The rain pelted the cobblestone street, casting long shadows across the dimly lit alleyway where a body lay motionless. Detective Sarah Reyes approached the crime scene, her weathered leather boots creating soft echoes against the wet, glistening pavement. A pale hand protruded from beneath a tattered canvas tarp, fingers curled inward like delicate, frozen branches reaching toward silence. Streetlights flickered overhead, casting an intermittent amber glow across the blood-spattered ground where evidence whispered secrets of a brutal encounter. The victim's face remained hidden, obscured by the heavy fabric that draped across their still, unmoving form like a shroud.