“I thought I told you two to keep your personal lives at home and stop all this gossiping during business hours?” he grumbled, handing Cherri a stack of papers. “Here, I need you to get these typed up immediately.”
Cherri took the papers from his hands, looking them over as her face drained of color. “Another one?” she asked.
My father cleared his throat, placing his hands atop his hips. “Unfortunately. I would’ve asked Deputy Danielson to handle it, but no one seems to know where he is. Fucking Danielson. That man would lose his head if it wasn’t attached to his body.”
“What is it?” I asked, trying to peek at the papers in Cherri’s hands.
“Looks like another body was found on the beach this morning. Seems the Angel of Death has claimed yet another victim, leaving him—” Cherri stopped, her eyes widening as she cleared her throat and continued. “Leaving him indecently exposed on the beach.” I giggled internally, forgetting that I had left the man’s dick hanging out. Whoops.
Angel of Death; the ridiculous and over the top nickname I had been given by the media. The name made me sound like I was the super methodical serial killer, stalking my prey beforemurdering them, when in reality, it was the opposite. I wasn’t as if I had planned to murder all those people. I just couldn’t help it. I’d always had a temper, and my ‘victims’, as he called them, were simply unlucky hookups who pissed me off at the wrong time. There was no strategy or elaborate planning behind the murders, though I enjoyed the credit the media had given me. The only reason they were even able to link all my crimes was ‘cause of the lipstick I usually left on each of my victims. It had started as a simple goodbye kiss, but as the media became obsessed, dubbing it the Kiss of Death, who was I to not oblige? Now, I purposely added it, embracing the signature.
My father’s eyes fell onto me, noticing my torso. “Wait, what the hell happened to you?”
“Looks like a shark bite to me.” The man stepped into the police station, the stench of fishing bait and body odor choking my stenches as my body stiffened in response to his familiar voice. Fucking Dale. “By the looks of it, I guess it didn’t like the way you tasted.” Dale stepped to my father’s side, his dirty, stained clothing all disheveled, his long, dirty blond hair tousled in every direction, as if he’d just gotten out of bed, matching his scratchy little mustache perfectly. His green eyes lingered a little too long on my body, causing me to stiffen as I remembered our past, recalling all the painful reasons I left him in high school. “I heard you moved back to town. It’s nice to finally see you again after all these years.”
“A shark attacked you? Damn it, Delilah. What have I told you about your late-night swims?” my father scolded me. Dale smiled, reveling in watching me shrink beneath the weight of my father’s words.
“It’s fine, it barely hurts—” Before I could finish my words, Dale had stepped forward and yanked my hip towards him, peering closely at my wound, his dirty fingers causing me to groan in pain.
“Looks like we were right, Chief Bailey.” He sniffed, glaring at me before releasing my body with an attitude.
“Right about what?” I asked, stepping back, my arms covering the bite mark.
“Dale and I have been discussing the recent shark attacks along the beach here. Seems Golden Coast is plagued with not one, but two killers, one on land, and now one in the sea.” My father pointed at me, his gaze leering into my soul as he spoke. “You better be careful in the water. No more late-night swims. You’re fucking lucky that shark didn’t stay around to finish you off.” My eyes shot past him to Cherri, her irises locking with mine. My dad turned, noticing the direction of my eyes. “Now, I mean it, you two.” He pointed back and forth between us. “You keep my daughter safe, Cherri.” He returned his heavy stare to me, inching close as he whispered in my ear. “You may not live under my roof anymore, but I’m still your dad. You better respect my word and do as I say. Understand?”
Our eyes met as rage and fear bubbled in my throbbing gut. I nodded, lightly trembling. “Yes, sir.”
He smacked my arm, causing me to jump as his mood lifted. “Alright, Dale, come talk to me in my office.”
Dale stood, watching me before turning to follow my father into his office. “See you around, Delilah,” he hissed, shutting the door.
Cherri and I both exhaled, relieved to be alone. “I swear, one of these days, you’re going to get me fired,” she snapped, returning to her typing.
I approached her humble little desk, leaning forward as I placed my hands on the edge, my long hair draping over my arms. “Hey, let’s do something fun when you get off work, blow off some steam.”
She peered up at me, her fingers pausing atop the metal keys as my words intrigued her. “What’d you have in mind?”
I smiled, glancing at the closed door of my father’s office. “What do you say we head to the beach?”
“Delilah.” She sighed. “Did you not hear a word the Chief just spoke? Your dad, my boss, just said no more swimming—”
“He said no morenightswimming. Never said we can’t go out during the day.” I twirled a strand of my golden hair, our smiles mirroring one another.
“Fine.” She smiled. I clapped my hands together with excitement, Cherri instantly shushing me, giggling as she spoke. “Now, get out of here. I need to finish allthisso we can go before it gets dark.”
“You got it, babe.” I turned, the sound of the typewriter resuming as I stopped, glancing through the glass door to my father’s office.
My smile faded away as Dale stared back at me, my father bent over his desk, motioning to something as he spoke to the fisherman, unaware that he wasn’t paying attention.Fucking Dale.
THREE
DELILAH
“Didyou bring my suit and skates?” Cherri beamed, exiting the double doors of the police department as the afternoon sun weighed down on us.
“It’s all right here.” I smiled, holding out her roller blades and a bag with her swimsuit and clothing. “Need me to cover you?”
“Yes please.” She smiled, grabbing her things as she quickly ducked behind a large bush alongside the building and began to change. I stood, keeping watch as cars drove by, completely unaware of the stunning goddess changing in public. Their loss. “I overheard the Chief and Dale talking about going out on the water and looking for that killer shark,” she spoke in my direction, tying the straps of her bikini around her neck, careful as to not snag the tiny under-hairs of her voluptuous afro.
