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 could be a

gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I can't see wolves tearing through a

the thing that could eat

to sift through the

sniggered. "I swear that Brice gets dumber by the

Linus smirked before asking, "You don't think too much

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 guy is creepy, if you

"Are you trying to say

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

at the remark while glancing down at the speedometer

"Damn kids are taking

"Is that all you're

home in time this evening to watch

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

was thinking

anything. "It's a shame that you have

a far off expression hanging on his face. "I hate to say this, but I think you have a better chance of speaking rationally with someone like

"I can handle O'Dea,

silence took place inside the cruiser. For a

catch the body

"Which one," Linus glanced

"The

"Oh yeah, she was a

"I can see you with a

Linus

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 feet away where a bald, middle-aged black officer was standing with

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

"How are

house to his right. "We got six dead bodies. A mother, father and their four daughters. The mother was found in the living

"It even got the daughters, too?"

Phelps chocked. "Something just...just tore its way through the bedroom door

Linus asked while

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

three men looked over to a distant pine bush and watched as the loudly weeping grandmother was consoled by

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

to take a quick peek inside, just to see what we're dealing with." Linus said while glancing nervously over

heard you found your

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

whatever found him made its way here." Phelps rubbed his

Phelps' shoulder and sympathetically

losing a nephew feels like losing your own

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 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 make heads or tails of just what

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

at this." Phelps said as he stepped away from his cruiser and

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