“Ha. You got me there. You got me good.”

“I wasn’t trying to but thanks,” I said.

I sat down at my desk, across from Tom’s, in the newly built police station in the center of downtown Cocoa Beach. It was a tall, ugly, square, gray building, and kind of an eyesore to this small quaint town with all the many beach houses and bungalows from the sixties and seventies. The space program had flourished then, and the town had grown to house the many workers at Kennedy Space Center.

The old building before this one had a leak in the roof after a hurricane, and mold was growing on the walls and floors. If a big rainstorm came by, and they did for most of the rainy season in summer, at least once a day, it would literally rain inside too. The AC was old and barely working, and on hot summer days we would be sweating like pigs inside of it. It was really no wonder we enjoyed this new modern building, even if it was very ugly.

“So, what’s with the hair then?” Tom asked, sipping his big YETI cup that I knew contained a protein shake, his first of at least four that he would devour in a workday.

“I mean not that you don’t look dashing,” he added with a wink. “You always do.”

I shrugged and touched my hair. “I don’t know. I kind of liked it short and missed it, I guess. Besides it’s too hot to have long hair in Florida.”

I smiled awkwardly while secretly scolding myself. This was an opportunity for me to tell him the truth. I mean I had to do it at some point, right? I had to tell them all. But I feared so badly I would lose their respect for me. It just didn’t feel like the right time.

Was there ever going to be a right time to say something like that?

Just get it over with. Say it!

I took in a deep breath and looked at my two colleagues. Tom was staring at his computer screen, probably flipping through emails, before this morning’s meeting. Scott was on the phone, his soft black curls bouncing on his forehead as he spoke.

“Tom?”

“Mm-hm?” he said without looking away from his screen.

“There’s… there’s kind of something I need to tell you.”

He sipped his big protein drink, then looked at me. “What’s up? You look so serious?”

“I’m… I wanted to tell you that Joe and I… I mean I am…”

I couldn’t even look at him as I babbled on. I was making no sense, I knew that, but I couldn’t figure out how to say it right.

“What’s going on with you and Joe?” he asked with a frown.

I lifted my gaze and met his. My heart sank as I saw his concern. Tom loved Joe. Heck, so did Scott. We would often do cookouts at my house, and the boys would hang out by the grill, chatting. This was going to break his heart too. Maybe he would even resent me?

“I’m just… I have—”

I didn’t get to finish the sentence before our boss, Chief Jake Doyle, came rushing out of his office and approached us. He looked at me and Tom.

“You two will miss the meeting this morning. They are dragging a body out of the retention pond on South Brevard Avenue at Tenth Street as we speak. Brace yourselves. First responders said it was a kid.”

FOUR

Then

The first time she met him, she couldn’t have been more than ten years old. All she remembered was how tall he was as he approached her. She was playing in the front yard of the mobile home where she lived with her mom and stepdad, Cole. She paid no attention to him till his shoes were right in front of her in the grass. His black shiny shoes that were as big as the length of her entire arm.

“Hey there, little girl,” he said and squatted down in front of her.

She looked up and met his big blue eyes. In his hand he was holding a Barbie doll wearing a wedding dress. It was the new series, Bridal Barbie. She was gorgeous. Kitty had wanted one ever since she had seen it at the Toys "R" Us, but her mom said she couldn’t afford it. Then her friend Patricia had one for her birthday, and Kitty felt such deep jealousy she almost considered stealing it from her.

The doll moved in his hand, and Kitty’s eyes followed it closely.

“Might this be yours?” the man in the black shoes asked.

Kitty shook her head. She stared at the doll. She wanted it so bad, she wanted to say yes, but she couldn’t. After all this guy was in uniform. He was a police officer, and you didn’t lie to the police.

“N-no.”

He smiled and looked at the doll. “Are you sure?”

“Y-yes, sir.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her. “I find that hard to believe because she just told me that she got lost and that she belonged to the prettiest little girl in the neighborhood. Now that can only be you, the way I see it ’cause you are the prettiest little thing I have ever seen.”

That made Kitty chuckle. She placed a hand over her mouth, feeling shy. She couldn’t help blushing. No one had ever told her she was pretty before. Her stepdad always said she was like the ugly duckling, except she would never turn into a swan, not with that mother she had come from.

“Are you sure it’s not your doll?” the man asked again.

“It’s not… sir,” she said.

“Well, I think it is. Here, you have it.”

He reached out the doll toward her, and she looked up at him, eyes wide. He was the police, and you had to obey them, she had learned in school.

“I…”

“Take it.”

She took it. Hands shaking, she grabbed the doll and pulled it toward her. She hugged the small Barbie doll and couldn’t stop smiling. The officer chuckled. He tousled her hair.

“That’s better. Now… what do you say?”

She swallowed, feeling so happy she could barely contain it. “Thank you! Thank you, officer.”

He laughed. “Call me Damian, kiddo.”

“Okay, thank you, Officer Damian. Thank you so much. I love it.”

“I had a feeling you might,” he said, then touched her cheek gently with his finger, before standing up straight.

“Well, I better get going,” he said. “You take good care of that doll, you hear me?”

“I will, Officer Damian, I promise. I will sleep with her every night and never let her out of my sight.”

He made an imaginary gun with his finger and winked at her, then turned around and walked to the cop car he had parked on the side of the road. He got in and waved at her once again, before he took off.