Ocean- Part 7

    Just a few minutes before 5:00 PM, Chief Grady walked through his front door in search of his wife.  He found her in the kitchen wrist-deep in her famous meatloaf mixture as she thoroughly incorporated the ingredients.  He kissed her on the ticklish spot of her neck, knowing she couldn’t stop him while her hands were all goopy.  She squealed as she pulled away, playfully scolding him for taking advantage of her defenseless state. 

            “You know, it’s not a smart idea to mess with a woman who has a knife in her hands,” She teased.  “You’re home early. I wish I’d have known; I would have started dinner sooner.”

            “Don’t worry about it, babe. I’m not very hungry right now anyway.”

            “Rough day?”

            “Yeah, you could say that. I hate being the bearer of bad news and telling the Millers and the Crayburns that their kids are dead is just about the worst news anyone could bear.”

Sharon Grady quickly washed her hands then hugged her husband tightly.  After twenty years of marriage, she knew there was nothing she could say to ease his heartache but healing often came from the moments with no words. She could feel the tension from his shoulders releasing as she kneaded the heel of her palm into his knotted muscles.   

            “You always know exactly how to make me feel better,” he murmured. 

They worked together on the dinner preparations then, as the meatloaf baked, Sharon and Thomas Grady snuggled on the sofa.  As master of the remote, he reached over to snatch his plastic wand from the coffee table and pressed the power button.

            “And in local news, twelve area teens have been reported missing. Our own Sue Taylor is live on location at Jefferson High School where many of those teens were last seen.”

            “Thank you, Dave. The mood is somber here. Friends and family of those missing have already begun to erect a memorial to their lost loved ones.  As you may remember, it was just a few days ago when some local joggers found human remains on the beach and the next day, even more severed body parts were discovered.  It is believed that these teens have befallen the same fate as Adam Miller, age twenty-four and his longtime girlfriend, Erin Crayburn.”

            “For crying out loud!” Chief Grady growled.  “How did they get those names so fast?”

            “Maybe we should just put a movie in or something. We don’t need to watch th….” His wife froze mid-sentence as her husband’s face filled the television screen.

            “Earlier today, Chief of Police Thomas Grady issued a statement.”

The cameras made him look even more exhausted as he told the room full of reporters that the coroner’s office declared the cause of death to be a shark attack. 

            “You missed your calling, Tom.  You should have been an actor. Look how sexy you are on screen.”

            “Shar, you should’ve been a politician. Only a politician can lie that convincingly!” 

She reached over and clicked off the television before pulling her husband to his feet and dragging him to their bedroom. 

            “We’ll just see who’s lying, Mister Sexy.”