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."

Without replying, Linus slammed the receiver down before shoving the phone away. He held his aching head in his hands while sitting at the desk and brooding over his daughters' faces, as well as the smug manner in which his wife carried on during their conversation. He wanted to tear

phone rang. The red button on the bottom repeatedly flashed. Linus reluctantly picked up the line and soberly

buddy, the old man wants to see

"I'm on my way." The detective hung up the phone, straitened his tie and marched towards

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

"Hey!" Fitzpatrick called out while rounding the corner with

Slightly alarmed, Linus looked back with a morose glaze on his face and asked, "How did you know I was

and two together." Alan said before both he and Linus started up the

"Same as usual," Linus

sure,"

kept his eyes to the passing

As they reached the third floor, both men just happened to

asked with

his partner to see his misty eyes; he then looked back up and asked, "You

Alan glared at Linus with 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, Alan bellyached, "I missed 'The Battle of the Network

asking, "Oh darn, you mean to

"Make fun if you want, but it's the only thing on TV that Peggy and I actually enjoy together,

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

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

gruff, country speaking captain ordered as he put out his cigarette

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 feathers were straight out of a Marlboro

and Hutch, in the flesh." The captain coughed while gesturing for the

"Damn TV show." Alan griped, taking his

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

with this cold I have." The captain hacked again. "When you have a wife that teaches second graders, she's bound to bring home some of their germs sooner or

me, but I wasn't

not, but quite frankly, it's all over now. But, speaking of the one who ended it all, I was just listening to this tape

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

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

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan

in all my years I've never heard a wolf sound anything like that. And believe me, I know exactly what a wolf sounds like. Hearing

"Well, sir," Alan shrugged, "we have reason to believe that we may be

"Knock, knock." Brice gaily chimed as he opened the captain's door ever so

"Come on in, Patrick." The captain

if he had been running while holding two green folders underneath his

"Whaddya got?" The captain asked while leaning

voice analyzer. Believe it or not, this is not a

"Calm down, son." The captain motioned. "Just slow down and breathe for a

there and say that our so called state-of-the art equipment

on, Linus, there's more." Brice continued to

"There

we found. It's all wolf hair, every single strand. But on top of that, and you're not gonna believe this. The saliva I found in the church...it's

warm faces; not a

stood by the door, waiting to see or hear what

"Close the door,

a completely pale face, Brice did as

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

who was still stuck in statue mode, stare at the captain as if he were a

strike everything you just mentioned about that saliva off the plate, right

"Captain," Brice uneasily smiled as though a searing hot spotlight were

captain looked dead into the man's

Linus, Alan and Brice all looked back at the captain with the most innocent and confused poses on their faces as though they were locked

you got the animal's saliva mixed up with some

Seemingly too wound up to be contained, Brice opened his mouth and

"Shh." The captain nodded.

"Yes, sir," Brice

is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together. There was no

As if he had a choice in the matter, Fitzpatrick simply uttered, "There was no saliva

dead-eyed

"No sample, Captain." The young man blushed while grudgingly stuffing

"Good. Now, what about this

it's one hundred percent

"But your analyzer, or whatever it is, said that it wasn't a wolf.

"Captain, I didn't make the

we're talking about the quote, unquote, Jaws of all wolves.

holes that it left behind, Captain." Alan added. "It seemed pretty damn big to us. God help anyone if something like that is out there on

the snow. It has a...foot size of at least sixteen. Just on all fours, it measured up to six and a half feet long. Assuming this thing is capable of standing, like a bipedal, I'd say it was possibly close to seven feet tall."

back in his seat and glanced over at the

we. We've got entirely too much 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 this sounds damn familiar. Do you guys remember that incident back in November, with those Haitians or Jamaican's,

that yesterday. Something just broke

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

and Brice

being left behind." Brice pondered. "I sure

we have two of these things running around, or the same

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 four little girls and their parents. Inside their own

"Well, what do we do, hire

four men. Hook up with Cuyahoga Falls and the highway patrol. We all seemed

wiping the

something more on this thing.

"I'm on it, Captain." Brice, with a dower expression

back and relaxed into the wooden chair that he was attached to.

took you six months, but you finally did it." The captain smirked at

graced Linus' face at that second. He was visibly

he apprehensively muttered. "I'm just

at Linus in humble adoration before