Shark Attach

“Hey! Over here!” Jalyn shouted from across the beach. His partner Cley began walking towards Jalyn when he stopped dead in his tracks. Blood soaked the white beach. Taking a deep breath, Cley forced one foot in front of the other until he was side by side with Jalyn. Since becoming detective earlier this year for the Coronado Police Department, Cley has been no stranger to the gory details of crime scenes, but this was different. This was his first time being witness to what was undoubtedly a brutal shark attach. His hands slightly shake as he reaches in his jacket pocket for a handkerchief to mask the smell of death and he begins to sift through the remains of what was a 16-year-old female who had just fulfilled her dreams of becoming a professional surfer.

It was a week ago when reports of another shark attach came through the radio. 16-year-old Hannah thought “how odd?” when hearing the attach had been from a great white shark about 30 yards off the Coronado beach where she often frequented. She said aloud sitting in the passenger seat, “we don’t get great whites around here” to which her father, Ray, replied, “it’s been many years since there has been a great white sighting out this way, let alone an aggressive shark that would even bother attaching.” There was a slight pause as they continued their drive towards this exact beach. “I’m sure there is nothing to worry about” added Ray. Once there, Hannah hopped out of the Jeep, quickly grabbing her wetsuit and surfboard, thoughts of the shark attach out of mind. She swiftly put on her wetsuit, grabbed her surfboard, and jogged towards the crystal blue Pacific Ocean yelling “catch ya later dad!” She turned back catching a glimpse of Ray smiling ear to ear watching his daughter do what she loves.

As Hannah’s feet hit the water, she simultaneously set her board into the water as she began to lay belly down with her arms in the water propelling her forward until she caught her first big wave of the day. She is cutting through the water like a knife to butter; flawlessly. A split second before Hannah intentionally dives into the water at the end of a big swell, the lifeguard is beginning to rise from his post furiously blowing his whistle as a large dorsal fin comes into focus not even a yard from where Hannah blissfully emerges from the ocean she cherishes. She is climbing back onto her surfboard unaware that her dad and other bystanders are furiously waving their arms as tall and wide as they can while screaming “SHARK! SHARK!” Hannah is entirely oblivious until suddenly something swiftly pulls her below the surface. Her arms are flailing as she gasps for air, yelling in agony as the shark takes a chunk out of the right side of her stomach. Hannah opens her eyes under water only to see a great white shark charging her, mouth opening wide at the last second, rows of sharp teeth coming into focus. Then darkness.

Ray is frantic on the beach watching this all unfold. There are coast guards in propellor boats heading towards the last place Hannah was seen. They find nothing. They search the rest of that day and the next… no sign of her. It was not until detectives Jalyn and Cley received a call to go check out Coronado beach where a body had been spotted washing up to shore. “Body” was such a loose term Cley thought after discovering what was left of what he now knows to be Hannah.