"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 the fur. Do you believe that there could be a

see wolves tearing through a wall like a wrecking ball. Maybe

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

his mind, but he had to sift through the dead bodies first before he could even place the image of

sniggered. "I swear that Brice gets dumber

Linus smirked before asking, "You don't think

"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 and I. The

you trying to say that we're old

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

at the

"Damn kids are taking our

"Is that

"No, I also hope I get home in time this evening to watch 'Battle of the

past them

thinking about calling Linda."

anything.

"I hate to say this, but I think you have a better chance

handle O'Dea, in small doses, mind

drowning 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 one

"Which one," Linus glanced strangely over

"The black lady," Fitzpatrick

"Oh yeah, she was a

"I can see you with a

Linus

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

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

"How are you, Phelps?" Fitzpatrick

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

"It even got the daughters, too?" Linus regrettably

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

"Who found them?" Linus asked while zipping up his

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

to a distant pine bush and watched as the loudly weeping

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

take a quick peek inside, just to

heard you found your

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

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

on Phelps' shoulder and sympathetically

glancing back and saying, "Sometimes, losing a nephew feels like losing your own son. This is all his mother needs right now. Does anyone know what did all of this? A

kept a recording of all the rapes he committed. Last night, right after he got through with his last victim, something came up from out of his basement and tore

doesn't believe it's a bear." Fitzpatrick added. "He says

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

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