2019-06-17 - Mrs. Seymour

I'll take 'I Was Sleeping Soundly For Once' for five hundred, Alex! Yes, Penny had been sleeping peacefully for once, so it's no wonder that she is woke at this hour. The place is right down the street for her home, so she is dressed and there within twenty minutes. She's wearing her jacket and has her badge on her. When she gets inside there's a look around and she frowns, "Jesus..." she whispers. She then looks around to see who exactly is in charge for the moment.

For the moment, it appears to be Officer Stanton - who only has two years on the force, and has clearly never worked a homicide before, judging by her pale and slightly greenish features. Despite this, she's kept people mostly calm, mostly out of the way of the bodies, and the scene is secure. She directs the fast food minion to go sit down for a moment when Penny comes in, and heads in that direction. "Dr. Faust? Officer Jane Stanton." She holds out a gloved hand to shake. "I'm securing the scene, but the bodies are all yours if you need to look at them. We've got a call in for a detective."

"Do we have any idea what happened here?" Penny asks in a soft tone. Not wanting to upset any of those that were still sticking around. "I'd like to look over the bodies, see what we got so far and then we'll transfer them back when everyone is done." she tells her with a gentle nod.

Officer Stanton looks relieved to have some backup, even if it's not the cop backup that she might have preferred. "Yeah, doc. Gilly," she clears her throat, "That's, uh, Gillian Waters, was working her shift with Sarah Kilpatrick," Stanton points at the live worker, then the dead one, "when the suspect entered. She says she seemed agitated, and got moreso as she started to try and order. She became violent," a wave at the destruction, and Ms. Kilpatrick stepped from behind the counter to try and calm her down. Instead, the suspect attacked her. They fought, and the suspect," Stanton swallows and the green in her face intensifies, "uh, smashed her face in on the floor until she stopped moving. Then she - the suspect - apparently started to convulse. She staggered away towards the door, but dropped before she reached it." A nod to the second body. "No pulse, no breathing."

Penny gives a look over things and there's a frown, "Might have been drug related." she admits to that. "We'll figure it out though." she adds. Then there's a look to the officer and a gentle smile, "Do you need to get a bit of air? I know this is a lot to take in." she states in her usual quiet tone. Then she starts to walk around the scene, taking notes on things. Snapping pictures with her camera. It's a gruesome scene, but that doesn't stop Penny from doing her job.

"Christ, yes," Stanton mutters, but she looks at the people, and grimaces. "But I can't. Not until someone else gets here. I'll, uh, continue taking statements while you...do your thing." And she does! Starting with the people as far away from the bodies as she can manage.

As Penny does her walkthrough, she can notice a couple of different things right off: One, the bruises on the suspect's face definitely wouldn't be there from a fight she had right before she died. Color of skin and lips suggests some sort of heart attack, but she'd have to do an autopsy for sure. The suspect's fingers have broken and bent nails - these look very fresh, and might have happened during her meltdown. The back of the victim's neck has smears of blood and several fresh, ragged scratches, as well, and a few hunks of hair have been pulled out. Nothing immediately contradicts that initial report by the witness.

Penny moves slowly and works methodically as she takes down notes and pictures. It was something she was good at. She didn't seem terribly bothered by the bodies. She takes in the weird things that stand out about the woman, "Maybe you got into something you didn't handle well." she murmurs to her corpse, but not loud enough that others can hear it.

If the woman has an opinion on this, she does not respond. Her body suggests that she was staggering backwards, away from her victim when she fell. Her clothing is old, rather dirty. There's the smell that suggests that, hey, this is not a person who had the time or resources to bathe and wash clothing often. On top of the other smells that just come along with death.

Penny gives a bit of a sniff and then she makes a mental note that this woman might have been homeless, "Do we have an ID for this one, Officer Stanton?" she asks the green around the gills woman. "There's no rush on that of course. I'll start prepping for transport." she tells her with a smile. Then her bag is settled down and she starts pulling things out. Gotta bag em'.

As Ruiz would be in a position to see this when he drives up to the scene - Alexander is LURKING in the darkness outside the fast food joint, trying to peer inside without being seen by the uniform. Like a creeper.

Stanton shakes her head. "No, doc. Order from dispatch was to hold for a detective and you before fiddling with the bodies." She looks around at the customers and the fast food worker. "Anybody here know that woman?" There are shakes of the head.

'Gilly' pipes up, "I've seen her around. She gets things from the trash sometime, right around closing." Right around now, in other words. "But I've never talked to her. I don't know her name or anything."

Speaking of 'a detective', a siren warbles in the distance, the sound growing louder as it approaches this block of Elm street. Moments later, an unmarked squad car peels into view; black charger, lights flashing even after the siren's cut, and there's a quick skreeek of warning as it swims through an intersection and pulls to a halt lengthwise across the street. Another, marked car comes in from the opposite direction and takes up a similar position to cordon off Elm from the other end.

Out of the unmarked car, a pair of uniformed cops emerge. Big black guy and a slightly more compact Hispanic man. Armed, of course, and with a full duty rig. Doors are slammed, and both make their way toward the scene, while the officers from the second car begin setting up a perimeter.

Penny straightens as people talk and there's a frown down to the body of the woman, it was a said thing. "I'm sure the detectives will find that out for us." she murmurs. Then she's getting things back in order, setting up her own little perimeter as she goes about her job. She was very focused when she worked.

Alexander is not very stealthy. He's just NOT, okay. Pretty much as soon as the officers go to start securing the perimeter, there's an exasperated, "God damn it, Clayton, what the fuck are you doin--no, I know what you're doing. You're being a fucking menace. Get out here before I cuff you."

Alexander obediently shuffles out of the darkness with his hands up, although he fails to look at all repentant or apologetic for getting caught. He glances over at Ruiz, then inside the door where the fallen bodies are. Hey, it's a better view from here. "Might know her," he says, quietly.

The bigger cop starts barking out orders to the more junior officers; get a perimeter set up, where's the ME? and so forth. Captain de la Vega, meanwhile, is on the horn with dispatch for a moment to update them on the situation, and once his buddy points out Penny staring speculatively at one of the bodies, he starts marking a path in her direction.

That is, until he happens to spot Alexander skulking about. Of course. "Mr. Clayton." He pauses, thumbs hooked in his belt, and something not quite a smile on his lips. Actually nowhere near a smile, though the scruffy beard obscures those on the best of days. "You what?" He tilts his head a little, like he didn't quite hear right.

Penny starts heading for the door and that's where the other few members of the CSI team had gathered about, "We have two to move." she tells them. Then they all start to shuffle and start getting to their jobs. The redhead looks over towards Ruiz and the others and she gives a nod, "Evening detective." she states and starts to look away. Then she doubletakes at the sight of Alexander, "What are you doing here?" she asks him.

"Captain," Alexander replies, in much the same tone as he was identified. His hands remain up, because cops are glaring at him, but when Penny opens the door, there's something like a real smile for her. "Miss Faust." He watches the CSI and cops scatter, being such busy bees for a moment, before turning his attention back to the questions. "I live nearby, on Elm. Heard about this, came by. Might know the woman, but I'd need to get a look at her face to be sure. May I?" As if it's totally normal for randos to ask to peek at dead bodies. But then, he does this a LOT.

Ruiz seems content to let the other officers scurry about securing the scene and setting up tape, while he casually takes the measure of the town crazyperson. Who's just asked if he can get his eyes on the body. The captain squints at him for a little while like he's trying to suss something out about the fellow standing there with his hands up and that eager look on his face. He cuts his gaze to the coroner for a moment, returns her greeting with a curt nod, then finally addresses Alexander again: "If you lay a finger on anything. If you breathe on anything, ayúdame dios, I am cuffing you and bringing you in. Do you understand?"

Penny gives a bit of a smile to Alexander, "You're always hip deep in trouble, Mister Clayton." she tells him. Hey, it's /true/. She then gives a look between Alexander and Ruiz, "I'll keep an eye on him, Captain. Just in case." she nods to this. "We're getting them ready for transport as it is." she adds.

Alexander stares at Ruiz for a long moment, his expression blank. Then he jerks his head in a downward nod. "No fingers. No breathing. I will remember." He turns his attention to Penny, dropping his hands back to his sides. "Hip deep still puts my feet on the ground. Acceptable." He ducks his head, then, and sidles into the crime-scene, looking about with open curiosity before focusing on the face up body. He seems to believe Ruiz is serious, because he doesn't do anything STUPID like try to touch the body. ((OOC: Ruiz and Alexander may both make Alertness checks to pick up on the details that Penny did on an initial lookover of the scene.))

Alexander stares down at the body. "Mrs. Olivia Jane Seymour. Forty-six. Homeless. Hired me once to find her socks." He frowns. "She was not kind, but she was not violent."

Ruiz might be a little preoccupied with making sure Alexander is behaving himself. Call it babysitting duty. Suffice to say, it'll take him a minute to convince himself the guy isn't going to start putting his grubby little fingers all over those bodies. "Behave yourself," he warns, on the heels of the information provided.

Then the big cop he arrived with, whose nametag reads 'H. Moretti', is signaled with two fingers raised, and the two bodies gestured to in a fashion that must be code for something between the two of them, as Ruiz prowls off to corner the distraught looking minion lurking nearby. His notepad and pen comes out as he moves; and the sight of the unsmiling Hispanic cop bearing down on him certainly doesn't help the guy look any less distraught.

"Was Mrs. Seymour a drug user that you know of?" Penny quietly asks Alexander as the team goes about putting things in bags and the bodies are starting to be put in their bags. "If you don't know, that's fine. But any help you can give before I get her on the table will be a benefit." she explains as she works. "And like the Captain said, don't touch her." she gives him a stern look. She knew what happened when he touched bodies.

Gilly gulps as the cops bear down on him. He looks for Officer Stanton, but she has (with great relief) moved out of the building on perimeter duty. For his part, Alexander looks over to Penny and her questions, thoughtfully. "Yes. Some. Most of them do." Referring to the groups of homeless people who live around the Elm area, well known to Ruiz at least. "Self-medicating, mostly. I think she drank, traded for prescription pills. Nothing hard." He snorts a little at the repeated warning. "Not gonna touch her. You think this was a drug overdose?" he asks, curiously.

"It would account for the erratic behavior and a few other things." Penny admits. "But I won't know for sure until I get her back to the lab." she adds. "Could be possible someone gave her something that she reacted badly to or...well...it could be other things." she gives Alexander a meaningful look at that. "Looks like she ripped some of her own hair out and there's other little things." she frowns.

Ruiz speaks in low tones with Gilly, notepad out and propped up on a counter, pen scritch-scratching away with the answers he gets. His queries are sharp and to the point, and chased with follow-up questions down paths likely to bear fruit. The poor minion is grilled for a good fifteen or twenty minutes before he's released, whereupon the captain shoves his notepad away and takes it upon himself to do a little poking around. Before too long, he rejoins the others at the scene of the deceased Mrs. Seymour, and crouches down to have another look at her while he listens to the chatter from the coroner and Mr. Crazypants.

Alexander can't help but look intrigued by the mention of other things. He looks down at Olivia's body thoughtfully. "I don't know what she took. Some of her friends might. I could ask." It's not really asking permission, even as Ruiz approaches and starts to examine the body. If she's searched, there's some dirty, folded bills (about twenty bucks) on her, as well as a couple of business cards - one for a local shelter, one for a church. No personal ID, and no empty pill bottles. There are a couple of handrolled joints stuffed in a coat pocket, though.

Penny gives a look to Ruiz when he comes over, but she doesn't stop him from looking at the bodies. She starts to search her and finds those things. "Hmm." she murmurs to herself. "Maybe check up on the shelter she's got a card for. See if anyone there knows of her and what she was doing lately." she states as things are put into bags.

Ruiz sends a sidelong look to Penny at the murmured words, then resumes his study of the body. A pair of latex gloves are pulled on in the event he has to touch anything, though he seems to be hands off for the most part and letting the CSIs do their job. "I'll get Moretti on it," he offers in regards to the shelter. "Any ideas on cause of death?" The hand rolled joints are eyed as they're bagged, and he tilts his head slightly to get a good look at the bruising on her face. He gestures to it without touching. "And what do you think this is about?"

Penny doesn't equate the sidelong look to anything bad. But she nods when he says he'll get someone on it, "Appreciated, Captain." she tells him. Then there's a look over the dead woman and there's a sigh, "I honestly don't know where to point things right now. The initial look over and statements make me think some sort of laced drug that set her off. But we'll know that for sure when I get her on the table." she tells him.

"We've taken the witness statements, Captain," one of the uniforms says. "Should we send these people home?" He glances at Penny. "Safe to move the bodies, doc?"

Penny gives a look to the uniformed police officer and there's a dip of her head to him as she straightens from her crouch, "Yes. They are safe to move. Everything else will have to be done at the station." she admits. "Unless you have objections, Captain?" she looks to Ruiz.

There's a grunt from the captain in response to Penny's comment to him. The bruises definitely pique his interest, but with no solid answers forthcoming, he pushes back to his feet and turns his head slightly to speak into his radio briefly. "Yes," he tells the other cop. "Let's clear the scene." He cuts a look back to Penny. "No objections, Faust. You'll be in touch, yes?"