The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Chapter 19

"What time is it?" Linus moaned while driving all too slowly down the desolate highway on a day that was nearing noontime.

Fitzpatrick looked out at the passing farmland scenery and asked, "Does it really matter?"

Linus must have sighed at least three to four times since leaving the house. The man's entire body felt as if it were carrying a load of bricks tied to his heels. No matter what, he just couldn't get the fog out of his brain.

"It's hard to believe that this thing hiked almost three miles away just to eat more people."

Stirring awake from his dull stupor, Linus glanced over and grunted, "Huh?"

"I said, I can't believe the thing hiked three miles just to eat more people." Fitzpatrick replied a bit louder.

"Yeah," Linus sighed again."

"You gotta be kidding me." Alan griped.

"Whaddya mean?"

"What's with all the damn sighing? You sound like my wife whenever she wants sex from me?"

Linus shrugged and said, "We just wrapped up a five and a half month kidnapping investigation, and you're asking what's with all the sighing?"

"For Christ's sake," Alan grumbled, "it's not the first kidnapping we've ever covered."

Linus didn't bother to look over at his partner, instead, he gazed upwards into the grey, brooding sky. "What would make a person do all of that, Al?"

"Do what?"

"Kidnap, rape and kill. He even raped the guys, for God's sake." Linus shook his head in shame. "I'm sitting here trying to figure out what sort of twisted event in this man's life could have brought him to such a point."

"Who knows?" Alan groaned. "He obviously had some kind of sick fetish that needed to be fulfilled. You mentioned it yourself back at the TV station."

"And the smell," Linus lamented. "How can any normal human being tolerate having all those dead bodies in that house and not become sick themselves?"

"After a while, even the most perverted person becomes accustomed to his or hers perversion. The man was obviously tormented."

Bruin only scanned the grazing land that passed by at 33 mph.

"I wonder if Gloria saw—

"That's enough!" A frustrated Fitzpatrick hollered.

A momentary quiet took place inside the car before Linus again sighed and said, "I suppose you're gonna tell me that I'm feeling sorry for myself, right?"

"No, it's not that." Fitzpatrick huffed. "You're shitting bricks because after all these months someone or something else got that fucker before you could. We all wanted to plug a bullet in the guy, but we missed out."

Linus rolled his eyes in the other direction, hoping that he could possibly ignore his partner's rant, but it seemed that the more he tried to focus on other matters, Gloria's pale, terrified image would cross his path in stunning full color.

"Whaddya think?" Fitzpatrick looked over.

"Think about what?"

"About what Brice said about the fur. Do you believe that there could

the steering wheel tighter. "I can't see wolves tearing through a wall like a wrecking ball. Maybe it's

I ever see the thing that could eat the way that fucker did last night, then I

but he had to sift through the dead bodies first before he could even place

sniggered. "I swear that

"You don't think too much of

"It's not that I don't like the kid, it's just that...well, he's a kid." Alan tossed up his hands. "An

"Are you trying to say that

to play it like

down at the speedometer to

kids are taking our jobs." Fitzpatrick begrudged in

"Is that

also hope I get home in time this evening to

wanted to burst out laughing, but he restrained himself as a semi-truck roared past them on the other side of the road.

thinking about calling Linda."

It took a few moments before Fitzpatrick said anything. "It's a shame that you have to actually think

to say this, but I think you have a better chance of speaking rationally with someone like O'Dea than

can handle O'Dea, in small doses, mind

silence took place inside the cruiser. For a few moments Linus actually believed that he had slipped into

"Did you catch the body on that

Linus glanced strangely over

"The black lady," Fitzpatrick

yeah,

"I can see you with

As Linus parked the cruiser behind a coroners van, both he and Alan noticed a barrage of officers and reporters all milling about the yard of a red and white brick house. Without uttering a single word, they climbed out of the vehicle and dragged themselves towards another squad car just a few feet away where a bald, middle-aged black officer was standing with a C.B. radio in

into the holster inside the car. "Long time

"How are you, Phelps?" Fitzpatrick

the house to his right. "We got six dead bodies. A mother, father and their four daughters. The mother was found in the living room. Her entire skull was cracked wide open. The father was found in the basement with his guts

"It even got the daughters, too?" Linus

four, seven and ten," Phelps chocked. "Something just...just tore its way through the bedroom

Linus asked while

"She lives right across the street. She and the mother have coffee

All three men looked over to a distant pine bush and

"You two should see the bedroom." Phelps murmured. "You can hardly take two steps without...it's like something

would like to take a quick peek inside, just to see what we're dealing with." Linus said while glancing nervously over at

"I heard you

like we found what was left of him."

Phelps rubbed his face in weariness.

placed his right hand on Phelps' shoulder and sympathetically whispered into the man's face, "We're sorry about

before glancing back and saying, "Sometimes, losing a nephew feels like losing your own

victim, something came up from out of his basement and tore him limb from limb, literally. He left his recorder on the entire time. We can't seem to make

from forensics, doesn't believe it's a bear." Fitzpatrick added. "He says that the

inside and take a look at this." Phelps said as he stepped away from his cruiser and led Bruin and Fitzpatrick to the

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