“So, what do you think?”

Homicide Detective Dmitri Trevesani glanced up from his crouched position.  They were about ten feet away from the victim, having used the same path the first officer on the scene had used to minimize contamination as much as possible.  “Two, maybe three days,” he said, shrugging.  “We won’t know for sure until the Medical Examiner arrives.  Who found her?”

His partner-of-the-moment, Homicide Detective Tom Jones, flipped through his notes.  “Couple of kids.  Brothers, ages seven and nine.  They’re over there with their parents.”  He indicated the yellow police tape with a tilt of his chin.

Dmitri twisted around to look back at a worried looking couple in their mid-thirties standing with two young boys.  “Great,” he muttered.  “They’ll probably need a lifetime of therapy after this.  Has anyone talked to them yet?  Or their parents?”

“The first uniform on the scene did.  That’s him over there.”  Tom pointed at a uniformed police officer standing next to his cruiser.

Dmitri stood.  “Thanks, Tom.  See about moving the family a little bit further down the beach, will you?  Don’t want the kids any more traumatized than they already are.”

“Right.”

“And can you get some pictures?” he called out as Tom wandered off.

“Yep,” Tom called back.

Dmitri pulled his notebook and a pen out of his jacket pocket and drew a quick sketch of the scene, including the location of the body and its relation to the surroundings.  He noted the time, date, weather conditions, and any other pertinent information he could think of then made his way to where the officer stood, arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face.  The name on his badge read “Gutierrez.”

“Can you believe this?” he demanded when Dmitri was close enough to hear.  “Leaving a DB where a couple of kids can find it?  I’m sure it happens in big cities like Seattle all the time but not here in Sequim.”

He wasn’t so sure about that, but it was definitely a sick world, all right.  He supposed if it wasn’t, they would all be out of a job.

“What do you know so far?” he asked, opening his notebook.

“I got the call about forty-five minutes ago,” Gutierrez said.  “I secured the scene, took pictures, then spoke with the parents.  They were having a picnic up the beach a little way and the boys were exploring.  Mom says they started screaming.  She and the dad thought someone was trying to kidnap them so they came running.  The boys found the woman lying where she is now behind all the debris that washed up onto the shore after last night’s storm.  They had no idea she was there until they stumbled upon her.”

“Any witnesses?  Anyone else see anything?”

The officer shook his head.  “No one else was around when I arrived.  I asked the parents if they had seen anyone and they said no, the beach was deserted when they got here and no one has been here since.”

“Are the crime scene investigation team on their way?”

“I called it in.  They should be here any minute.  I also advised the medical examiner so he’ll be here in awhile, give the CSI guys time to do their thing.”

…continued…

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