Highly Dangerous
"Misses Johnson?" The door opened to the blue and gold office, a different shade of light falling on the head of the blonde sitting at the desk with pen poised mid word than had previously done so. "There is a detective from the Panama City Beach Police Department office on line one for you."
Stiffly standing from behind the safety of her gilded desk, Adelaide's hands shakenly steadied her stance before reaching out to grasp the phone receiver. "Yes?" Normally not one to answer so rudely, she held her breath until the man on the other end of the line began to speak.
"Misses Johnson," his voice was nasal in origin and low in volume, forcing whomever listened to strain their ears and attention to listen more closely. "I regret to inform you that we've recovered your daughter's body here in Florida, and now have an open investigation concerning the matter."
"My daughter?" Adelaide asked as she sunk slowly into the chair still warm from her short absence.
"Yes, Delaney Maeve Johnson?" His voice faltered slightly. "We identified her by her dental records and tattoos."
"Stephan!" The scream ripped from her throat, her heart beating as fast as she could stand it. "Where did you find her?" Adelaide felt her cheeks wet with the tears she hadn't been conscious of shedding as she returned to the phone conversation. "How did she die?"
"She was unearthed after a storm displaced the sand on the beach, here in Panama City," the detective spoke with hesitation, using the hand he wasn't holding the phone with to cradle his face. "As for cause of death, I'm afraid it's not something I recommend you questioning."
Stephan Johnson stepped into his wife's office armed with his usual cigar and a deep, questioning frown. "Addy?"
"Delaney," Adelaide gasped whilst clutching her chest, the hole inside her heart growing deeper with every ragged breath. "She's dead."
Stephan drug his eyebrows together and he brought his cigar to his mouth for a large inhalation. "Hm," he muttered, smoke escaping through his whiskers. Brown eyes grew heavy with thoughts for a moment before looking up to his distraught, in her own way, wife.
"How did she die?" Mrs. Johnson's voice was liquid determination.
"It appears your daughter was disemboweled shortly before she was beheaded."
Washing the blood and grime off her hands, Genie's deep hazel eyes felt dry when she blinked from sheer exhaustion. Humming to herself, she swayed from foot to foot in her balance, thoughts farther away in distance than human means of travel could possibly reach.
Mostly, her thoughts centered on Laney and her own mother, but today she found herself contemplating her late husband. Ian would have loved Laney, she'd decided. They were far too similarly interested and alike in character to disagree. A smile almost ghosted on her lips at the thought of her husband and best friend in the same room before the crushing reminder that they were both no longer at her side came crashing down on top of her head.
Furrowing her brow, Genie stepped away from the sink and collapsed into the flat cushioned chair by the red table in the tiny kitchenette. For once, she came out of her thoughts and let herself bask in the aloneness that was her everyday life now. If she put something somewhere, it would be there when she returned. It might be a little dusty, but it was still there, none-the-less. The other bed was never unmade, and her belongings and papers were never scattered across the floor for her to utter a long sigh at before picking them up.
The few times she did run across television her chest ached from a deep seated longing to hear her best friend's inappropriate commentary. She couldn't see a single horror movie situation without remembering Laney's voice scream out, "don't go in there, you dumb fuck! The murderer's in there!"
A pained, gasping giggle escaped her lips before she grabbed her cell phone off the table and stumbled towards the bed.
Briefly, she considered checking her messages before closing her eyes and throwing it to the other bed. It wasn't worth the hassle of emotional distress that she now associated with dialing her voice mail box.
Her stomach turned with anxiety. She felt something coming on the horizon, felt it deep within her soul; the only thing painful enough to scream at her past the aching in her chest.
It spoke of a deep longing and the future full of agony. The first thing she understood about herself in this new life was the over whelming salt taste that flooded her senses. It was in her nose and her mouth.
For a very long time, she had been out of tears. They'd dominated her life in the weeks following Laney's passing, but they'd been largely gone from her life since. It only served to hurt her head, but she allowed them to stream down her cheeks now without attempting to wipe them.
For once, she allowed herself the luxury of crying herself to sleep.
The next morning came and went in much the same way it always did for the whole of the country. The birds chirped, people awoke to their alarms and dressed to take themselves to work and their children to school.
People flocked to the free-ways in droves, coffee in hand and mind already on the weekend. A regular morning by all accounts, even for the Panama City Beach Medical Examiner.
It was going to be an early day for him, he'd already decided. Gone by one at the latest, he nodded to himself.
The last thing he expected to see upon entering his office was an empty glass freezer door where a blonde was supposed to be continuing to decompose.
He would call upon his assistants and track down all the delivery personnel, as well as meticulously consult the security video with a detective, but the body was simply gone.
His work day was not going to end at one, after all.