A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,12
she put the box on a massive oak desk. The room had bookshelves, a computer, and a fortysomething, sandy-haired woman who sat in the only chair in the room. Sun’s office chair.
Mayor Donna Lomas stuffed her phone into her purse and stood, giving Sun her full attention. “Sheriff.”
Donna was curvy with a button nose, a bouncy bob, and square wire-framed glasses. She was that girl in town all the other girls wanted to be when they grew up. Pretty. Perky. Popular.
The two shook hands for the briefest of moments before the mayor got right to the point. “So, how’d you do it?”
Sun cleared her throat and walked to the window to look out on Main Street. “Well, I wanted to be bold, you know? So, I went for the red first, but then I thought, ‘Wait a minute. Is that too bold? Should I tone it down a bit?’ That’s why I threw in the yellows and the blues. A few peaches to highlight the piece.”
She turned back. When Donna only pursed her lips and waited, Sun continued, “Weren’t you talking about that time I beat your little sister in the finger-painting competition?”
There had been a lot of pressure that year. Who knew kindergarten could be so competitive? Her classmate Sabrina, a.k.a. Donna’s little sister, had never liked her after that, and Sun had felt that same chill every time she’d crossed paths with Donna as well.
“It’s okay.” Donna clipped on a pair of magnetic sunglasses over her wire frames. “I’ll find out on my own.”
Sun suppressed a shudder of dread. Honestly, what had her parents done? Making an enemy of the mayor could not have been their best idea. No, their best had been starting that garden and accidentally growing marijuana. This one was third, maybe fourth on the list.
“In the meantime, you might want to do a search for a concept called the glass cliff.”
Sun tried not to snort. She failed miserably, but at least she’d given her all. “Is that what you think this is?”
The glass cliff was a play on the metaphor of a glass ceiling. Only in this scenario, a woman or minority was put in a position of authority during a time of crisis. In other words, he or she was set up to take the fall when everything went belly-up.
“Is Del Sol on the verge of collapse?”
“You haven’t heard?” She tsked as she turned to walk out. “You might want to do your homework.”
What did that mean? No one told her there’d be homework. Would there be a test? A research project? Any opportunities to earn extra credit?
“I’ll tell you what.” Donna stopped and turned back like a runway model at Fashion Week. Either that or Sun’s girl crush had been harder than she’d remembered. “I don’t really care how you came into office. I appreciate a good law enforcement officer as much as the next person. Especially one with your record.”
“My record?” Now she was just embarrassed. “Look, we recorded that in one take. In Quincy’s garage. We didn’t even have a decent sound system.”
“Funny. I particularly liked the part where you beat up that college student who’d murdered that girl, handcuffed him to you, and physically dragged him to the nearest police station.”
Sun laughed softly. Good times.
“I’ll make you a deal.”
That perked her up. “Okay, but I’m keeping my clothes on this time.”
“You get me the names of the Dangerous Daughters, and I’ll let the whole thing slide.”
That time, Sun didn’t even try to suppress her snort. She let it rip and then gaped at the woman in front of her. “The Dangerous Daughters? Would you like Santa’s address while I’m at it?”
Donna stood unfazed. Her temerity was sobering.
“You can’t honestly believe they exist.”
“I do,” she said. “How else do you explain your win?”
Sun’s brows inched together. “I’ve heard they prefer being called the Diabolical Daughters.”
“I’ve heard that, too. I’ve also heard them called the Devil’s Daughters. The Damnable Daughters. Even the Despicable Daughters. Take your pick. I just want their names.”
The Dangerous Daughters were supposedly the members of a group of women who’d, according to rumor, secretly run the town since it went from being a bankrupt mining town to a hippie commune in the 1930s. The Dangerous Daughters were the wizards behind the curtain, so to speak. If it were true, they’d be really old right now. How hard could they be to find?
“And how do you propose I get the names of the members of a group that