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Episode Notes
A sleepy town has always had dark secrets but when young people turn up dead, mutilated and partially eaten a brother and sister decide they have no choice but to find out who's killing the townspeople.
The Wolf of Fagan County by David O'Hanlon
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Produced by Daniel Wilder
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Transcript:
Maybe Whistler was a nice town once. It seemed that way until the summer of \u201986. The old folks always whispered about certain places\u2014about the places you don\u2019t go and the boogeymen that dwelled within. Everyone in Fagan County knew a local ghost story. Back then, I loved to hear those stories.
Nowadays, not so much.\xa0
My dad trucked crops from the farms into the neighboring states of Louisiana and Mississippi. I didn\u2019t see much of him. He left before dawn and got home after sunset. The day before my thirteenth birthday, he took a load to Shreveport. I awoke to a stack of used horror comics the next morning with a note that read \u201cYou\u2019re old enough for the good ones now, soldier.\u201d
I loved the way those pages smelled. After all these years, I still have a couple of them in the suitcases I live out of. I\u2019d read through the entire bundle in a week. I flipped through them and found the one I\u2019d enjoyed the most for a second visit when my mother called from downstairs.
\u201cConnie! Come quick,\u201d she shouted.
I hated when she called me that. It was bad enough being named Conrad. The effeminate nickname caught on with my friends in second grade\u2026 and then with the rest of the student body by the end of recess. Something sounded off in her voice as I trudged down the narrow staircase that descended into the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the table with her elbows pressing into the vinyl top and her hands hiding her face. My sister, Lisa, had her head down, shrouded in her arms. Her body convulsed as she bawled noisily inside. I held my breath all the way to the table.
No one spoke to me as I slid the chair away from the edge and eased into it. Mom reached over and put her hand on mine.
\u201cSomething terrible\u2019s happened,\u201d she whispered.
Something terrible had happened a few weeks ago, too. And a few weeks before that. We\u2019d discussed both of those events as a family. No one was crying then. Sure, Mom had been shaken up by the discovery of the first body, but it seemed like nothing to worry about.\xa0
We all knew Old Man McGarrah from around town. He would pop out like a magician\u2019s rabbit to grump about what a bunch of slack-jawed hippy-spawn all the kids were whenever you least expected it. The police said it was a heart attack that took him and that coyotes took to eating his remains.
Grotesque and unseemly as it were, my folks delivered the news to my sister and me with just the facts and reminded us to stay away from the woods. Coyotes rarely attacked people, but Dad said there\u2019s something different about any animal\u2014including man\u2014once they got a taste for blood. The second time we were called to the table, it was clearly more bothersome.
Mom wasn\u2019t handling it well, but she remained calm as she told us about the bodies found out along County Road 63. A couple of teens gone to make out got cut up real bad. Chief Hardesty said it was just a freak occurrence\u2014a crime of opportunity\u2014and that the killer was likely long gone. Our parents told us to be home thirty minutes before sundown after that and to never go anywhere alone, just in case.
This time was different.
\u201cConnie,\u201d she started, tugging at the silver locket dangling from her thin neck. Her voice trembled. \u201cIt\u2019s Brenda.\u201d
My stomach knotted.
Brenda Knowles had been Lisa\u2019s best friend since kindergarten. She\u2019d babysat for me on a few occasions and came to eat dinner with us every Wednesday. She was my first crush too. I sniffled, but held back any other reaction until Mom could finish. Maybe it wasn\u2019t what I thought. Maybe those old Tales from the Crypt comics were poisoning my imagination the way Father Dean said they would at youth service. Maybe she was moving away. That would explain why they were so upset.
\xa0\u201cChief Hardesty found her this morning,\u201d Mom continued.
Nope. It was exactly what I thought it was.
I don\u2019t remember the exact moment that I realized the killings were a month apart, but I do remember Lisa raising her face to stare at Mom and then me in turn. Her lips quivered and then she stood up fast enough to knock the chair to the floor. She slammed her fists onto the table and screamed. That I\u2019ll never forget. That look\u2026 and those words.
\u201cShe was eaten!\u201d

Lisa cried until she passed out that night. I watched the news with Mom to see if the police had anything to say. The station\u2019s newest reporter, Rex Willits, looked like he\u2019d been sick as he raised the microphone close to his chin. His hand shook slightly and his trademark smile was nothing but a thin line of white teeth below his bushy mustache. Rex nodded slowly and started his report when the phone rang in the kitchen and Mom went to answer.
\u201cI\u2019m here at the Ridley Funeral Home in Fagan County to report on a grisly, unimaginable crime,\u201d Rex started. He swallowed hard. \u201cThe body of fifteen-year-old Brenda Knowles was found just before dawn this morning. Brenda had been babysitting for family friends the prior evening. She started the short walk to her home just before eleven pm.\u201d
I turned my attention to Mom\u2019s shouting in the kitchen.
\u201cWhat do you mean \u2018two days,\u2019 Paul?\u201d she growled. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take two damn days to get a mechanic.\u201d
Dad\u2019s truck broke down. That happened a lot when he was hauling rice to Shreveport. Only then, though. Mom noticed too. She had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
\u201cWhat about the kids?\u201d she wailed. \u201cYou know what\u2019s going on here! You\u2019re leaving us alone so you\u2014\u201d
Her voice became muffled and I scooted closer to the television to hear what Rex had to say. I heard the phone slam against the receiver several times and Mom stomping up the steps.
\u201cI\u2019ve seen the body\u2026 my God in Heaven, I\u2019ll never unsee it now,\u201d Rex said when movement caught his attention.\xa0
He snapped his fingers and pointed his cameraman in the direction of the police chief. Other reporters rushed in around him. Rex elbowed one of them out of his way and reached out with his mic.
\u201cDon\u2019t you buzzards have anything better to do?\u201d Chief Hardesty barked. \u201cA child is dead for Christ\u2019s sake.\u201d
\u201cHow?\u201d Rex asked. \u201cHow did she die?\u201d
\u201cViolently,\u201d Hardesty answered in his low, gruff drawl.
\u201cIs this related to last month\u2019s double homicide?\u201d a woman\u2019s voice asked.
\u201cWe don\u2019t have conclusive evidence linking the two, this early in the investigation,\u201d Hardesty said. His shoulders sagged. \u201cThere are\u2026 similarities.\u201d
\u201cWere the other victims missing flesh and muscle?\u201d Rex quizzed him. \u201cWere there bite marks on them as well?\u201d
Hardesty glared at Rex and then spoke with forced restraint. \u201cAt this time, I\u2019m asking all residents of Whistler and the outlying areas to stay indoors at night. The curfew is merely a request, however.\u201d
The wail of sirens cut the report short. We wouldn\u2019t find out until the morning that they\u2019d found another body. Crazy Delores lived in a shack on the edge of town. She sold herbal remedies and told fortunes for a dollar. No one knew how long she\u2019d been dead.
I climbed into bed, but didn\u2019t dare go to sleep. I opened a comic and thought about Dad. Maybe the rig really broke down, but I didn\u2019t buy it. He was spending time with some woman. In a strange way, that made me feel better. He was more worried about getting laid than he was about the killer on the loose, so maybe it wasn\u2019t a big deal.
My door creaked open and Lisa slipped through the gap. I laid the comic down. I didn\u2019t know what to say. \u2018Sorry your best friend was brutally murdered and partially eaten\u2019 really didn\u2019t seem like it\u2019d help the situation. Then again, \u2018we\u2019re going to find Brenda\u2019s killers\u2019 wasn\u2019t a winner either, but that\u2019s exactly what Lisa said as she leaned on my dresser.
I gawked at her and waited what felt like an eternity for her to say something else.
\u201cLook, Connie,\u201d she started, then paused and chewed her bottom lip. \u201cChief Hardesty is a scumbag. He\u2019s going to pin all this on the first person that ain\u2019t Baptist enough for him. Then the murderer is just going to drift away.\u201d
I was still too young to know how common that sort of thing was around there. Or what kind of a man Baxter Hardesty really was. I did want to make sure that Brenda\u2019s killer got caught, however.
\u201cThe killings are about a month a part,\u201d I said, hesitantly, unsure of exactly what I\u2019d discovered. I shrugged. \u201cWhat if the killer travels and just stops through here every few weeks?\u201d
\u201cOr lives here and returns home once a month?\u201d Lisa offered. \u201cDad\u2019s friend, Ted, is a long-haul driver.\u201d
I remembered. Ted tried to convince Dad to work with him all the time. I also remembered Ted coming to my birthday party. I shook my head.
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he\u2019s out of town now.\u201d I scratched the two recently sprouted hairs on my chin. \u201cWhat about a delivery driver? Brown\u2019s only gets a few deliveries a month.\u201d
Lisa thought it over and nodded. \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll go by and see when they got a delivery.\u201d
Thinking the conversation was done, I lifted my comic.
\u201cWhat is that, Connie?\u201d Lisa asked, shakily. \u201cWhat are you reading?\u201d
I closed the issue and looked down at the cover. Bright yellow eyes stared up at me above fangs dripping blood over a broken skull. I looked up to my sister. I knew what she was thinking and I wanted to tell her she was stupid. I wanted to, but I didn\u2019t. The same thought hit me when I look