Crimson Creek

{one}

Daniel's p.o.v

"Who would do something like this?"

I turned my head to see who'd asked the question, meeting the eyes of my right hand man, Officer Marshall. Then I stared at the scene before us.
Men were scattered around the area, all doing different jobs and avoiding the corpse.
Pictures were snapped around me, recording evidence.

I had to admit, it made me sick.
I was trained to handle these things calmly, and to keep everyone else in the town calm about it.
But this...this was a sight that I almost couldn't handle.

"The investigators say she was murdered somewhere else, but her body was dumped here," Marshall said.

A woman who looked to be in her 40's (although her swollen features made it hard to tell) lay motionless, surrounded by the cold water of the creek.
It had made her skin waterlogged and bloated, bloody foam leaking from her nose and lips.

The color of her skin, pale and tinted green, indicated she'd been here for about a week, and that the body had started the process of decomposition.

Her dark, thin hair was wet and floating around her head– although some strands were falling off where the skin on her skull peeled back.

The visible trauma on her body consisted of deep stab wounds, which littered her torso.
Upon closer examination, I saw that maggots had made their home in the wounds, squirming and wiggling around in a way that looked like something out of a horror movie.

And her eyes.
They were ever-staring and frozen in place, seeming to have captured the fear she had felt before dying.

I took a deep breath.
"Who is she?" I asked officer Marshall, hands resting in my hips.

"We believe her name is Martha Ginsburg, 43, from Lindin County," he replied, jotting something down on his notepad.

It made sense, because I didn't recognize her, and I know everyone in my town.
Lindin County was only an hour away, but I still had to wonder why the body was dropped here of all places.

"She was reported missing 5 days ago, which was 48 hours after she was last seen," he went on to explain.

I sighed, looking away from the crime scene.
I'd seen enough.
Everyone was on edge and hesitant, most likely because we'd never had to deal with a situation like this.

"Get in contact with the Linin County police department, tell them what we've found," I instructed officer Marshall, then turned to face the whole group.

"I want this area secured. Make sure no one can get into this forest until this investigation is over," I said loudly, trying to sound as confident as I usually did.
"We're not breathing a word of this to the public until we have more information, so keep your mouths closed."

Nobody could know this, but I really needed to get out of there.
The air was thin, but had been witness to heavy things, making it taste sour.

Yes, I had wanted something to happen that would shake up my routine;
but I definitely didn't mean a murder.

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I took a swig of my beer, as I did every night.
The only difference was that tonight, I had something to be drinking about.