The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Without looking back, Linus shut the door to the empty, grey bricked interrogation room before sitting himself down behind the small desk that was placed directly in the middle of the cement floor. Besides the bathrooms, it was the only place in the entire police station where an officer could grab a piece of momentary privacy.

On the desk sat a tan telephone that was layered from top to bottom with multicolored transfer buttons. The man loosened his blue spotted tie for more neck room.Linus sat and stared blankly at the phone on the table in the interrogation room as though it were a bomb ready to go off at any second. His stiff right hand wanted more than anything to pick up the receiver, but the circuitry in his brain wasn't exactly prepared to register such a strenuous task yet.

He looked up at the blurry window ahead of him in the door to see large silhouettes pass by in the hallway. Back and forth his eyes zoomed, from the door to the phone, until at last his hand managed to disobey the ongoing orders that his brain had been receiving.

Slowly, he punched the number nine and seven more numbers after that one. As if he could sense a slap coming right at his face, Linus clinched his body in anticipation for an answer.

"Hello?" A young, female's voice eagerly spoke.

"Hey there, kiddo, how are you?" Linus cleared his dry throat, just grateful to hear the girl's playful voice.

"I'm find, dad." The girl giddily replied. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad, I just called to see how everything was going with you ladies."

"It's going pretty good, I guess." She sighed.

"You guess?"

"Well...I guess I'd better get it out in the open before mom tells you. I got a D in algebra."

Linus gladly exhaled before asking, "What are you doing getting a D, Tabitha? You're a smart girl. And just what are you doing home from school today anyways?"

"I know, dad, it's just...algebra is so damn hard, and our teacher is such a witch. The teachers are having their conferences, by the way."

"Does your mother know that you're using that king of language, young lady?"

"Sorry. So darn hard," Tabitha groaned.

Smiling, Linus said, "You just have to keep working at it. You may not realize it now, but that witch of a teacher could be the best thing to ever happen to you."

"I suppose so. So, uh...we all heard about what happened up there in Cuyahoga. How you caught that kidnapper and all."

"I didn't catch anyone; something else beat us to the punch."

"Yeah, well at least it's all over now."

"For now, or until the next perv comes crawling out of the sewer." Linus sighed before taking a long breath. "How's your sister doing?"

Tabitha hesitated at first before replying, "She's okay. She still won't eat much. Mom says she eats like grandma used to when she was still alive."

"Like a bird?" Linus' smile shrank.

"Something like that."

"Listen, uh, is your mom around by any chance?"

"Yeah, she's in the kitchen. Do you want me to go and get her?"

"Would you please, honey?" Linus held his breath and tightened his fists. In the background he could hear Tabitha's mother speaking. He could tell just by her distant tenor that he was the last person she wanted to talk to.

"Hello?" The woman answered in a melancholy nature as though she were being inconvenienced.

"Hi there," Linus perked up. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Linus. How are you?" She defensively replied.

"Not bad, not bad. I just called to see how everything was."

"Everything is going just fine." The woman sarcastically said.

"Tabi tells me that Liz is still...still not eating."

The woman sighed, "Well, after what she went through, eating is probably the last thing on her mind. I'm glad that you were able to catch your kidnapper, though. Were you able to find whatever it was that killed him?"

"No, not yet," Linus rolled his eyes. "But I didn't call to talk about that."

"What did you call about then, Linus?"

"Actually, I was wondering if it...if I could come down this weekend and see you guys."

There was an inflated pause over the phone at that instant. Linus held his breath and shut his eyes.

"Linus...I don't think that would be a very good idea; at least not yet."

Sitting back in his seat, Linus asked, "And why not, Alice? I haven't seen the girls since Thanksgiving, for Christ's sake."

"Linus, you just got off of a case that you've been working on since last September."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You know full well how you get too involved in your cases. You bring them home with you. I don't think it would be wise to bring this particular one all the way down to Xenia."

Linus dropped his head to the table and rubbed his blushing face in anguish. "I only wish you could have seen the girl we found in that madman's basement, Alice. The look on that child's face," Linus gulped. "She looked just like—

"Stoppit, Linus! Just stoppit!" Alice furiously screamed into the phone. "Do you see what I mean? I don't want to know what happened down in some murderer's basement, and I surely don't want our daughters to know! Elizabeth is a vegetable, and you want to come all the way here with that hanging over your head?"

"I need to see them!" Linus suddenly roared into the phone.

There sat another stretch of silence before Alice calmly uttered in a condescending tone, "And you wonder why we left."

Linus pulled the phone away from his ear and began to massage his pulsating temples as though they were ready to explode.

"Linus, just give yourself some time. Give us all some time; perhaps around spring, when all of this has finally died down. When Liz is better, then...then maybe you can come."

the desk and brooding over his daughters' faces, as

on the bottom repeatedly flashed. Linus reluctantly picked up the line and

"Hey, buddy, the old man wants to see

"Okay," Linus sighed, "I'm on my way." The detective hung

and sounds of ringing telephones, arguing hookers and every day, garden variety thugs being carried in from off the cold streets for whatever crimes that had committed. He secured his gun belt around his shoulder and began

Fitzpatrick called out while rounding the corner with a manila folder in

a morose glaze on his face and asked, "How did you

hard to put two and two together." Alan said before both

"Same as usual," Linus

"You sure," Alan glanced

"Yeah," Linus kept his eyes to the

just happened to stop right in the

"Same as usual," Alan asked with a hard

his misty eyes; he then looked back up and asked, "You and Peggy got any

a glum appearance on his chunky face, looking as if the words that he wanted to say were still trapped inside his head. With a straight face,

Linus chuckled before sarcastically asking, "Oh darn, you mean to tell me that

thing on TV that Peggy and I actually enjoy together,

"Hey, you guys, the captain is waiting." Officer Donaldson feverishly motioned

the captain's office. The second Linus opened the door, the powerful aroma of cigarette smoke almost immediately struck

he put

He was an older white man in his early sixties. His nearly bald head was littered with liver spots while his thin build suggested that life on the force had taken its toll on his body. His rugged facial

"Well, if it isn't Starsky and Hutch, in the flesh." The captain coughed while gesturing for the

"Damn TV show." Alan griped, taking

especially since you're carrying a cold." Linus said as he

"The cigarette has nothing to do with this cold I have." The captain hacked again. "When you have a wife that teaches second graders, she's bound to bring home

"Everyone keeps congratulating me, but I wasn't the one who ended it all." Linus modestly turned

who ended it all, I was just listening to this tape right before you two stepped in." The captain said before pressing the play

and snarls all over again. Linus sulked in his seat like a five year old, still not believing that it was only a

"Poor schmuck," the captain offhandedly mumbled while pushing the off button. "He barely got a word out

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan arrogantly sucked his

out in the hills of Montana, and in all my years I've never

"we have reason to believe that we may be dealing with something else, perhaps a

Brice gaily chimed as he opened

"Come on

man humbly panted as if he had been running while holding two green folders underneath his right armpit. "I was told that you three would be here, so

"Whaddya got?" The captain asked while leaning back in his

"Well, three things. First off, I ran the animal's recording through the voice

captain motioned. "Just slow down and breathe for a

Linus stepped in. "You mean to stand there and say that our so called state-of-the

Linus, there's more."

"There

"I also ran an analysis on the fur follicles we found. It's all wolf hair, every single strand. But on top of that, and

on their warm faces; not a single hint of emotion could be seen. They possessed the appearance of someone who could sense that

to see or hear what was

"Close the

Brice did as

The captain then eyeballed the nervous young man while slipping his frail fingers into the other before asking in a composed and dignified demeanor, "Son...just what do you suppose we do with that bit of information? Do you think it's wise that we just allow you, or anyone else for that matter, to leak that out to the public? This is a police station,

All Linus could do was sit and watch Brice, who was still stuck

"Now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to strike everything

hot spotlight were

The captain looked dead into the man's

back at the captain with the most innocent and confused poses on their faces as though they were locked in a moment of absolute

"Let's just say that you got the animal's saliva

Seemingly too wound up to be contained, Brice

"Shh." The captain nodded. "We're gonna say just

"Yes, sir," Brice hesitantly recoiled. "We'll say

fact, let's all say that. Let's pretend this is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together. There was no saliva sample to speak of. Alan?" He pointed

in the matter, Fitzpatrick simply uttered, "There was no

dead-eyed

man blushed while grudgingly stuffing his all-important

"Good. Now,

it's one hundred percent wolf fur alright. No doubt about

"But your analyzer, or whatever it is, said that

make the thing,

"Not unless we're talking about the quote, unquote, Jaws of all wolves. Something that's super big and running free and loose out there

"Yeah, you didn't see the size of those holes that it left behind, Captain." Alan added. "It

measured up to six and a half feet long. Assuming this thing is capable of standing, like a bipedal, I'd say

The captain once again leaned back in his seat and glanced over at the gloomy sky

to handle here in the big city to be chasing after some overgrown...whatever. But I was thinking, right before you fellas came in here. All of

mentioned that yesterday. Something just broke into that house and tore those guys apart. Who

wife finally took that vacation to Hawaii. I guess they watched that Brady Bunch episode with Vincent Price one

Brice all sniggered

"I do remember Wilson saying something about some hair being left behind." Brice

that means either we have two of these things running around, or the same animal is hitting different

The captain said, placing his hands on his desk and leaning forward with a serious presence behind his mustache. "Cummins is dead. That now leaves us with something that is possibly even more dangerous. So, it killed three drug dealers and a sicko car salesman. Big fucking deal. As far as I'm concerned, we're all better off. But two nights ago, it managed to break into a house and kill

"Well, what do we do, hire an old time search posse?"

more than four men. Hook up with Cuyahoga Falls and the highway patrol. We all seemed to work pretty well

sir," Alan said, promptly wiping the cheesy grin from

Wilson's file and see if you can dig up something more on this thing. As I was telling Bruin and Fitz before you dropped by, I've never heard a wolf sound like this

dower expression on his face, replied as he too

the wooden chair that he was attached to. For a few brief moments there melted a quaint silence between he and the captain that

it took you six months, but you finally did it."

face at that second. He was

"Finally," he apprehensively muttered. "I'm just glad that it's

The captain sat and stared unceasingly at Linus in humble adoration before saying,