asgardmeridiem | [ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

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[ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

Who: Your local forensics department, hospital staff, curious bystanders, others.
What: Scenario A: A regular day in the office (during a musical curse) | B: Out on the job.
When: A: Day 84 morning | B: Day 84 afternoon
Where: A: The forensics department office, third floor of the hospital attached to the laboratory. | An alleyway around a manhole in Odin district, close to the wall and the border with Thor.
Rating: PG13 for possible grisly details.

[two scenarios! I will post a scene-setting comment for both of them, please reply below the comment of the scenario you're taking part in, even if you're not replying directly to Conan. Thank you!

By the way, I encourage Forensics people to reply to both parts of the post, thread jack and jump around -- this is to get an idea of how our characters interact in their daily working lives! /o/]

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Kate doesn't notice Annalie approach until she's standing right next to her, mentioning how Conan wants to talk to her in the tent. She takes a look in that direction before nodding, thanking Annalie for taking over, handing her the notebook she was using to take notes, and then heading off toward Conan. She doesn't know much about Annalie, hasn't had much interaction with her out of the strictly professional sense, but she has Kate's respect.

When she ducks under the flap of the tent she has to take a moment to get used to the small before she can walk the rest of the way over, swallowing thickly to keep down her gag reflex. She sees Conan and moves to stand across the table from him, looking down at the pieces they've pulled out of the sewer. Some things never change, but at least the morgue back in NYC held in the smell.

"Find anything useful?"

"'Useful' sounds wrong but we found more." Conan nods towards the thing in front of him. "This was a leg. There's a forearm too. Definitely foul play. Rate of decomposition indicates death occurred between a week to two weeks ago -- the recent hot weather, moist conditions of the sewer and severing of the limbs would all speed up the process. Rate of decomposition and size of what we've found all seem to indicate a single victim, but we'll have to rely on the DNA analysis done in the lab to know for sure."

She nods, leaning in as close as the smell will let her, trying to find any kind of useful details in all the sludge and sewer grime. One victim would definitely make her job easier, that's for sure.

"Do we have any idea how the pieces were separated?" She stands back up again, unable to stay that close for long.

Conan's quite happy to move away with her. "A sharp weapon. It's too precise to be accidental, to clean to be animal. Something substantial is my guess, but we'll need to find more to be sure."

"Ne -- this isn't a textbook case, Detective Beckett. That's where your expertise comes in. In a scene so disturbed already, and with the decomposition already so advanced ... what can we do to best preserve the evidence we have? I know Asgard doesn't have a functioning police force or court yet, but when we do -- I don't want this to go unpunished because we didn't take enough precautions."

A sharp weapon. That definitely rules out a few of her theories, and narrows it down to someone rather than something. Someones she can work with. It's when Conan starts asking for advice that Kate looks back out to the manhole.

"We'll want to preserve the pieces as much as we can. Take them back to the hospital, see if anyone can find any evidence on the pieces themselves." She looks back to the table. "There's a book on autopsies that I saw in the office, if whoever we ask to do this needs references. So far the body pieces are our only lead until we can find someone who knows something, so we'll have to go with that."

As far as the police and court system goes...Kate frowns slightly. It's much simpler trying to solve a case when you know there is a judge, or a jury, who you are trying to convince. But she doesn't know what will be necessary, so it would just be safer to go with what she knows.

"Just make sure everyone is wearing gloves. Bag everything, keep records of where we found it, how. Take pictures. We just need to be able to prove we found what we found where we found it. As far as punishment..." Kate takes another breath, shifting on her feet. "We'll have to figure that out once we get that far."

Conan nodded. "This isn't the first autopsy we've had to perform. The staff at the morgue are reliable and we're getting a protocol in place."

Conan nodded. Beckett's advice was good. "We've got a camera with flash capabilities on site already -- part of the scene examination kit we put together. That's more geared towards recent discoveries, but we can at least start on the cataloguing. Fortunately the water department hadn't progressed too far, so the scene was mostly undisturbed -- or as undistrubed as anything with a rat population and running water can be."

"I'll send one of the interns back to the hospital with a request for more gloves, snap lock bags and chilli bins -- or would freezing at this stage be more detrimental, do you think?"

It was a good idea on Conan's part to partner up with the hospital, the staff there would know how to handle bodies. More so than if they had tried to set up the forensics team anywhere else. She had confidence in the staff and how they'd treat the body, or body parts at this point, and nodded back to Conan when he started to list everything they already had on-site. Their preparations had been well put-together.

"We'll want to just make sure that all the documentation is organized and cataloged so that we can go back to it if need be. And I don't know about freezing. After the autopsy, maybe. Oh," she looked back over to watch the staff on the scene work. "Would it be possible to get some of the staff, maybe after they're finished clearing the area, to help with interviews? Someone must have known our victim, but when I was canvasing earlier I wasn't getting anything. Just a few more bodies would be a huge help." She didn't want to drain thin their already fairly small staff numbers, but they had no idea where to start looking for clues, and in her experience someone always heard or saw something. They just had to find them.

"Just regular boxes then." Conan nodded, committing the list to memory until he had the chance to speak to one of the interns. "Thank you, Detective Beckett! I bet you didn't expect to be so busy so fast."

Conan nodded thoughtfully, glancing toward the manhole. The state of the victim did mean there was no real urgency, but he wanted to secure what little evidence they did have as quickly as they could. "I'll send up one of the technicians -- actually, on that note would you recommend Castle for scene exam or taking statements?"

((ooc: Sorry, I keep forgetting to add this -- victim is male, 19-ish, no real identifying features and we are free to make up what details we like in terms of background, name, etc. Disappeared maybe a week and a half ago.))

Edited 2012-05-21 09:18 (UTC)

She nodded back to him, making sure they weren't forgetting anything. She's done so much research to catch up on all the other protocols at a crime scene she almost forgot what it was like to be on one.

As far as Castle was concerned...Kate thought for a moment. "To be honest," because if she could be honest with anyone here, it would be Conan. "I'd rather he stick with me but I know we're low on hands, and I doubt he could screw up taking statements." That comment was made with the slightest hint of fondness, because this was Castle. He wasn't a cop, he didn't know protocol (exactly), but no one here was a cop except for her. She couldn't be selfish.

((ohh, okay good to know! do we have any idea who killed him? or do we have free reign with that too?))

"In that case, maybe you could do a couple of interviews as a pair and when you think he's got the procedure down, split up? I'll switch out with one of the technicians on site so you'll have another pair of hands -- oh, and there's a few people who might drop by. If Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Singer, Edgeworth or Yuri-sensei show up, feel free to bring them up to date!"

((Diva's the killer but that won't be immediately evident! Actually, it occurred to me last night that the victim being desanguinated slows down decomposition, so maybe he vanished closer to three weeks ago.))

Edited 2012-05-21 21:48 (UTC)

"That could definitely work. I'm sure he'll be excited to go off and do it on his own." Kate wasn't that excited with the knowledge she gets to go right back out and interview the natives again, but that was their only way to get a lead until the tests came back. All part of the job. When Conan started listing names she looked back over to him, making a mental note - she'd spoken with Miles Edgeworth before, but the other few she hadn't yet. But she nodded, realizing that with their lack of staff, any help would be appreciated.

"Is there anyone else I should look out for?" Nevermind the fact she wasn't aware that there were multiple Sherlocks and Watsons. We can wait for that confusion later, if it happens.

(( oh yeah of course! I was just trying to figure out what kind of information they'd get out of interviews or what kind of clues she'd find if any. xD And three weeks works, Kate's going to be asking people for the past month or so.))

"None that I can think of -- there have been a few policeman introduce themselves on the network but I'm not sure if they consider themselves 'on-duty' here ... And an incident like this might bring Travellers with previously unknown police-experience out of the woodwork. I guess it'll come down to your discretion!"

"I could make a network post asking if anyone would be interested in helping out? If anyone responded I'd probably just have them help canvas around instead of being directly involved with the body. We're just not sure of where the original crime scene is, or what part of the city the vic is from, so any kind of help would be huge."

And interviewing both travelers and natives are bound to be tiring for just the few on the forensics team.

"Ah -- having some extra people we could call up for cases like this would be welcome. However, there's reasons not to call attention to these cases. There was an incident when a Traveller attacked another Traveller and while without any doubt in the wrong, there was a mass panic and she was murdered by a third Traveller in a classic case of Mob Justice." It still felt bitter to Conan even now.

"With no trial, the murdered was able to paint herself as a victim and gain sympathy, even to the extent that people were willing to excuse the original attack. It's a difficult balance to maintain, keeping the city informed and calm. Let's ask the lab to send us some of their staff -- we help them out with paperwork, so I think they'll help us out this time! And I'll get more of the water department to help us below."

"Oh, wow." Kate was actually quite surprised by that story, but that was most likely from the fact she had not been around at the time. It made a lot of sense, the community rising up to duel out their own idea of justice. It made her sick, thinking about that. That was why they needed a justice system of some sort - something so that normal Travellers wouldn't have the chance to take it upon themselves.

"Yeah no, that makes sense. I'll just keep an eye out for whoever shows up, and then if I'm not sure I'll direct them to you." That would probably be the safest bet, seeing as she wasn't quite familiar with everyone involved with setting up the new Justice System, or most of the people Conan trusted enough to come on scene. And her first instinct would be to turn everyone she didn't know away, which wouldn't help seeing as they were already low on hands.

The water department would definitely be helpful with the sewer, especially since there was a slight possibility the weapon might also be down there. She hoped not, because then they could expect to get no kind of evidence from it, but there was still a chance. "I'll get back to interviewing, unless there's anything else you want to show me?"

Conan nodded, relieved that Beckett wasn't going to press to make their case public knowledge. It went against a detective's grain to cover something up, but they all knew the power of information and just how bad that could be in the wrong hands. "Ah. We'll have to work out a better system later, but for now send them to me."

He shook his head at Beckett's final question. "I think we're good -- thank you, Detective! I have to say having you on the case -- it's a relief."

Kate simply hadn't been aware of the public response to a previous murder. She hadn't even known that it had been a problem before now. But now she knew, and could be more careful about it in the future. The last thing she'd want to do would be to insight another reaction.

"That I can do. And don't worry about it, Conan. I'm just glad I can help." She took a step back outside, pausing just before she left. "Be sure and contact me if anything comes up. Any kind of lead would be helpful at this point."

"Naturally!" Conan gave Beckett a quick wave before turning back to the grisly task of cataloguing and recording their grisly discovery.

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[ OPEN ] OH. What's Occuring?

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