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."

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

Right then, the phone rang. The red button on the bottom repeatedly flashed. Linus reluctantly picked up the line and soberly answered, "This

buddy, the old man wants to see

Linus sighed, "I'm on my way." The detective hung up the phone, straitened his

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 down a long, grubby hallway that led to an equally dingy

"Hey!" Fitzpatrick called out while rounding the corner with a manila folder

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

two and two together." Alan said before both he and

"Same as

"You sure," Alan

"Yeah," Linus kept his eyes to the

As they reached the third floor, both men just happened to stop right in the middle of the hallway

"Same as usual," Alan asked with a hard stare

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

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

you mean to tell me that you missed 'Rerun'

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

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

second Linus opened the door,

"C'mon in, you two," the gruff, country speaking captain ordered as he put out his cigarette in the glass ashtray that sat on the edge

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

captain coughed while gesturing for the detectives to take a seat in the two chairs in front

"Damn TV show." Alan griped,

carrying a cold." Linus said as

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

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

now. But, speaking of the one who ended it all, I was just listening to this tape right before you two

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

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

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan arrogantly sucked

I've been getting a lot of feedback about this thing being a wolf, or something of that nature. But what everyone around this place seems to forget is that I was 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

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

"Knock, knock." Brice gaily chimed as he opened the

"Come on in, Patrick." The

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

captain asked while

one of the folders, the young forensic examiner said, "Well, three things. First off, I ran the animal's recording through the voice analyzer.

captain motioned. "Just

"Wait a minute." Linus stepped in. "You mean to stand there and say that our

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

"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 you're not gonna believe this. The saliva

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 that the world as they knew it

stood by the door, waiting to see

"Close the door, son."

pale face, Brice did as commanded before standing straight and still in

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

do was sit and watch Brice, who was still stuck in statue mode, stare at the captain as if he were a medieval warlord of

want you to strike everything you just mentioned about that saliva off the plate, right now. Do you understand

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

captain looked dead into the man's eyes

the most innocent and confused

"Let's just say that you got the animal's saliva mixed up with some of the

Brice opened his mouth and said, "But, captain, that's

"Shh." The captain

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

"As a matter of fact, let's all say that. Let's pretend this is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together.

As if he had a choice in the matter, Fitzpatrick simply uttered, "There

captain dead-eyed the man. "No saliva

man blushed while grudgingly stuffing his all-important data back into

"Good. Now, what

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

is, said that it wasn't a

didn't make the thing, I just operate it." Brice

Jaws of all wolves. Something that's super big and running free and loose out there somewhere." Linus

behind, Captain." Alan added. "It seemed pretty damn big to us. God help anyone

size of at least sixteen. Just on all fours, it measured up to six and a half feet long. Assuming this thing is

once again leaned back in his seat and glanced over at

are we. We've got entirely too much to handle here in the big city to be chasing after

that yesterday. Something just

and his wife finally took that vacation to

and Brice all sniggered while

hair being left behind." Brice pondered. "I sure wish I

two of these things running

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 here at the Cypress P.D. don't hunt animals. We're police officers, not animal control. But, if this one thing can take out four large men on its own, then we've got one helluva problem on our hands, gentlemen. Personally, I don't wanna wait another three months for it to

"Well, what do we do, hire

the highway patrol. We all seemed to work pretty

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

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

with a dower expression on

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

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

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

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

humble adoration before saying,