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."

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 the phone. Not once did the

on the bottom repeatedly

"Hey, buddy, the old man wants to see us." Fitzpatrick adamantly

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

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

while rounding

glaze on his face and asked, "How did you know I

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

"Same as

"You sure,"

"Yeah," Linus kept

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

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

as to not allow his partner to see his

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

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

fun if you want, but it's the only thing on TV

is waiting." Officer Donaldson

to the captain's office. The second Linus opened the door, the powerful aroma

speaking captain ordered as he put out his cigarette

with liver spots while his thin build suggested that life on the force had taken its

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

show." Alan griped, taking

you're carrying a cold." Linus said as he sat down next to

have a wife that teaches second graders, she's

me, but I wasn't the one

speaking of the one who ended it all, I was

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

"Poor schmuck," the captain offhandedly mumbled while pushing the off

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan

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.

"Well, sir," Alan shrugged, "we have reason to believe that we may be dealing with something else,

"Knock, knock." Brice gaily chimed as he

"Come on in,

green folders underneath his right armpit. "I was told

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

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

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

"Wait 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

Linus, there's more." Brice continued

"There always is." Alan

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 I found in

up at Brice with sour expressions on their warm faces; not a single hint

by the door, waiting to see or

"Close the door,

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

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?

could do was sit and watch Brice, who was still stuck in

"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

into the man's eyes

most innocent and confused poses on their faces as though they

got the

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

"Shh." The captain nodded.

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

pretend this is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it together. There was no saliva sample to speak of.

had a choice in the matter, Fitzpatrick simply uttered, "There was

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

man blushed while grudgingly

"Good. Now, what about this

"Well, it's one hundred percent wolf fur

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

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

talking about the quote, unquote, Jaws of all wolves. Something that's super big and running free and loose

see the size of those holes that it left behind, Captain." Alan added. "It seemed pretty damn big to us.

on all fours, it measured up to six and a half feet

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

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

Something just broke into that

wife finally took that vacation to Hawaii. I guess they watched

Linus, Alan and Brice all sniggered

do remember Wilson saying something about some hair being left behind." Brice pondered. "I sure wish I were there to

of these

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

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

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 see why the love affair should end now. Let's see if we can put some of those country boys to work; I'm sure they'll enjoy the change

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

on this thing.

Brice, with a dower expression on his face, replied as he too bolted out

relaxed into 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

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

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

sat and stared unceasingly at Linus in humble adoration before saying, "I know how bad you wanted to