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."

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 the phone. Not

Right then, the phone rang. The red button on the bottom repeatedly flashed. Linus reluctantly picked up

old

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

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 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

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

"Same as

"You sure," Alan glanced

kept

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

as usual," Alan asked with

Linus dropped his head as to not allow his partner to see his misty eyes; he then looked back up and asked,

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

darn, you mean to tell me that you missed 'Rerun' leaping his

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

"Hey, you guys, the captain is

The second Linus opened the door, the powerful aroma of cigarette smoke

as he put out his cigarette in the glass ashtray that sat on the

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

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

"Damn TV show."

you'd quit that, especially since you're carrying a cold." Linus said

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 some of their

"Everyone keeps congratulating me, but I wasn't the one

the one who ended it all, I was just listening to this tape right before you two

sulked in his seat like a five year

the off button.

"Yeah, poor baby,"

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

"we have reason to believe that we may be

Brice gaily chimed as he opened the

on in, Patrick." The captain

while holding two green folders underneath his right armpit. "I was told that you three would be here, so I just thought I'd go ahead and

captain asked while leaning back in his creaky wooden

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 telling me

captain

"You mean to stand there and say that our so called state-of-the art

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

"There

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

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

to see or hear what was going to take

"Close the

face, Brice did as commanded

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

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

"Now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to strike everything you just mentioned about that saliva off the plate, right now.

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

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

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

that you got the animal's saliva mixed up with some

too wound up to be contained, Brice opened his mouth

captain nodded. "We're gonna say just that.

"Yes, sir," Brice

"As a matter of fact, let's all say that. Let's pretend this is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together. There was no

As if he had a choice in the

"Linus," the captain dead-eyed the

young man blushed

"Good. Now, what about this

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

it is, said that it wasn't a wolf.

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

unquote, Jaws of all

"Yeah, you didn't see the size of those 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

measured up to six and a half

back in his seat and glanced over at the gloomy sky

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, right before you fellas came in here. All of this sounds damn familiar. Do you guys

"Yeah," Linus spoke up, "Brice mentioned that yesterday. Something just broke into

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

Linus, Alan and Brice all sniggered while shaking their

hair being left behind." Brice pondered. "I sure wish I were there to

means either we have two of these things

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 here at the Cypress P.D. don't hunt animals. We're police

"Well, what do we do, hire an

for now at least." The captain remarked. "I want you to put a task force together by the end of the day. No more than four men. Hook up with Cuyahoga Falls and the highway patrol. We all seemed to work pretty well with each other

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

up something more on this thing. As I was telling Bruin and Fitz before you dropped by, I've never

Captain." Brice, with a dower expression on his face, replied as he too bolted

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

forced grin graced Linus' face at that second. He was visibly weary

"Finally," he apprehensively muttered.

Linus in humble adoration before saying,