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

see wolves tearing through a wall like a wrecking ball. Maybe it's something

"The zoo," Fitzpatrick chuckled. "If I ever see the thing that could eat the

Linus actually wanted the creature to materialize inside his mind, but he had to sift through the dead bodies first before he could even place the image of an overgrown killer beast prowling the countryside into his

sniggered. "I swear that

"You don't

hands. "An Ivy league, smarty pants, know-it-all kid. He's just twenty years younger than you and I. The guy is creepy, if you

"Are you trying to say

to play it like my wife; I turn

the speedometer to notice for the

are taking our jobs." Fitzpatrick

"Is that all you're

home in

out laughing, but he restrained himself as a semi-truck roared past them on the other

"I was thinking about calling Linda."

Fitzpatrick said anything. "It's a shame that you have

hate to say this, but I think you have a

handle O'Dea,

place inside the cruiser. For a few

"Did you catch

"Which one," Linus glanced strangely

"The black

"Oh yeah, she

"I can see

Linus grinned...and drove

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

the radio back into the

"How are

"Not too well, I'm afraid." Phelps pouted before turning to the house to his right. "We got six dead bodies. A mother, father and their four daughters. The

"It even got the

chocked. "Something

them?" Linus

"The wife's mother," Phelps said. "She lives right across the street. She and the mother have coffee every morning.

to a distant pine bush and watched as the loudly weeping grandmother was consoled by a number of female

hardly take two steps without...it's like

"We would like to take a quick peek inside, just to see what we're dealing with." Linus

"I heard

"It was more like we found what was left of him." Fitzpatrick snickered. "But, as it so happens, something else found him

its way here." Phelps rubbed his face in weariness. "It broke in through a

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

lamentation before glancing back and saying, "Sometimes, losing a nephew feels like losing your own son. This is all his mother needs right now.

still trying to sort out." Linus responded. "Our man kept a recording of all the rapes he committed. Last night, right after he got through with his last victim, something came up

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

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

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