shack.

  By the time Kerry woke up, they were already traveling on the dirt road. He was being thrown from one side of the bed of the truck to the other as Cooper took the narrow turns a little faster than normal just to screw with him. He was laughing about it as he purposely took a few of them too sharp and too fast just to throw him across the bed and hit the other side.

  Once back at the shack Cooper went and let the dogs out. He told them to sit as he drug Kerry out by his feet and let him hit the ground. He cut the duct tape from his feet so he could walk as he picked him up by the collar and led him into the shack. He sat him down in a chair and then put duct tape around his feet again. He also wrapped duct tape around his chest and around the chair so he couldn't stand up.

  He then ripped the duct tape from Kerry's eyes. It took a few seconds for him to be able to focus on Cooper, but when he did Cooper asked, "Hey fat ass, do I look familiar to you?" Kerry shook his head, no. Cooper said angrily, "Take another closer look. Don't I look a little like the unarmed young guy you shot in the back at Red Mountain?" Kerry's eyes then got wide with fear as he just sat there. Cooper raged, "That young guy you shot in the back was my twin brother and you are going to die for killing him. You and your little group of vigilante's friends are all going to die for taking the law into your own hands." He then took the duct tape off of Kerry's mouth, "I want to know the names of the other three men besides your dad that was part of your little group. If you don't tell me then I'm going to let Skeeter and Samson here have some fun chewing on your body as they rip it apart."

  He was stammering like he didn't know who they were. Cooper gave Skeeter and Sampson the command to attack but not kill. They immediately knocked Kerry and the chair over and began ripping at his flesh. Cooper let them tear at his flesh for about thirty seconds before he had them heal and sit next to him.

  Then he went over and propped Kerry back up and while blood was flowing from his fresh wounds, he said again. "You need to tell me who the other three guys are that you and your dad were with Kerry. If you don't tell me I'm going to keep turning the dogs loose on you until you do tell me. You can make it hard on yourself or you can make it easy, it's all up to you."

  Kerry started to say he didn't know again when Cooper interrupted him and said, "That sounds like it's going to be the wrong answer Kerry. Are you sure you don't want to change your mind and tell me who they are before I turn my dogs loose on you again?" Kerry sat there for a minute and then he blared out their names. "The other three guys are Ted Summers, Mark Silvers and Frank Townsend. They're all friends of my dad." Cooper said, "Thank you Kerry. Now don't you feel a lot better, now that you have that off your chest?" He wasn't really expecting an answer as he took some more duct tape and put it across Kerry's mouth. He was excited that he had the names of the other three guys.r />
  He then went to the kitchen and got a butcher knife and went back over to Kerry. He lifted up his right hand and said, "Is that the finger you used to pull the trigger of the gun you shot my brother with?" Not getting an answer, he pulled Kerry's right index finger out straight and cut it off. He threw it on the counter and said, "Don't think you'll be needing that anymore, Kerry."

  He tortured Kerry again the next day as he turned the dogs loose on him two more times and let them rip at his body. It was about two in the afternoon when he left Kerry sitting in the chair with the dogs watching him. He went outside and started the fire of the wood he'd stacked up out back. He waited about ten minutes until the flames were shooting up in the air several feet and then went back inside. He put a thick rope around Kerry's body, just under his arm pits. He then cut the duct tape that was around his legs and walked him out by the fire.

  On the way there he laughed, "We're going to have a Weenie roast Kerry and I want you to be part of it." When he had Kerry standing right in front of the fire he taped his legs again with the duct tape. He waited just a minute and then he said, "I just want you to see and feel what my brother Dalton saw and went through just before he died." He then ripped the duct tape from Kerry's eyes and shoved him head first into the huge fire. He waited until he had been in the fire for several minutes and had quit squirming around and then he pulled his charred body from the flames. By then the rope had caught on fire and he had to put it out. He wrapped Kerry's body in a blanket and then took him to the back of his pick-up and threw him in the bed of the truck.

  He left his body in the truck until it was almost midnight. Then he loaded up the dogs and said, "Come on boys we have a delivery to make." He headed back to Red Mountain and when he got to the front of the Larson house, it was about two in the morning, and everyone was asleep. He pulled up out in front and quickly drug the charred body out and dumped it in the dirt road in front of the house. He was there less than ten seconds and then he quickly sped away.

  He knew Jim Larson and his wife would be devastated when they found out their son had been killed, and especially the way he was killed. He'd already made up his mind that he wasn't going to kill Jim right away. He wanted him to suffer for a while, as he thought about the way his son had died such a horrific death.