Meting Out - Crime Scene

The corpse reeked with the smells of time and rot. Almost as soon as she saw it, Amarena frowned.

"Tell me what you see," Halie said.

"There's signs of being beaten, but the marks of torture are too precise for claws." Amarena stuck her finger into a circular wound in the man's shoulder, finding it went in and then up. The flesh inside was torn. "If a claw made this hole, there should be others. The curve inside was too regular to come from a hand."

"Good. What else?"

Amarena dipped her hand in the waters and washed them quickly. A few curious fish surfaced as they pecked at the morsels of meat that her claw had removed.

She noticed the pier.

"There's no blood here."

"Could have washed away with the tide," Halie shrugged.