Night Dogs

There are two 1974 films that may have had an influence on Jerry Jacobson's short story “Night Dogs” - Macon County Line and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Both of these films used what would later become one of the most common horror and suspense tropes, the concept of travelers stranded in a backwoods town with criminal lunatics. In films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wrong Turn (2003), Hills Have Eyes (1977), and Tourist Trap (1979), the trope is elevated to create a more visceral, violent presentation featuring cannibalism, sexual perversion, and slasher horror elements. Other times, like Macon County Line and Breakdown (1997), the concept relies more on psychological suspense. This is the realm where Jacobson presents “Night Dogs”. 

Elizabeth is driving the back roads of rural Florida with her husband, John, a successful accountant who is in need of revolutionary eye surgery that will restore his sight. After entering the town limits of Tranquil, population 585, a siren splits the night sky. The two find themselves pulled over by a police officer, a Deputy Sheriff named Stringer. After presenting her identification, Elizabeth is told that both of them are under arrest despite the lack of any evidence of wrongdoing. In a frightening setup, Stringer explains that his brother is the other deputy in town and that both of them work for their uncle, the small-town Sheriff. 

The couple is taken to a small jail cell in the back of a rundown gas station. Their car is hauled by a wrecker to a lot of junk cars nearby. Things aren't looking promising for Elizabeth and John. 

The author injects loads of suspense as these two brothers aggressively interview the couple about their professions, friends, and family lives. These criminal police officers are planning a violent end for the travelers. After the two leave the gas station, the couple manages to escape the cell only to find themselves questioning their surroundings in a Hellish house on the hill. The resident, an old woman in a wheelchair, provides some disturbing answers that enhance this highway survival yarn. 

“Night Dogs” was published in the August 1976 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, a peak era that produced a lot of survival-horror and backwoods terror, none more disturbing than Deliverance (1972), based on James Dickey's 1970 novel. Author Jerry Jacobson was a mainstay for the mystery digests from 1965 through the mid-1980s. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and two paperback collections, Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories to Be Read With the Door Locked and Funeral in Another Town. Based on the quality of “Night Dogs”, I need to read more of Jacobson's stories.