"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

"Who's to say?" Linus gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I can't see wolves

"The zoo," Fitzpatrick chuckled. "If I ever see the thing that could eat the way that fucker did last night, then I hope we never find

actually wanted the creature to materialize inside his mind, but he had to sift through the dead bodies first before he

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

Linus smirked before asking, "You don't think

up his hands. "An Ivy league, smarty pants, know-it-all

"Are you trying

it like my wife; I turn twenty-four with every passing

while glancing down at the speedometer

"Damn kids are taking

"Is

"No, I also hope I get home in

burst out laughing, 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 Cummins'

was thinking about calling

took a few moments before Fitzpatrick said anything. "It's

Linus bitterly sulked with a far off expression hanging on his face. "I hate to say this,

"I can handle O'Dea, in small

place inside the cruiser. For a few moments Linus

catch the body on

"Which one," Linus glanced strangely over at

"The black lady,"

"Oh yeah, she

"I can see you with

Linus grinned...and

red and white brick house. Without uttering

guys." The officer greeted as he placed the radio back into the holster inside the car. "Long time no see." He shook both Linus

are you,

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.

"It even got the

"Upstairs...all four girls. Two, four, seven and ten," Phelps chocked. "Something just...just tore its way

"Who found them?" Linus asked while

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

over to a distant pine bush and watched as the loudly weeping grandmother

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

to take a quick peek inside, just to see what we're

"I heard you found

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

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

hand on Phelps' shoulder and sympathetically whispered into the man's face,

nephew feels like losing your own son. This is all his mother needs right now. Does anyone know what did all of this? A bear

"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 from out of his basement and tore him limb from limb, literally. He left his recorder on the entire time. We can't seem

believe it's a bear." Fitzpatrick

as he stepped away

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