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?"

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

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 from the

"If I ever see the thing that could eat the way that fucker did last night, then I hope we never

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

"A wolf," Fitzpatrick sniggered. "I swear that Brice gets

"You don't think too

"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 Ivy league, smarty pants, know-it-all kid. He's just twenty years younger than you

"Are you trying to say

to play it like my wife;

Linus smiled at the remark while glancing down at the speedometer to notice for the very first time that he

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

"Is that all

"No, I also hope I get home

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

thinking about calling Linda."

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

on his face. "I hate to say this, but I think you have a better chance of speaking rationally with someone like O'Dea

"I can handle

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

"Did you catch the body

"Which one," Linus glanced strangely

"The black lady,"

"Oh yeah, she was

can see you

Linus grinned...and drove

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,

the radio back into the holster inside the car. "Long time no see." He shook both Linus and Alan's

"How are you,

mother, father and their four daughters. The mother was found in the living room. Her

even got the daughters, too?" Linus regrettably

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

"Who found them?" Linus asked while

said. "She lives right across the street. She and the mother have coffee every morning. Can you imagine finding

and watched as

"You can hardly take two steps without...it's like something from out of

"We would like to take a quick peek inside, just to see what

heard

"It was more like we found what was left of him." Fitzpatrick

"And whatever found him made its way here." Phelps rubbed his face in weariness. "It broke in

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

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

last 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

it's a bear." Fitzpatrick added. "He says that the paw

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

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