Mystical Crimes Unit - IC

[littlekreen]

Chrysanta grabbed her drone and pressed the power button on the drone and counted for a moment before tossing the drone in the air. The small hazard-colored drone buzzed noisily then stabilized as fans hover it in place. Small red lights appear on its underside as the drone does a self-test with a bright interlaced pattern of lines on the ground. Chrysanta nods extracting her pda and opening the drone's GIS app. At the moment the immediate window showed a small patch of ground in point relief and histogram distance readings though she opened another window of parameters to start a range scan. Selecting a point roughly centered on the nearby body she began an overview read. So she could do at least a little stochastic analysis and remove obvious plantlife obstructions to find detail scans.



The drone took off like a shot a new overview window filling with range data as it made a winding path from the outskirts of the 20m radius toward the center. The fairly wide search radius at low point density wouldn't take too long though.Some sections at the far periphery might need a bit of a rescan as people moved through it so the drone might have to backtrack. Whirring moved quickly through airspace her PDA rapidly building a point cloud of the vicinity. The whining drone kept up its path overhead as Chrysanta waited for it to make close pass before stepping back so it could scan underneath her. It hovered over just off-center of the body. Chryanta re-centered directly overhead before ordering a few fill in scans around where Catherine and herself was standing. Acceleration of propellers changing the pitch as it darted between nav-points to and fro with the press of her finger. The closer dead spots taken care of she homed it and the drone returned.



"I'm ready for high res scene recording when the ME is," Chrysanta said with a distracted tone, "What was their name again? There's several obvious gait marks in the scene if they can get me a range to look for."

[littlekreen]

@Dae Mec said:

Jay absently nodded at Xiaolian's command to stay away from the media. The lights and crackling radios and the dull, dull atmosphere of the crime scene made him close his eyes for a moment, awash in the worst parts of his job. He was no empath, but it would take a special kind of detachment to unaffected by this type of crime scene. And Jay was never the most detached, anyway, and these cases reminded him too much of Max, with missing children and high school and zero answers. He might as well change his name to Mr. Emotionally Compromised at this point.

Still, this was his job. Jay was good enough to push all those pesky feelings to "later" and focus on the now... not that he could really do much. His specialties were crimes in progress and figuring things out post-crime, not the clean-up. Chrysantha was already off doing work, so that left him and Xiaolian .

"Well, Lieutenant, what do you say we do?" He eyed the caution tape, noting that there were people gathering around. Sure, officers were keeping them away, but he also saw the tell-tale flash of the very media that Xiaolian told him to avoid.

[littlekreen]

davien said:

Davien dissapeared back into his realm of thought, looking intently at the small crown insignia left just barely visible below the burn line on the butt of the cigarette. The particular way they mellowed the flavor of these cigarettes was not uncommon, factory dried and rolled, but the particular additives they had added for the sake of mellowing the harshness of the smoke were unique and expensive. The faint sense of chocolate extract mixed with a small whiff of ammonia and the smallest, almost indistinct whiff of mint was enough to differentiate it from the run of the Marlboro Red or Newport which filled the lungs of the common Texan.

Catching a reflection of himself in the mirror of a nearby car, he realized the major slip in his appearance that had taken place. With a slight bit of panic, he looked down to his watches broken strap, barely keeping the metal of the back of the watch pressed against his forearm. He looked around, realizing this is what Molly was talking about, and clasped the watch tightly to his wrist as the tufts of hair peeking out from below his cuff line dissapeared and his face lost the slight animal traits that it had most likely taken on. His golden eyes however remain unchanged.

As Molly posited her question to Dave, he nodded, the wind serendipitously bringing a fresh whiff of smoke from the media pen. Still grasping his wrist, Davien began to slowly walk over, the clouds of smoke now a little more visible and able to guide him further into the crowd of press passes and cameras. His eyes closed as he pushed people aside as best he could with his lithe frame, squirming in between the bodies that would not budge. The scent became strong as Davien opened his eyes, looking around for the rise of smoke in the swarm of people, attempting to suss out the mystery smoker.

[Circe]

Catherine nodded at Chrysanta as she made room for Eveline to examine the body. "Hello Baird, I see you brought your toy along with you." She remarked with an obvious lack of amusement. Normally the two didn't cross paths except for meetings and signatories for some case files. She really couldn't believe that the ME had actually filled out forms to employ the man, especially when he seemed to have no demonstrated anything other than being able to obnoxiously follow the other around like a lost dog. "Decedent was found about 2 hours ago by DPD, our tech Townsend is currently generating a map of the scene, and Bronson and Boyuan are on media duty." The Warden explained as she waited for the woman to step in and do whatever it was she needed to do.

Meanwhile, like Catherine had explained Xiaolian was currently on the media detail with Jay. "Check credentials, and enforce the perimeter." The tiny lieutenant replied. There was something about the media suddenly knowing about this, and exactly where that worried her. Someone, somewhere had leaked information.

[demikara]

"Dumitrescu." Baird responded. "Nice to see you as well. Rufus is not a toy. He's my familiar." And not, strictly speaking, as human as he currently appeared. Still, she allowed Rufus to ensure her clothes would be protected as she pulled on gloves. "Such a young decedent. Are you slipping, Dumitrescu?" They were not remotely friends and kept to only required and minimal business meetings. It let them work together. Eva knelt next to the body, careful not to touch anything and pulled out the liver probe. "Sorry little one. I'll need to do some quick work before we can get you to the lab." She inserted the liver probe and took down the temperature, then paused as she did the math in her head. "Rufus. Guard." He'd see she was safe. "Dumitrescu. She's been dead maybe two and a half to three hours. She ran through several other tests, steadily and swallowed. "Three and a half hours tops, warden." The police never found the bodies that fast. "...How'd DPD find the body again?"

Molly meanwhile was pushing through the crowd after Davian. "Dave, stay close." she tried, not even certain if he could hear her at this point. Something had caught his eye and she got next to him and push a hand on his shoulder, bending to whisper to him. "You've got some sort of lead? Quietly tell me about it." It was possible he'd noticed somethign she hadn't after all. Different senses would lead to that and she was pretty sure they weren't the same species.

The scent of the smoker was strong now. Of the two smokers one was male and the other female. They were near each other. the female had a lanyard with her press credentials clearly visible. The word PRESS vertically on the badge next to a picture of her. The male had a lanyard on as well, but wasn't as sharply dressed as most of the press people seemed to be, his suit much more rumpled. The lanyard had a picture on it, and a some text, but didn't seem to say PRESS on it.

[littlekreen]

Once the tarp pulled back the faintly buzzing drone started making slow back and forth sweeps over the body from a fair distance up. Chrysantha could tighten the lidar field going slow and keep it from disturbing anything with the downwind. Filtering out Baird was more a manual exercise but the software could handle most of the obvious points out of close range. People tracking worked pretty well though she didn't have a scan for anyone to help filter. The technicolor point field was a gradient by distance showing a few hopeful impact points of feet. Mostly small purple divots were feet might be. There were a bunch of sets now at least from the people on the scene.

Enough data after the second pass she started up a kinematics analysis engine to see if the bones or joints were deformed than by composition. With a finger she poked out joint locations, gender, and approximate age with the tool as datapoints to fill in. The drone was on repeat so the slow passes would continue until told to stop.

She interjected to Catherine at Baird's question turning the tablet around if Baird wanted to see, "Ah, a rough height, weight, race, and gender of the badge first on the scene would be helpful too."

In hearing the names Chrysantha didn't bother with introductions. They had things to do and a decedent to get out of the cameras. The tablet was displaying the kinematics sim ticking away figuring out from sample data if joints were torqued the wrong way for a given type of human skeleton. Best fit still needed some twiddling and know-how though. Without time to fetch geological data of the scene she'd need to find the fellow on the scene to start dividing sudden impressions of footprints into before, near, and after. Statistics were powerful but she still needed data.

The bronze eyes flicker to the DPD out at the scene the technician muttering quietly to herself to qualify her momentary thought, "They're probably all wearing the same footwear. Any issue records could get rough wear and tear."

[davien]

Davien shrugged Molly's touch off of his shoulder, hell bent on finding something. His nose ran him right into the frumpier looking man, still holding onto his wrist. As he bumped into the man, he noticed his cigarette, with the same brand design near the bottom that he had found earlier.


"Heh... Pardon the hell out of me, frumpy man." He said, locking eyes with him as he pulled out a cigarette of his own. "I like your fake press pass. It can be the fooler of many, but not me!" He exclaimed to no one but himself. "It looks like you have been running, but from what?" he said, lighting up and blowing a puff into his face. He walked a small circle around the man, trying to suss out anything else strange about the man besides his smoking habit, fake pass and frumpy attire. "You know," he said with another puff of smoke escaping through his nostrils. "I am stupid. Most know that. But if I were to be trying to sneak back into the scene of my crime... I would at least..." He picked the badge up off of the mans chest, looking back to molly still following him, before raising his voice. "I would at least put 'press' on my fake press badge! Ha!" He grabbed the man by the lanyard and pulled him down to his eye level, turning back to Molly, quoting (as best he could) an old TV show he had seen. "BOOK THEM, DANIEL!"

[Circe]

"I still maintain he really doesn't belong here, Baird." Catherine replied boredly, not in the mood for dealing with any sort of bullshit from the ME. The woman was notoriously difficult to work with, and most had taken to calling her 'the diva' when she wasn't around. Who else showed up to a crime scene in a cocktail dress and heels, with what looked like their boyfriend in tow?

"DPD responded to the report of a body and found it as you currently see it. Paramedics were called and she was pronounced deceased at the scene, no further details were given." She informed the ME, looking at the brief few notes she'd managed to take earlier. "First officer on the scene I believe.. was Kilian Zhu." Catherine answered turning her attention back to Chrysantha and the scan. "Height I'm going to guess about 5'7", not a terribly tall guy. Asian American." She added with a frown as she thought back to the list of people on the scene she had made.

[demikara]

Molly groaned. "Dave, I'm just going to ignore the majority of what you said." She sighed. "But trust your...instincts." It was best not to say nose. Molly still wasn't too thrilled with the forced outing and was certain she didn't agree with it. "We'll work on arrest protocols rookie. In the mean time." She gave the man a smile. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." She continued rattling off his Miranda rights, and handcuffed the very shocked man as she did so. After all, it wasn't often someone circled you sniffing.

The press crowd split, most filming the man among them being arrested, others still taking pictures of the crime scene. This was going to be all over the nightly news, she just knew it. Catherine was going to kill her if this wasn't the man. And she'd kill Dave, after Molly got done with it. When she finished she glanced over to Dave. "Right, Dave, with me. We'll take our suspect to the police station. The others will continue to process the scene." It wouldn't do for the case to fall through after a very public arrest after all. "Go open the back passenger side door up, will you?" It was going to be fun escorting the man out of the crowd.

Braid glanced to Catherine. "He's my familiar. And he helps ensure I'm ready for a crime scene, even when I'm out enjoying myself. I only work scenes when called to them, and I don't spend all my time in the lab." She pointed out. She glanced up. "Heads up. What I'm assuming is a rookie is causing a scene." She gently removed the probe and covered up the bod. "Preliminary cause of death if blood loss." Using exsanguination was something she only did when the blood was drained dry, despite what other believed. "I'll take care of her in the lab for the rest." she sighed and stood. They'd move the body only when given the go ahead, but this was gruesome enough she didn't much want to kneel near the poor child all day. "...I'll get her started tonight. It'll be a change of plans, but...well it'll get it done." The little girl was so small already. It would be best to hurry up and do this one.

[Circe]

Catherine swore and turned her attention to where Molly and Dave stood talking to the press. "Seriously Bronson..." The warden muttered under her breath as she silently prayed that this would go according to plans. She would hate to have yet another black eye in the press, especially given the recent media coverage most of the community had had to endure. "Right.. I'll check in with you later Baird." Catherine informed as she made her over towards where the press was congregating around Molly and Dave.

"Alright ladies.. gentlemen... if you would back up outside of the police cordon we'll talk."

[littlekreen]

Chrysanta looked back toward the crowd but not directly. Her face splashed in large over a television broadcast wouldn't do her any favors. She recorded what Catherine had said for later processing and lookup through the system. There was a lot of statistics work to do.

She sighed while taking small simple containers out of her bag, "Well that's what we're for I guess. Making scenes. Well I'll be in the lab whenever you need testing done, Miss Braid. I need to clean it up and see what still works so depending on what you need it might take a bit. It's not safe for me to go home yet anyway. Is there anything you want processed from the field? I want to take a few soil samples before we go. I'm qualified to assist if your familiar can't."

A small plastic spade dug into the earth from various spots near the body so Chrysanta had some soil samples for data. Cuts of major local flora within reach also went into bags for identification to help identify and rule out any bits of plant found on the body.

[davien]

Dave could barely contain his smug self satisfaction as Molly rolled his eyes at him. Knowing nothing of protocol or subtlety Davien felt as though he had solved the case entirely, and that he was now officially one of the good guys. He smiled smugly at the man as Molly put the cuffs on him. Dave led them, splitting the crowd and finding true happiness in getting to boss people out of the way for once, instead of the other way around. Dave didn't look at Molly as she spoke, but nodded when she was done. Walking over to the door, he opened it with mock grandiose, and waved the detainee in like a bellhop welcoming new guests.

As he looked up however, he realized the impact of his loud deduction in the center of the press pen. All eyes were on them, and all cameras too. Perhaps.. Next time he will have to think about the definition of subtlety.

[demikara]

Molly stared down the rookie, arms crossed. "Rookie. In the car. Say nothing. We will Talk about this." And they would too and it was not going to be good. She gently put the man in the car, knowing all cameras were on then and made certain he wouldn't get hurt, then shut the door on him, then turned to face the press, and, worst of all, Catherine. "Apologies for my associate." She really didn't know what else to say. She wasn't supposed to speak to the press. Thank goodness for Catherine though. she'd have it all under control and get them off her back, or at least, you know, make this less of a clusterfuck than it currently was. He needed so much training. And now they absolutely had to get make certain they had this man and had an abundance of clear evidence because of Dave's big mouth.

Madeline raised an eyebrow at Chrysanta. "Dr. Baird actually. And make certain you get anything that could possibly be evidence? It's...probably more imperative than usual given what just happened." This was going to be all over the evening news. It would probably be all the local news talked about for the next few days and now all eyes were on this case. "Rufus...once the decedent is in the van, please take the decedent straight to the lab. I'll want to work quickly on this one." there went her night, but she knew that the minute she had been called out. It wasn't remotely surprising at all. Still, at least she kept actual work clothes at work.

[Circe]

Catherine just sighed as she watched Molly shove Dave into the squad car. This wasn't how she had wanted this to go, and it only took one rookie to make a mountain of paperwork for the rest of them. They were more than likely going to have to call a press conference for the second time that week after all of this was said and done. There was also going to be discipline for behaviors and investigation into who hired Dave. The rookie's whole string of behaviors was off, and generally confused people like Catherine.

'This cannot possibly get any worse.' She thought to herself as she watched the car pull away before turning her attention back to the press. 'Can it?'

[littlekreen]

Always a bit formal Chrysanta's mind took a bit to process the rhetorical question. There was a lot of data here and a lot of unknown unknowns she might not be able to find without more context as opposed to known unknowns of tracks and mapping she hadn't run data processing on yet. Hopefully they at least had a working plug in the lab to power her server.

Glasses pushed up bronze eyes vanished to brown through them, "Of course, Dr. Baird. I'm a bit awash in data and the drone's getting low on juice. I have enough samples to make a footpath analysis and washout tracks for evidence but can't process it here. I can have a look for point clouds with high a high number of intersections. I'll have to confine it to near the body."

Tapping the pad the filters were very crude but she had a few blips where a lot of vectors from drone to 'ground' should have crossed nearby but didn't and one continued on. Grass moved too much to show up and it generally meant something staying put and hollow inside. It still got a lot of rocks near the body but helped highlight other small bits better. The drone was busy darting from point to point with the 20% of power it had left and helped her rule out natural rocks or plant detritus from the field as two views refined. Her shoulder rig was actually getting kinda hot given how hard it was working.

Chrysanta unclamped her map as it followed her position like a looking glass using acceleration and GPS. Occasionally she flipped the tablet up to poke through grass to see what a glob of datapoints actually was. There were a few big dead bugs of course. Still, she knew enough entomology spy any insect tourists that ought not to be there. Bottlecaps were just endemic to urban areas even in the middle of barren fields. Metal bits lacking in enough damage to have been here long went into sample bags too. She carefully circled the body as the drone landed nearby on its own. Any cigarette buts or food wrappers went into a bag as a matter of course. When creepy bastards got aroused sometimes they got hungry. Thorough was the word, anyway.

She looked up from her knees taking an obvious effort to not look over her glasses, "At first glance there's a lot of random trash here Dr. Baird. Though there's a dry bit of cigarette or its interior here and there. Can you tell if it rained on the body? There's no easy telling if the site was visited before the decedent arrived to it."