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?"

the fur. Do you believe that there could be a pack of wolves running around out

"Who's to say?" Linus gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I can't see wolves tearing through a wall like a wrecking ball. Maybe it's something that escaped

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

he had to sift through the dead bodies

"A wolf," Fitzpatrick sniggered. "I swear

smirked before asking, "You

kid, it's just that...well, he's a kid." Alan tossed up his hands. "An Ivy league, smarty pants, know-it-all kid. He's

trying to say that

"Nope, I like to play it like my wife; I turn twenty-four with every passing

down at the speedometer

"Damn kids are taking our jobs." Fitzpatrick begrudged in a doleful

"Is that

also hope I get home in time this evening to watch 'Battle of the Network

but he restrained himself as a semi-truck roared past them on the other side of the road. The first sign of life ever since leaving

"I was thinking about calling Linda." Linus

before Fitzpatrick said anything. "It's a

on his face. "I hate to say this, but I think you have a better chance of speaking rationally

"I can handle

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

"Did you catch the body on

"Which one," Linus

"The black

"Oh yeah, she was

"I can see you with a

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

he placed the radio back into the holster inside the car. "Long time no see." He shook

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 mother was found in the living room. Her entire skull was cracked wide

"It even got the daughters, too?" Linus

"Upstairs...all four girls. Two, four, seven and ten," Phelps chocked.

"Who found them?" Linus asked while zipping up

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

over 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 something from out of one of these dickhead horror

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

"I heard you found your

"It was more like we found what was left of him." Fitzpatrick snickered. "But, as

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

Linus stepped forward, placed his right hand on Phelps' shoulder and sympathetically

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

he got through with his last victim, something came up from out of his basement and tore him limb from limb, literally. He left his recorder on the entire

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

"Come inside and take a look at this." Phelps said as he stepped away from his

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