Bodies pulled from the water were always the worst, Derek thought. Floaters, cops called them, and fibbies weren't much better in their gallows humor, designed to ease the tension around body discovery scenes.
This one was no exception, slick gray-green rubbery strands wrapped around the corpse, tangled in the hair, underneath the arms, and between the legs, keeping the limbs akimbo as the body was splayed on the beach by the crashing waves.
Techs pulled it above the shoreline and Derek knelt, brushing thinner, hair like strings off the face. Female, young, maybe late teens, yet another victim of whatever bad thing she'd run afoul of to make her dead on this beach. No one deserved an ending like this, he thought.
It would be a damn bad Christmas for her family – this grotesque present from the sea, gaily adorned with underwater landscaping.
END