When Wayne and Sharmon Stock are found shot to death in their farmhouse, the investigation starts close to home.
Chapter 1: What is the setting of the In Cold Blood story?
It was late, past midnight. The moon was nearly full, and its pale ghost light spread across the great, dark Nebraska plains. Not quite enough to see much of anything. The moon had no competition, not out here, so far from the polluting light of a city or town of any size. A few farm buildings, caught in the muted glow, threw black moon shadows, and all around was silence. Almost.
It was a pickup truck by the sound of it, tires crunching over gravel, headlights poking at the night along the country road, as if the driver was looking for something. And there it was, rising out of the dark. A farmhouse. The pickup slowed down, turned in. The driver looked at his companion. This was the place.
They gathered up their tools, got out, gently, gently shut the truck's doors, and walked across the yard. It was a big two-story place, old, established. Even in the moonlight, it showed off a little, like people cared about this house, about appearances. Was anyone home? Maybe, maybe not. No sign of life, no movement inside, no dog barked. One of them made a decision.
They would not enter through the front door as family would, but in quick order, they found a window, unlocked. So, here it was, the way inside. No turning back now. This is a story about fear.
I was sitting up in bed and I said, Andy, should I be shaking? And he said, that's normal. It's shock.
The fight, flight, or freeze kind of fear that grabs you by the throat. So there was a real, genuine itch in your back that somebody was going to come after you.
Come after me, come after my family.
And it's a story about certainty. And I'm going to do my level best to hang your ass on the highest tree. Certainty, right or wrong.
I know what happened and no one will believe me.
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Chapter 2: How did the investigation of Wayne and Sharmon Stock's murder begin?
I drove in, and I went in the shop on the farm. And Dad's pickup was there, which I thought was a little bit strange. Normally, he went to the post office about 9 o'clock every day. So I thought, well, maybe he's not gone yet, or maybe he took Mom's car to put gas in it for her. for the day.
Confusing. He walked across the farmyard to the house and went inside.
Had some paperwork for dad. Went in the house, laid it on the kitchen table, turned around and left. Looking back, I thought it was strange. There was no coffee made. But at the time, I didn't connect. Went to the shop and getting things ready for the morning. And Got to thinking that, you know, it was kind of strange. There wasn't a lot of movement around.
The back door was open, but the screen door was shut. Sure. Didn't connect with that. Went inside again and, you know, didn't really see anything unusual, I guess. I think I tried to call Dad's cell phone. He didn't answer. And that's when I thought, well, Where could they have gone? Picked up the phone in the house. Thought, well, I'd try him again. And there was no dial tone.
And that's when my heart kind of sunk. I guess that, for some reason, was a little bit of a trigger in my mind. Something was wrong. Something was wrong. Thought, well, I better go upstairs. As I started up the stairs, there was some blood on the walls. and whatnot, and, you know, I knew it was bad.
But really, he had no idea how could he. It was perhaps the central moment in the life of Andy Stock. When he rounded the staircase that morning, in that farmhouse he knew so well, the one he'd grown up in, and saw blood on the walls.
It's got to be surreal to a moment like that. I mean, could you... Does your mind even register what... No.
You know, I don't... I think good Lord protects us. Yeah. Um... My body's kind of going to shock, I think. And even at the time I saw the blood in the stairway, I thought, well, gosh, maybe something happened and they left in the ambulance. They wouldn't have wanted it. They said, oh, we'll call in the morning if it wasn't that bad.
So that was kind of my process of thought, I guess, at that point. Until I rounded the corner and saw Dad laying there on the floor.
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