Ann groaned as someone hollered and banged on the front door. She had just gotten into the office a short while ago—usually Kate opened but her partner was late for some reason or another—and had been hoping to get a couple more peaceful minutes in. Unfortunately it seemed that morning would be busier than the detective had hoped. She slowly rose to her feet and sauntered over to the front door, opening it to find two women. One was screaming her head off about some terrible attack while the other was trying to get her to quiet down. 

By now, the ruckus was already attracting the attention of other townsfolk. Ann glanced over at near passersbys that had slowed to a stop to eye the group, clearly trying to listen in on what was going on. Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, she stepped out and waved her hands to get the attention of the two women.

"Alright, alright calm down now. What the heck is going on here? What happened?" Ann asked, placing her hands on her hips as she glanced between the two other women. 

The one that had been hollering and making a scene quickly stepped forward, looking pale and frantic. "T-There was an attack out in the forest!! Oh it was so horrible!" she wailed. 

"An attack?" Ann prompted, raising an eyebrow. 

"Yes! This poor man he-he had his innards ripped out and everything was scratched up.. It.. It had to be some sort of monster!" the woman whimpered. "No man or animal could have possibly done that!"

Ann let out a long sigh as this woman claimed it must have been some type of monster. Monsters were nothing but stories to scare children when they were misbehaving in her opinion. Of course, she knew some people actually took those stories quite seriously but having never seen any true proof for herself, she didn't believe in such things. She was just about to open her mouth to respond when a passing figure caught her eye. 

"Hold on." she told the two and flagged down Kate. "Kathryn! I think we have a case to deal with!"

Kate had just left her home, managing to sneak out of the forest. She had washed up properly there, ridding herself completely of the blood that still stuck to her. The detective had just been on her way out to the office when she had heard the woman reciting  what she had seen out in the woods. Realizing that the woman was reporting her crime, she had been tempted to make a bolt for it instead of going into work that day. Unfortunately, there was no way for her to avoid it as Ann spotted her. For now, she would just have to pretend to be as clueless as everyone else.

"Morning... What's going on here? What do you mean a case?" Kate asked putting on a calm demeanor as she trotted over to the other women. For a moment, her gaze lingered on the third woman. She didn't seem particularly panicked, unlike the one who had seen the body. The detective wondered if perhaps she was just someone the witness had grabbed for support, since she certainly didn't seem as upset.