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."

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 right through

red button on the bottom repeatedly flashed. Linus reluctantly picked up

"Hey, buddy, the old man wants

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

The second he stepped out into the busy hallway, he found himself instantaneously bombarded by the vibrant sights 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

"Hey!" Fitzpatrick called out while rounding

Slightly alarmed, Linus looked back with a morose glaze on his face

put two and two together." Alan said before both he and Linus started up the stairs. "How is

"Same as usual,"

"You sure," Alan glanced

"Yeah," Linus kept his eyes

both men just happened to stop right in the middle of the

as usual," Alan asked

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

wanted to say were still trapped inside his head. With a straight face, Alan bellyached, "I

mean to tell me that you missed 'Rerun' leaping his big self over

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

the captain is waiting." Officer Donaldson feverishly motioned from

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

captain ordered as he put out his cigarette in the

littered with liver spots while his thin build suggested that life on the

"Well, if it isn't Starsky and Hutch, in the flesh." The captain coughed while gesturing for the detectives to take a seat in the two chairs in front of his

"Damn TV show."

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

this cold I have." The captain hacked again. "When you have a wife that teaches second graders, she's

wasn't the one who ended it

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 right before you two stepped in." The captain said before pressing the play button on Cummins' tape

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

while pushing the off button. "He barely got a word out

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan arrogantly

born and raised out in the hills of Montana, and 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 a wolf out there is as common as hearing a car horn

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

as he

"Come on in, Patrick." The

The young man humbly panted as if he had been running while holding two green folders underneath his right armpit. "I was told

got?" The captain asked while leaning back in his creaky wooden

one of the folders, the young forensic examiner said, "Well, three things. First off, I ran the animal's recording through the voice analyzer. Believe it or not, this is not a wolf, or even a bear for that matter. The machine keeps

son." The captain motioned. "Just slow

a minute." Linus stepped in. "You mean to stand there and say that our so called state-of-the art equipment couldn't tell you what

"Hold on, Linus, there's more." Brice

"There

wolf hair, every single strand. But on top of that, and you're not gonna believe

The entire room at that moment grew eerily quiet. The captain, Linus and Alan all looked up at Brice with sour expressions on their warm faces; not a single hint of emotion could be seen. They possessed the appearance of someone who could sense

the door, waiting to see or hear what was

"Close the door, son." The

With a completely pale face, Brice did as commanded before standing straight and still

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

and watch Brice, who was still stuck in

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

uneasily smiled as though a searing hot spotlight were glaring down upon him, "you're not just gonna ignore

The captain looked dead into the man's eyes and simply asked, "What do

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 in a moment

you got the animal's

contained, Brice opened his mouth and said, "But,

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

sir," Brice hesitantly recoiled. "We'll

'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together. There was no saliva sample to speak of. Alan?" He pointed with

had a choice in the matter, Fitzpatrick

"Linus," the captain dead-eyed the man. "No saliva

sample, Captain." The young man blushed while grudgingly stuffing his all-important data back

"Good. Now,

it's one hundred percent wolf fur alright.

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

"Captain, I didn't make the thing, I just

quote, unquote, Jaws of all wolves. Something that's super big and

Captain." Alan added. "It seemed

measured this thing's strides in 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

again leaned back in his seat and glanced over at the gloomy

police aren't equipped to handle such a thing." The captain sulked while spinning back around. "And quite frankly, neither are 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,

mentioned that yesterday. Something just broke into that

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

Brice all sniggered while shaking their

some hair being left behind." Brice pondered. "I

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

"Here's how it's gonna go." 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 four little girls and their parents. Inside their own damn home," the captain strongly clarified. "We

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

No more than four men. Hook up with Cuyahoga Falls and the highway patrol. We all seemed to work pretty well with each other these past few months; I don't

promptly wiping the cheesy grin from off his face and exiting the

"Brice, I want you to retrieve 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

on it, Captain." Brice, with a dower expression on his face, replied as

Linus sat back and relaxed into the wooden chair that he was attached to. For a few brief moments there melted a quaint silence between he and

"So, it took you six months, but you

A forced grin graced Linus' face at that second. He was visibly weary of all the attention that was being tossed at him

"Finally," he apprehensively

captain sat and stared unceasingly at Linus in humble adoration before