What Lurks Beneath

​Remy’s career as a historical movie set designer depended upon details. Minutia matters in period-piece film. An inaccurate costume, a misdated theatrical prop, or a misassigned vintage wallpaper ruined a day’s take at a prohibitive cost to a production company. That attention to detail now served her well. She imagined the island’s cave as a movie set.
 
“The cavity is narrow with upright rocks protruding from the sand. It shifts from gloom to pitch dark within ten paces. I don’t know how deep it is. I didn’t explore far. The corpse was cloaked in shadows and sea kelp. At first, I walked right past it. When I did spot the extended hand, it was puffy, smeared with muck, discolored. The face…” Remy shook her head to dislodge the memory.
 
Tremaine touched her shoulder. “Focus. Was there anything on the cave floor?”
 
“The entry is a crack in the beachside cliff. My sight was limited to a pencil torch, but I didn’t see any tools, backpack, or life vest. I sidestepped woody debris near the entrance – sprawling, broken branches that kept the body from drifting out with the tide.” Her voice dropped with dread, “Something had eaten her eyes.” 

Excerpt from The Tide Turns

​Eww! Disgusting imagery that creates an emotional lasso cinching you to our victim. You can’t help but feel inconsolable grief for a person who has been nibbled upon by sea beasties.
 
Having a character killed at sea required me to immerse myself in research on water forensics. It is an unnerving and repulsive read, to say the least. I am not a CSI fan but the need to be accurate when describing my poor victim pushed me forward. I learned the biology of drowning, decomposition in freshwater v. seawater, the effects of cold ocean vs. tropical seas upon a corpse, and the nasty business of putrefaction and scavenging creatures.
 
I read enough on these topics to write the above passage and later observations made by the coroner before embracing this unbendable lesson: Never be buried at sea.