Terror on the Beach Read online

  TERROR

  ON

  THE

  BEACH

  BY

  PEGGY HOLLOWAY

  Copyright 2011 by Peggy Holloway

  Cover designed by Patti Roberts of Paradox Book Cover Designs and Formatting

  [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  PROLOG

  I walk in darkness. I am darkness and my name is Twoon. I love evil and do evil but, because I am invincible, I never get caught. I like to see suffering and can cause great suffering. At night I roam the beaches, looking for some fool to come here alone.

  My first time was with a bum. I did it just to see if I could do it, and it was so easy. He was lying there drunk and I just walked up and started stabbing. It felt wonderful to see and smell so much blood. I got so excited I came without even touching myself. I stared in fascination as I watched the blood soak into the sand. He never even cried out, the bastard, he was so drunk. I cleaned off my knife by sticking it into the sand. It reminded me of the stabbing and I got excited all over again.

  No one came around and I went home. I had to wash my clothes over and over to get the blood out. I was never caught. The excitement from that first time lasted almost two weeks. When the excitement died down, I had to go back to the beach to look for someone else.

  The next time was easier but more risky. It was a young woman who lived on the beach. It was shortly after midnight and she had just walked down to the beach. She was standing there watching the waves. When I walked up, she smiled at me and asked if I lived around there. I didn’t answer her and she had a questioning look on her face when she noticed the knife.

  She still didn’t look scared and asked me what I was doing. I smiled at her and she smiled back. She was very pretty with short brown curly hair she kept pushing out of her eyes. Her eyes were green. I could see her very well. She had left the porch light on at her house. I moved close to her and I could see that she was beginning to get scared. Her fear made me excited.

  I grabbed her and threw her on the sand. She started to scream and I put my hand over her mouth. I first stabbed her in the legs and worked my way up. I wanted the pleasure to last a long time. She fought like a wildcat. There was so much blood and again I got very excited and was disappointed when she finally died.

  Some nights I can’t find anyone on the beach alone and I go home really mad. I need so badly to experience suffering and blood.

  One night I had walked the beach for what seemed like hours. It was cold that night and I finally came upon a couple who were lying inside a sleeping bag getting it on. They were so into it they didn’t even see me come up.

  I watched them for awhile. They were groaning and moaning and making a lot of noise. I decided if I wanted to see some blood that night, I had to act fast. It had been a long dry spell for me and that was what made me take this risk.

  Without even realizing it, I was on top of them stabbing. Since they were zipped into the sleeping bag, they didn’t have a chance. I had a high old time with the stabbing that night. It was one of my most successful cases. They were both screaming and I was screaming. It was on an isolated area of the beach so no one could hear us. I must have put a hundred holes in the sleeping bag before they quieted down. I unzipped the sleeping bag and rolled them out. I had to make sure they were dead.

  I noticed they were naked from the waist down and had kicked their clothes down into the bottom of the sleeping bag. The sleeping bag was soaked in blood. The girl gave a low moan and I was glad. That meant I could stab her some more which I did. I stabbed the boy some more and noticed he had a hard-on.

  I can’t describe how exciting all of this was. I came several times during the whole ordeal. I didn’t think that was possible. I stood for awhile and watched the blood soak into the sand. It took a long time that night to get myself and my clothes cleaned up and I went to bed and slept like a baby.

  Suddenly I was famous. I was in the newspapers. They were calling me The Beach Front Stabber. The police were quoted as saying they were going to be patrolling the beach and I thought it was really nice of them to warn me. What idiots! All I had to do was lay low until they got tired of their stupid games. They were warning everyone to stay off the beach at night.

  I knew I would have to curb my appetite for awhile. It would be even more exciting when I could go back after the long wait and anticipation. The cops are dumb. They will never catch me.

  PART ONE:

  SARAH

  CHAPTER ONE

  The alarm clock went off and I felt like I had just gone to sleep. I had been working long hours lately. Just as I was getting in the shower, my phone started ringing. Always some hold up when you’re in a hurry.

  I snatched up the receiver and practically screamed, “Sarah James.”

  “Well, good morning to you too.”

  “Robert, why are you calling me so early?”

  He chuckled, “I’m never going to make you into a morning person am I?” Without waiting for me to reply he continued, “We found another body this morning on the beach. A white female looks like early 20s.”

  “I thought it was finally over. There hasn’t been any for more than two months.”

  “Well, we thought so too, that’s why we pulled back some of the patrols. This one was the worst yet. Looks like the son-of-a-bitch took all his frustrations out on her. He was probably mad he had to wait so long. I think you should consider staying with me for awhile.”

  “Come on Robert, don’t start. I’m not ready to move in with you.”

  “Just until we catch this son-of-a-bitch, Sarah. I’m not putting pressure on you to move in with me, I promised I wouldn’t.”

  “I’ll think about it, Robert.”

  But even as I said that, I felt a sense of panic. I had to live by myself. I don’t know why but I had been like that since I had left home. I was an only child and I was never physically abused but I was told repeatedly how useless I was. My dad wasn’t around much. He was a sales rep. for a major computer company and made good money. Most of the time it was just mom and me.

  I think she was angry at my dad for never being there and took her anger out on me. When she got started, she would go on for hours telling me she wished I had never been born and that I was worthless. So I had to live alone at all costs.

  Robert Kola is from Atlanta Georgia, but his ancestors are from Nigeria and many of them were brought over as slaves before the Civil War. He’s the sheriff of Monroe Beach, Georgia which, as you may have guessed, is on the coast.

  Kola is one tough dude. He is 6’4” with broad shoulders and all muscle. Sometimes he scares me when he gets angry about anyone getting hurt.

  I live in a condo on the beach which I bought from money left to me by my grandmother, my daddy’s mother. The condo is only a small one bedroom unit but it’s just right for me. Sometimes, when Robert sleeps over, it feels very cramped.

  I own a boutique just down from the condo where I sell high end beach and cruise wear. Some are my own designs. I earn good money but I work hard.

  Robert didn’t like me living on the beach now since the stabbings started but I felt safe there.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Now I was for sure going to be late for work. After hanging up the phone I glanced at the clock. It was now 9:15 a.m. I decided to skip a shower and make up. Luckily today was Wednesday, a half day. Then I just might spend the rest of the day at the pool or at the beach. Robert
would have a fit if he knew I even thought about going to the beach, but so far the Beach Front Stabber had only attacked at night.

  I usually opened the shop around 9:15 a.m. even though I usually didn’t get any customers until around 10:00. I liked to go in and see what we had gotten in shipment earlier that morning.

  My one and only helper, Tory, was a high school student and came in to receive the deliveries before going to school. She would bring the boxes into the storeroom/lounge. She had her own key so she could lock up before going to school.

  Tory was a senior that year and I had to think about finding a replacement. She would be going to college next fall at Georgia Tech.

  She was going to be hard to replace. She was a hard worker and willing to fill in whenever I needed her which was mostly on week-ends.

  The first box I opened that morning contained some beautiful long sundresses. I didn’t remember ordering them and figured Tory must have done so. She had been trying to learn and looked like she was catching on. Too bad she would be majoring in engineering and not fashion design.

  I sipped coffee as I opened boxes until I heard the little bell over the door ring. I looked at my watch. It was 11:15. Time had gone so fast. I made few sales until noon and then closed the shop.

  I walked along the beach until I came to my condo complex, which was called Whispering Dunes. My unit had a garage underneath and the living quarters upstairs. I let myself into the garage and happened to glance at my little green Ford Escort. Something was wrong. I walked closer and peered into the window and sure enough, I saw what I thought I saw.

  The ashtray was full of cigarette butts. I got in to lower the windows and noticed the gas tank was almost empty. I always filled it up when it got down to half a tank, Robert insisted on this.

  I ran upstairs and, without even putting my purse down, I called Robert. He came over immediately with two deputies and a finger print kit and dusted for prints.

  “He was probably wearing gloves, Sarah. I don’t see any signs of a forced entry on the garage door facing the beach or the garage door facing the street.

  “Unless he had a remote control, he couldn’t have come through the door facing the street. Did you go out this way this morning?”

  “I did but I didn’t notice anything then. Of course, as you know, I don’t notice much when I first get up in the mornings.”

  “Well, you either have to stay with me until this creep is caught or else I will assign 24 hour bodyguard on you. Which do you want?”

  “Neither one.”

  “Damn it, Sarah, I’m getting ready to take you into protective custody.”

  “Can’t you just have one of your deputies drive by every now and then? I don’t think this has anything to do with the beach front stabber. I think some kid took my car for a joy ride.”

  “Does anyone beside you have a remote control to your garage?”

  “No, no one. Not even you. If they had come in through the side door upstairs, no one would have noticed them and they could have come down the back stairs and hit the switch and made the door roll up. But if it had been during the night, it would have waked me up. It’s very loud.

  “They must have taken it out during the day today while I was at work.”

  Robert had the deputies check the side door but there was no forced entry there either. After the deputies left, Robert wanted to take me out to dinner but I was too shook up.

  I didn’t want Robert to know how scared I was because I didn’t want him to start in again about me staying with him.

  He ended up spending the night and, although it was nice to be held by a big strong man, I didn’t want to make love. Lovemaking wasn’t one of my favorite things anyway. I never understood what the big deal was and had never had an orgasm.

  When Robert and I first started sleeping together, he looked at it as a challenge and would spend hours trying to make me come. He eventually accepted it and we had developed a routine where he made love to me without either of us having any expectations.

  TWOON

  I love being famous. Now the newspapers are saying that the last girl I did was the worst because I took out all my frustrations on her for not being able to do it for awhile. Damn right. When are they going to learn? That last one was the best, but I think I can make it even better. It was over too fast. Last night I walked around on the beach for hours. No one showed up. Looks like I’ll have to switch to days. I get excited just thinking about doing it in the daytime. The risk is so much greater, it could be even more exciting. Oh, God, I’m getting turned on just thinking about it.

  Wednesday afternoons seems like the slowest time. I could grab my pleasure piece and drag it between the sand dunes out where they are in rows. Just knowing other people were out there playing and swimming and having a high old time just a few feet away, while I am enjoying the unlucky person I pick, gets me hot. I wonder who I will end up with. The anticipation is almost as good as the actual event.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “He hasn’t struck in awhile and I don’t know what that means,” Robert said as he paced my small living room

  “It’s been three weeks and that’s the longest time he’s waited. I don’t know if he’s moved on or died or what. I’m afraid to take some of the men off beach patrol yet.”

  “Maybe he’s just stopped. Is that possible? Maybe he’s seen the error of his ways. And quit pacing. Sit down and I’ll get us some sweet iced tea. I made a big pitcher today.”

  He paused and then sat down. When I came back with the iced tea, I almost laughed. His shoulders were so big they almost filled the whole love seat. He looked so uncomfortable. When I handed him the tea he drank it down without stopping for air.

  “That was mighty good, sugar. Could I have some more?”

  He followed me into the kitchen. “I’ll tell you one damned thing,” he continued, “you will not go down to the beach again. I won’t let you. Even if I have to have you followed 24/7.”

  “You won’t let me? Who the hell do you think you are, my father?” I yelled at him.

  He got that look in his eyes that usually scared me shitless, but I was so mad it didn’t faze me. “I told you, from the beginning, when we first started seeing each other, you couldn’t tell me what to do. Besides, I live and work on the beach. I can’t stay off the beach. “

  This was one of the things I couldn’t deal with and why I knew I couldn’t live with him. On the one hand I felt safe with him, but on the other, when he got in this protective mode, he could get controlling. After living with my controlling mother I couldn’t stand someone trying to control me. I think that’s why I bought my own shop. I needed to be in control.

  He let out a long slow breath and so did I.

  “I’m sorry Sarah,” he said. “I know how that gets to you and I try to remember. Right now I’m so worried about you. I love you and don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I know Robert, but I’m being careful. I only go down on the beach during the daytime and he’s never stabbed anyone in daylight.”

  “Why do you have to be on the beach anyway? You have a nice pool here. Why can’t you swim in it?”

  I laughed, “Robert, you don’t understand because you’re not a water person. You like the mountains and hunting and fishing. Swimming in the pool is nice but there’s nothing like the beach, the salt air, the sound of the waves, and the feel of the sand on your bare feet. It’s like getting a whole new lease on life when you go to the beach.”

  “You could end up not having any lease on life or even a life at all if you keep going,” he mumbled under his breath.

  After another week, there were still no more incidents on the beach but there was a stabbing on Virginia Beach. We figured he had moved on. Things went back to normal and the patrols were pulled off the beach. Robert and I didn’t have any more fights and I started going back down onto the beach, but still only in the daytime.

  One Wednesday afternoon Robert found me ther
e and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. “What are you doing out here girl, after I specifically told you not to come?”

  “Who the hell do you think you are, my daddy? You start ordering me around and you can say goodbye.”

  He sat down on the sand dune next to me and removed his shoes and socks.

  “I’m sorry.” He said. He stared out to sea. “I shouldn’t have gone off like that. I feel like I’m walking a tight wire here.”

  “How did you know I was on the beach?”

  “I didn’t. We just got a call about a suspicious looking man hanging around the dock over there but I don’t see anyone.”

  “There hasn’t been anyone here since I got here.”

  “And that doesn’t scare you? Why do you have to pick the most isolated part of the beach to come to anyway?”

  “Because I don’t like crowds, you know that.”

  He got up and held out his hand to me. “Come on, I’ll buy you a beer and a burger.”

  TJ’s has huge delicious burgers and it was what most everyone ordered even though they had a wide variety of meals also.

  “…if the one in Virginia Beach is similar enough so that we can call the stabber a serial killer, then we can call them in and use their resources.”

  I had been deep in thought and hadn’t noticed one of Robert’s deputies had walked over. I started paying attention.

  “Well, I would welcome all the help I can get but I don’t want them coming in here taking over.” The deputy was a short stocky guy with red hair and freckles. He didn’t look a day over 17.

  “Oh, Sarah, have you met Freddy Price? He’s my newest deputy. How long you been with us, Freddy?”

  “Just a few months,” Freddy said. He blushed a deep red and shook my hand.

  They continued to talk about whether to call the FBI in and every few minutes Freddy would look at me and turn red. He was so cute, in a little boy sort of way.