The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Fleetwood Mac's , 'You making loving fun', played on low volume in the deck as Linus pulled his brand new, dirty orange Chevrolet Chevette into the parking lot of his four floor apartment complex.

The keys were taken out of the ignition. The eight track was placed on the passenger's seat and a load of papers and folders were gathered into his aching arms.

Like a battle weary soldier, the detective slumped out of his car and carried on to the front door, holding tightly to the contents that were securely tucked underneath his right arm as to not allow the wind to take them away.He hated to fiddle with his keys in such cold conditions, but it was the only way to enter the building since the night guard had left for the evening. Linus feverishly cycled through his ring of keys until he spotted the gold key that he was searching for.

Before he could even slide the key into the lock, the door abruptly swung open, revealing behind it an elderly white woman and her black Labrador retriever.

"Edna?" Linus lost his breath. "Edna, it's ten past one in the morning, honey. What are you still doing up?"

Coming down from being so alarmed, Edna replied, "Oh well, I was just waiting for Stanley to come home, that's all. I figured you were him."

Gladly stepping in from out of the cold, Linus looked upon the sweet, frail thing before saying, "Edna, Stanley is twenty-four years old. He's not a little boy anymore."

"I know," Edna bashfully smiled, "but you never know how folks can be these days." Edna then stood back and examined Linus as if she were studying a work of art. "I saw you on TV yesterday morning. I heard you found that kidnapper fella. Good for you." She grinned while proudly pinching Linus' left cheek.

Linus only blushed before reaching down to pet Edna's dog. "Something got to him before I could. But at least he's gone."

"That's right, good riddance to bad rubbish, I always say." Edna said, giving Linus a spunky punch in the arm. "Go get 'em!"

As Linus raised back up, unbeknownst to him, strands of fur fell from out of his pocket and onto the linoleum floor. Both he and Edna continued to converse as the dog sniffed the fur.

a loud bang, the dog began to bark and snarl at the strange fur that it was sniffing. Linus and Edna gawked down at the animal, wondering just what had it so spooked all of the sudden. From one end of the hallway to the other, not a single soul could be seen or heard, and yet, the dog, which was usually the gentlest

to keep the dog from breaking its chain, "I wonder what's gotten into Earl all

he wakes the entire building!" Linus had to say out loud, taking three steps back just to avoid

"I think so, too." Edna relented. "Goodnight,

out of sight. He then looked down at the floor

the station to find out the results from the analysis that Brice took, and quite frankly, he was in no mood to investigate any further. He,

at long last. To his right sat a bureau with pictures of his wife and two young daughters. Without taking another look at the files and folders

felt like two hundred and twenty-one pounds of stale meat. Every joint in his body screamed out in agony for their master to take a long, hard stretch. But before even doing so, Linus went straight for the bathroom where he lifted the toilet seat, unzipped his pants and let out an

through, he flushed, cut on the light and washed his hands. In the midst of washing, he looked up into the mirror. The exhausted man that was staring back at him caused Linus to shudder in subtle disbelief. Wrinkles that were not present the morning before arose in striking,

his tie and rooted around for anything to eat. The instant he came across a Swanson's TV dinner located beside a can of Genesee

before looking down at the cardboard box that contained

every muscle in his body decided to tense up. He wasn't even hungry. Sluggishly, he turned off the stove before carrying both himself and his can of beer into the

the man; it was all part of the job. In the past five months alone Linus couldn't recall one time getting home from work before ten p.m. Being that he had to report back to

dared recollect upon the body bags in the basement only made him want to freebase coffee

ever constant threats of violence to his long suffering wife. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just happened to be playing on the late show. The scene where the killer cracked a young

but instead of being angry, he chose a completely

under his chair and pulled out the March issue of Playboy with Susan Kiger on the front cover dressed in a

with the gusto of a child opening a birthday present.The very moment he viewed the first set of breasts inside the magazine he quickly unzipped