2019-11-16 - My Name is Human

Nightshift. Gotta love. Esme had been hoping to steal a nap but noooo. Instead someone had to go and get murdered at the zoo. THE. ZOO. Ugh. So she had grabbed a coffee and popped a No-Doze on her way to the scene. She lets the patrol officer take care of the statement taking, just telling him to come get her as soon as the statement is done so she can look it over.

Now. Now she's staring down at the dead body of this woman and pulling her gloves on. "What was this woman's name again?" She asks the officer that escorted herself and Yule over to the body, taking a long drink of her togo cup. Then handing it off to the officer to get rid of. There was cop work to do! "You want to the honors Duchannes?" Of doing the majority of touching things since he was the ME and all.

Yule is dressed for the weather, a light blue dress shirt covered over by a dark brown leather jacket to help ward off the cold of the night. His M.E. credentials hang from his neck, and a pair of dark gray slacks and black ankle high boots complete his attire. Even as he comes towards the body, the latex gloves are snapped on with his kit held in hand.

His kit was open, and Yule's own series of questions come, short as they are, "Was she moved? Any attempts to resucitate?" It's first a quick glance over the body, before a faint smile curls to the corners of his mouth. "I always get the good bits." It's the preliminary examination he works through, including checking temperature for likely time of death.

"Been a long while, Detective Wilkinson. Last I remember, you were about six inches shorter. This your way of welcoming me back to the city?" What is a medical examiner without a bit of morbid humor to him, though Yule does spare a long glance her way, those brown eyes watching critically. "Good to see you, though, yeah? Here, let see if I can find any identification on her you can take a look at."

Esme grimaced. "Good bits. Right. Clearly the cause of death is massive blood loss. See, did your job for ya. So can we go home now?" She asked, but the light smirk on her lips says she's joking. Good thing there's no family around. She'd totally be getting written up for that one. She bats her lashes at him. "And your hair was about six inches longer." Or something like that. "I just got back not too long ago myself. Been up in Spokane." She steps aside to let him do is his thing. "Good luck. If not - well - hopefully she's an employee and not some weirdo who liked playing zookeeper. So she'll have a locker or something."

"No. I'm not going home till you've taken me to see the..." A quick glance around. Does this zoo even have any damn animals? Yule finally gives Esme a pointed stare, "Peacock. And we've fed it." A soft snort of laughter comes from him at her quip back, even as those coveralls are carefully sorted through looking for whatever might be of interest in her pockets. "How long were you there? A month, myself. Twenty years up in New York City. Which, I'll point out, has bears. And lions. And tigers." A low breath comes out as his attention goes squarely back towards the body. "Clothing is gunna make it hard to see the wounds that caused it... assuming it is wounds. Was there any sort of weapon laying around? Really stupid badguys that just drop it, yeah?"

"Of all the things in a zoo, you wanna see a peacock?" Esme asked. "What do you even feed a peacock? Regular bird seed?" She keeps her voice on the lower side so it seems like they might actually be talking about important police things! Fancy that. "I was up there bout...8 years? Since 2011. And now here I am." Lucky me. is definitely hanging off the end of that one. She peered down at the body, falling quiet so Yule could do his thing and she could keep an eye out as well for anything strange.

"Course not. I really want you to take me to see the African Wild Dogs. They are one of the rare pack animals where the pups are given first choice of the kill rather than the alphas. But you know what they don't have here?" Great. Clearly, Yule has spent way too much time in random, niche museums while he was living in NYC, full of random trivia. Carefully after inspecting he plucks off the badge to hand to Esme, along with the ID tag as well, all so she can do whatever she's gunna do with it. "Jesus," Comes a muttered bit of surprise. "If your squeamish, I'd look away." It's his only warning for the Detective that whatever he thinks he found is above and beyond normal, and once he's seen to his other protocol, that body is lifted up just a bit so he can better see that missing strip of flesh. "Goes even down into her coveralls. This is clearly where she bled out at. You thinks she was chased? And this would have been... a lot of blood quickly. If someone was here? They'd have to have gotten some on their shoes, at least." It's down to the hands he goes next, looking to see if he can offer any insights on if there were defensive wounds from a struggle.

"Then the only clear answers is that I'm gonna have to drag your ass back to New York so you can see 'em, right?" Esme winked and then took the ID carefully when Yule hands it to her- looking it over before bagging it. Everything was evidence until was proven not to be after all. She looks about to say something when the blood catches her eye. "What?" She asks - nearly to herself, turning so she can examine the turnstile. "Hey Brody." She calls one of the other officers over. "Get a swab sample of this." Pointing to the blood. "Pretty sure it's the vic's but - can't ever be too sure."

Then she goes back over to Yule so she can see what he wants to show her. "Well, shit." Is all she says initially, looking at the area of missing flesh. " Is there anything else missing? Why would someone cut away just this part of skin?" Esme sighs and looks over her shoulder again, speaking up. "It looks like she was dragged through the turnstile maybe? Or something bloody was at least. I'm going to see if I can find any more of a trail. maybe we'll get lucky and find a bloody footprint." And she rises to go take a closer look.

"Yeah? Don't fuck with me, Detective. There's this bistro that I really miss too. And I expect a stop by the gift shop on the way out of the zoo. I expect stuffed animals." He pauses just long enough to snap a few photos of that injury, at least what can be seen of it. "I'd find parts missing as trophies. Or just incidental cast off. But the skin isn't around so they took it with them. And that is... fuck. I don't even know how you'd manage that without screams. Maybe done after she was already-"

He stops, a look that is somehow a mixture of perlexion, a touch horrified, and amazed. "It's... a pattern, maybe? Out to her shoulders, into the coveralls. And," ever so carefully he tips the head back, revealing that the neck, too, has been flayed. "This is really surgical shit, Esme." Uh oh. First name must be serious business. "They didn't cut the muscle at all." He pauses there, picking up the camera to snap a few photos, all for the sake of proper documentation.

"Sounds like you're just threatening me with a good time Duchannes." Esme quips back as she takes the bagged swab from Brody to add to her collection of evidence as she eyes the trail. Into the zoo...she's distracted by Yule using her first name. Well, double shit. First names are never good in the police world. She walks back over, though makes sure she stays clear so she doesn't get in any of his pictures by accident. "Have you ever seen anything like this before? Any idea what the pattern may be? The blood trail leads into the zoo. The killer might still be here." She should call for back up at this point right? Well there were plenty of uniforms here. It'd be fine.

Then her eyes widen. "Yule." She lowered her voice a touch. "There's been a couple murders recently involving organ harvesting. And...there was a serial killer like. Forever ago. When we were teenagers I think - who was doing that. Harvesting organs. Could we have a copy cat? I mean. Skin's an organ right? I want this body brought back to your office, cleaned up and to see if we can make out a pattern...but while we're here - we need to see if they might still be here?"

"Well. I do at least. It's not really in your job description." Esme clarifies. But clearly she is also not going to say no if he wants to go into the zoo.

"I only bother with the best, Wilkinson. You sure you're up for the challenge?" He's still trying to see what he can, but his head just shapes a bit back and fourth. "This had to take time. I mean, if it was just ripped out in chunks? Yeah, sure. When was the last time someone was by here before the body was found? Hours? Go ahead and body bag her and transport her back to the morgue." That is spoken to the officer on duty who had interviewed the zookeeper who found the body, but already he's standing up, pulling off those bloody gloves.

"Leading into, or did she make it running out?" He murmurs idly, that humor drained for a bit as he listens to thsoe whispered words the detective offers. "Sure. I'll go with you on a romantic stroll through the zoo. But despite my protests that I saw it on CSI? They won't give me a gun, so if that peacock attacks us? You gotta deal with it." His head just shakes a bit as he takes a few steps towards the zoo, but he's letting her take the lead. "Kidneys I get. But skin?" He whispers back, giving her a pointed look. "Why not take the kidneys again. More money. This? This is like some sick fuck with a Frankenstein's Monster obsession going on here."

"That's a question you should be asking yourself Duchannes." Esme murmured as she eyed the trail again. "I'm no ME, but someone definitely would have had to have heard all the screaming if this was done pre-mortem? Maybe they knocked her out first." She shrugged, biting her lip briefly. "Definitely seems to be going in. Let's see what we've got." She passed off the evidence bags to another uniformed officer and also disposed of the disposable gloves. Another pair got shoved into the pocket of her wool coat before leading Yule over to the turnstile.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from the big, bad peacock." Esme assured him as she eyed the blood trail. "Could this be from the killer dragging the skin? I swear to god if we find poor innocent penguins nibbling on this thing because they don't know any better..." Well - the killer was going to pay dearly for that. Also for killing that poor woman too. But why drag the penguins into it, you know? She carefully pulls her gun out - just in case.

"Nah. I already know the answer if I asked myself." Not that he's going to tell her what his own resposne would be, for that should be obvious enough. And now, he's far too focused on slowly following that trail of blood. He clicks on a flashlight, checking to see if he can determine directionality of the blood as they go. "Maybe that answers our question about what peacocks eat. That case? That'd have been... what. Twenty, twenty five years ago?"

It's a mental note to dig up those case files later, if he can even find them. "Man. Didn't the zookeepers notice shit like that when they found the body? I remember when the cool thing to do was sneak in and TP the place. Not that /I/ did that, Detective. Just what I heard. Back then." He offers up in that ever so casual voice, but his eyes? Oh man, his eyes are now everywhere except Esme, because she's the one thing he trusts around them.

The banter has died off for now, because things are definitely getting more interesting with this case. "Jesus christ." Esme breathed out when they arrived at the enclosure. "de la Vega is going to love hearing about this fiasco in the AM." She glances to her watch. Well, technically it was already almost AM. Whenever she made it back to the office or something. "...So she was killed before she feed the penguins?...All this blood...was she killed here?" And then dragged away? There didn't seem to be any signs of running...Esme bent down a bit to shine her own flashlight on the blood. "What the fuck is going on in this town?" It's a rhetorical question.

"You are not going to ask me to do an autopsey on a damn penguin. Even I have feelings," Comes his hissed whisper, but it lacks the spirit behind that morbid thought as he shines his flashlight along with hers. "And what is that in the pools of blood? Good thing it's outside, not in. Knowing our luck they'd try and drown us." Yule casts one glance over towards her, and then he steps forward, crouching down by the pools of blood to start inspecting that membrane that had caught his eye. "I wasn't the ME on scene for the missing kidneys. You know if it was as messy as this? That's.. a lot of blood. Might be all hers? But, she bled out back there. Skin had to have been taken off at the gate. Not here." Surely, right? There is doubt in his voice, because this is Gray Harbor after all.

"But penguins are innocent, dancing and singing, happy creatures. They wouldn't dare try to drown us." Esme muttered. She grabbed her radio, "This is Wilkinson. I need a uniform over by the penguin enclosure with a large evidence bag and a few small ones." They were going to have to bag and tag that membrane to go to the morgue and then Esme needed to make sure - of course- that this blood was ALSO the woman's. "I have no idea." She admitted about the other cases. "I wasn't on point with those either. Don't know much about 'em. Only other case I'm working priority on is a potential Gohl copycat. But I'll see if I can get the case files pulled, or talk to the detectives who have been looking into them."

Then her attention is back on the imprints. Trying to see if they had any rhyme or reason to them.

"Could be hers," He doesn't sound certain, not ready to declare one way or another as he carefully inspects without touching with his bare fingers. "Is that? Fuck. What the hell. There are bite marks on it. Human, surely. Maybe? They don't have any monkeys bigger than those lemurs, do they?" His head just shakes, and then those brown eyes lift up to focus on the detective. "Look. I hate to jump to early conclusions, but I'm going out on a limb here and tell you her death wasn't from natural causes. There isn't a damn thing natural about any of this. And do me a favor, yeah? Loop me in when you pull them. I'll bring the scotch."

"If you said this shit was natural causes I'd be telling you to find a new line of work." Esme assured him. "Look at this Yule." She motioned the imprints. "Are those fingerprints? They can't be right? If this is monkeys..." She paused and got back on the radio. "I also need a finger printing kit and that zookeeper if you didn't let them go yet." She looks back to the Duchannes. "...Is it bad that I'm hoping this is just one deranged, rabid, very intelligent monkey? Like...whathisface from Powerpuff Girls?" She dug out her phone so she could take her own picture of the weird finger prints. "Maybe they're getting a new exhibit and it escaped...and also knows surgery..."

"With it's teeth." He concludes about how that monkey apparently does it's surgery. He's looking at that membrane further, trying to judge it's size, if there is enough there to actually make up what skin was missing. "The Powerpuff Girls? Really? If you are pulling out a phone to show me your screen saver of Mojo Jojo, you can forget about our weekend getaway to New York." But there is processing to be done. Pictures? Yes, Yule takes them too, even as he peers over those fingerprints. "Should have the uniforms do a sweep of the rest of the zoo? Just in case there are any other additions to exhibits that'll freak out the kids come morning."

"You're right. Caesar from Planet of the Apes is a better candidate. He's got more rocket scientist training." Esme agreed, rising to her feet. "Please. Mojo Jojo wasn't even the best villan on that show. HIM was obviously where it was at in villainy." She flashes a touch of a smile and then sighs as she surveys the damage. "Yeah. I'll make sure the remaining evidence gets worked up on and give a full report to de la Vega once we have some more solid answers." Her attention focuses back to Yule. "Thanks for your help tonight. I think you're all in the clear for now. I'll make sure this membrane thing gets back to the morgue so you can take care of the testing and stuff."

When the uniforms would arrive with her requested items, she'd get them to bag the membrane while she got the weird finger print and then also request they do a sweep of the zoo to let her know if anything else weird or potentially evidential came up.