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."

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

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

"Hey, buddy, the old

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

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

"Hey!" Fitzpatrick called out while rounding

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

"It's not hard to put two and two together." Alan said before

"Same as usual,"

"You sure,"

"Yeah," Linus kept

third floor, both men just happened to stop right in the middle of the hallway beside

asked with a hard stare into Linus'

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

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

chuckled before sarcastically asking, "Oh darn, you mean to

the only thing on TV that Peggy and I

you guys, the captain is waiting." Officer

the captain's office. The second Linus opened

"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

thin build suggested that life on the force had taken its toll on his body. His rugged facial feathers were straight out

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

show." Alan griped,

"Thought you'd quit that, especially since you're carrying a cold." Linus said as he sat down next to

you have a wife that teaches second graders, she's bound to bring home some of their germs

"Everyone keeps congratulating me, but I wasn't

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

his seat like a five year old, still not believing

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

"Yeah, poor baby," Alan arrogantly sucked

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 here

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

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

"Come on

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

got?" The captain asked while leaning

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 that the sound is unrecognizable."

"Calm down, son." The captain motioned. "Just slow

to stand there and say that our so called state-of-the art equipment couldn't

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

"There

analysis on the fur follicles we found. It's all wolf hair, every single strand. But

at Brice with sour expressions on their warm faces; not a single hint of emotion could be seen. They possessed

the door, waiting to see

"Close the door, son."

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

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

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

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

uneasily smiled as though a searing hot spotlight were glaring down upon him,

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

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

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

to be contained, Brice opened his

"Shh." The captain

sir," Brice hesitantly recoiled.

Let's pretend this is 'Sesame Street' and we'll say it

he had a choice in the matter, Fitzpatrick simply uttered,

"Linus," the captain dead-eyed

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

"Good. Now,

hundred percent

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

make the thing, I just operate it." Brice haplessly

"Not unless we're talking about the quote, unquote, Jaws of all

Captain." Alan added. "It seemed pretty damn big to

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

in his seat and glanced over at

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

that yesterday. Something just broke into that house and tore those guys apart. Who

"Wilson." The captain answered. "Both he and his wife finally took that vacation to Hawaii. I guess they watched that

Linus, Alan and Brice all sniggered while shaking their

"I do remember Wilson saying something about some hair being left behind." Brice

means either we have two of these things running

managed to break into a house and kill four little girls

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

do, Fitz, 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

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

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

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

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

"So, it took you six months,

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

apprehensively

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