2019-11-18 - Donuts and Corpses

Esme was sitting at her desk, leaning back in the chair with her feet propped up on it. Doing the crossword while she waited for a search to finish running on her computer. There was a stack of folders in her work bin to the left side of her feet indicating that she could definitely be more productive with her time right now. Ohhhh welll. On the right side is a half-finished traveler's mug and the wrapper for a muffin that is long gone. The precinct is quiet this afternoon, but Esme is very sure that won't last long at all. Enjoy it while it lasts! Or something like that. Her hair is pinned up in a bun though a few tendrils have escaped by now. A thick wool sweater of the forest green variety and a pair of black slacks. She is hard at work at that crossword!

A light blue, button up shirt is partially obscured by the dark gray coat Yule wears which has been left unbuttoned. A pair of dark khaki slacks and black, ankle high boots completes his well put together attire, complete with the dangling ID badge hung around his neck. Here for a different hand off, a far more simple one, he drops off a report on the desk of one of the detectives currently not present and accounted for. "That the New York times?" Comes the casual tone from the man when he spies Esme with the paper, the touch of humor in both his voice and that faint smile that ghosts to life. "Checking to see the best parts of the city to take me to, yeah?" It's a slow saunter over towards her, a brief flicker of his brown eyes towards her computer screen and the search working away that she's waiting on, and it all creates a more serious dip in that conversation. "Our zoo problem? Jesus. I took a cast of the bite marks, sent it to a friend I knew at the NYC zoo to see if they could help identify it. Know what she wrote back?"

Quiet in the precint? Sarah Stevens must not be around. Normally Detective Hollywood is causing a ruckus of some kind, and today is no exception! From downstairs comes a racket. A ruckus, even. The type of noise that usually accompanies a smirking blonde with expensive sunglasses permanently grafted to the top of her head. A few minutes of blessed quiet follows, before in strides the precint's champion Mischief Maker. Behind her comes a rather irate-looking Tess.

"BOOOOOOOOM!" The woman is holding a paper over her head, the local county edition. "Front page, bitches! Read 'em and weep!" The headline of the editorial she's showcasing, waltzing through the rows of desks with a swagger, reads: Two GHPD Detectives Involved In Shootout. On the front cover is Tessa, looking annoyed towards the camera while getting her forearm stitched up by a paramedic. Next to her, leaning in with an arm around Chen's shoulders, grinning from ear to ear while throwing up rock horns is one Detective Stevens.

Best pic ever.

The blonde, wearing a plain navy-blue tee and a pair of jeans tucked into some ankle-high boots that look liked they were painted on, her gun slung under her left arm in a holster, her badge at her belt, also has a life-sized cardboard cutout tucked under her arm. She sets it down, right-side-up, next to Esme's desk. It's a picture of her, with text across the base in a neon font that reads 'NIGHT SINS: BEACH EDITION' picturing a younger version of the blonde in a one-piece swimsuit.

"Well, Wilkinson, I was coming to bring you a copy, but it seems you already have one!" She mock-leans on her cutout doppleganger. Then looks surprised, as if just remembering she set it there ten seconds ago. "Oh, this? We liberated it from the boys locker room just now. Did you know Chen knows karate? I know, I didn't want to stereotype, either. But damn, Hendricks is down for the count, I think."

She casts a glance at Chen, bobbing her eyebrows a couple of times at her partner-in-law-enforcement. And cardboard cutout rescues. Her eyes turn to Yule, and she turns Cardboard Sarah away from him. "Hey, she's not for you. What are you guys talking about?"

Tessa Chen is never looking bellow 'mildly annoyed', but then again, to the Texan detective, what is there to smile about? People vanish without trace, the department is accused of corruption left and right, mobsters here are more shielded and feared than Al Capone, and Sarah has no off button.

And sometimes the coffee is cold too.

She approaches behind Sarah, looking like she is nursing a migraine. Unlike the sunny blonde, the black-haired woman's voice is low and carries with it a certain drawl to it, if the belt buckle and boots were not sign enough that she is not from 'round these parts.

Still, she approaches the others, and nods respectfully at Yule. Usually she would judge mild flirting in work hours, but given Stevens is parading her half-naked self around the office, that is lost in the rearview mirror.

"Can you not be showin' off that thin'?" That is wrong for so many reasons Tessa doesn't even bother pulling out her book to explain. She just stares at Sarah and then looks at Esme. Crosswords at work. No good. But then, then computer is running searches. Absolved!

"Anythin' goin' on that I can help with?" She doesn't offer Sarah's help. Sarah can't help herself! Tessa shoves her hands into her jacket, and doesn't comment on shootouts, first pages or anything else. She just shakes her head, feeling the migraine intensify. "It is not karate. It is kickboxin'. Honest to God."

She does know karate too though.

"Oh no, you've caught me." Esme feigned trying to hide the newspaper as Yule walked over. "You can't come sneaking around when I'm planning our romantic zoo getaway." She wiggles her eyebrows at him and then sets the paper down in her lap, expression turning a little more serious when he brings up that he has some new info on the case. "Please tell me she said it was a giant killer ape. Or even a mutated special forces NSA agent." A very oddly specific request.

Then she hears the noise from downstairs, and she knows. Esme hasn't been back for very long but she's heard plenty about Detective Hollywood already. She's also already become accustomed to the woman's hyperactive-ish and loud behavior. "Three...two...one..." She murmurs and right on cue, Sarah bursts through the door.

Dark eyes follow the blonde and her partner. When they near the desk, Esme quirks a brow at the cut out, like Do I even want to know? Then Sarah elaborates and Esme gives Tessa a sympathetic smile. Poor thing. At least Gabe is pretty quiet.

"Just running a couple priliminary background checks on a few people surrounding that dead guy they found in the harbor." There's a beat of pause. "Though, if you're interested, I could probably use some help arranging and talking to people about the murder in the zoo the other night. Duchannes here was just about to give me an update." She nods to Yule to go ahead.

"Always forget what a lively office feels like," Comes Yule's touch of morbid humor when the boisterous machine that is Detective Hollywood comes charging through the precinct. The cut out? It's hardly paid half a mind towards as those brown eyes study each in turn, and it's a warm dip of his head towards Tessa that gives just as much respect right back to her. Probably because he's now witnessed what she has to live with day to day!

"I promise to act really surprised when you spring it on me." Comes the bemused promise to Esme at her own quip back. But it all fades when she inquiries about those particular results. "Yeah, don't I wish. She asked me if I had any Bigfoot prints to go with the bite marks. Said a couple grainy photos in the woods would really strengthen my case, too." Up those eyes lift towards the sky in a moment of irritation.

But then Sarah's looking his way, and it draws his focus back down as she tells him the cardboard cut out isn't for him. That faint smile returns, "Yeah? It's all right. Think she's more your type, anyway." Comes his retort back about the blonde holding, well, her very own cardboard cut out of herself.

"Where I'm gonna put it, Tess?" Sarah inquires loudly, raising her off hand, palm up, in a helpless gesture. "It's not gonna fit in my pocket or my desk drawer! You wanna stash it in the armory? No one ever goes in there. Except me." She's got a whole thing about guns. Don't ask. "I'm not throwing it in the dumpster, this baby's going home with me!"

"I can put it in the window and make robbers think I'm still home."

Blue eyes bounce between her partner, the lone, outnumbered male, and the crossword-puzzling Detective. She sends a side-eyed glance towards Chen when the woman offers to help. But at least she didn't volunteer the blonde this time! "Ugh, ew. Floaters are the worst. That wet rubber smell doesn't come out of your hair for days."

"Someone get into the bears cage again? Darwinism, I say. ...Oh, wait, was this that thingie I heard about in the briefing?" Sarah holds her hands up, as if about to do the French thing and surrender immediately. "Whoa, homicide, too rich for my blood. I'm more of a hookers and blow kind of gal." Sadly, Tessa getting involved invariably means Sarah will have to get involved, too.

Partners. What are they good for?

"HA!" The blonde reaches out to sock Yule in the arm, flashing her Hollywood smile that does duty as her Everybody's Pal, Good Cop, and Get Out of Jail Free expressions all rolled into one. "Damn straight she is!" She eyes her coardboard doppleganger, lowering her voice and leaning in. "Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me... But I'm not wearing a trenchcoat."

"Hey," She snaps out of it, holding out a hand, palm down, fingers splayed, turning it in a circle to indicate everyone present. "You guys talk about dead bodies and figure out what movie thats from, I smell a bear claw." So saying, Sarah turns, spotting a half-opened pink box from across the room over by the coffee machine.

Tessa nods firmly at Esme, always in that 'I always wanted to serve in the Armed Forces' sort of way that takes herself very seriously. "Anythin' I can do. It keeps the mind from wanderin' in this town, or around partners who can't stop raisin' cane." From the way she doesn't even look at Sarah one would think Tessa is talking about someone else.

The talk about Bigfoot and the frustration from Yule make Tessa groan, not at the man, but at the very familiar feeling of impotence a cop needs to get used to in Gray Harbor. "I used to hear some stories 'bout Gray Harbor from a friend, when I was in the emminence of transferin'. Thought they were all hat and no cattle but they were right. This town is hard to protect."

The question about where Sarah is going to put it gets an almost immediate response, but Sarah pre-emptively takes away the dumpster option. Chen then shrugs, "Ebay it." She is sure to have some fans, right?

The WHOLE bit about fucking herself is absorbed by a deadpan Tessa, her mind on some sunny, Texan Happy Place, as she can almost feel Sarah's voice coursing through her body and increasing her stress levels. She pinches the bridge of her nose, embarrassed for the both of them. Someone has got to be!

When Sarah is gone, she just groans. "I am so terribly sorry for her behavior. So. About the murders..."

"You'd better." Esme points a finger at him and then, picking the paper up again, she shifts so her chair lands back on all fours and she, too, has her feet on the ground. "Your colleague is extremely unhelpful." Esme huffed, glancing to her computer briefly and then picked up the top folder off her stack.

"I'm still waiting to hear back on the blood samples and that fingerprint. I already know the answers I'm going to get on them but, being thorough and all that." Esme's with Tessa. Nothing's easy about this job. Everything sucks, BUT at least the co-workers are cool. And the subject matter can be interesting. Esme flashes a smile. "I grew up here, but I swear the murder rate wasn't so damn high when I was a kid." Or it was and she just never paid any attention.

"I'm also working to get the case files pulled from those organ harvesting cases." Esme paused a beat and looked up to Sarah and Tessa. "You two don't know anything about those ones do ya?" Though she's mostly looking at Tessa when she asks.

There's a touch of a smirk on her lips as Sarah messes with Yule some. "Get me something with sprinkles if there's any left!" Esme calls after the woman. Looking back to Yule. "What do you think it is? Fantastical or not."

Looking back to Tessa. "This zoo thing...the girl had this whole long strip of skin taken off her super surgically at the front of the zoo. No witness or nothing. Bloody trail all the way to the outside of the penguin enclosure. We think that's where she was initially attacked but this is all kinds of fucking strange." She turned the folder so Tessa could take a look at some of the pictures.

The blonde is absent, swaggering across the room to peek in the box of leftover donuts for her prize. She bypasses eclairs and cream-filled things named after Northeastern cities. She pulls out, instead, a bear claw. The most glorious of all things. For they who take the last of her preferred, and only, pastry would suffer a terrible wrath. She grabs the only pastry left with sprinkles, as well.

There's a long moment before she's back in which peace and professionalism is allowed to reign. But then she is back, protectively sliding an arm around Cardboard Sarah, half-hugging it lightly against her side as she hands an Old Fashioned donut with pink icing and red and white sprinkles to Esme. "Woe!" That was probably a 'no', but her mouth is full of bearclaw at the moment, holding it with her teeth. Chewing commences as she rips a bite out of it with her now-free hand that Detective Wilkinson's donut has been delivered, then swallowing, the blonde's eyebrows drawing low. "It's mine! I found it fair and square."

As in she ganked it from where it was.

There's a shake of her head, to indicate she knows nothing of any other body-related cases, instead tapping a finger on the newpaper she'd flung onto Esme's desk, next to their picture. Her mouth is full again, so she just bobs her eyebrows to try and get the other woman to suss out that she's been... otherwise engaged.

"So!" She lets go of her cutout self to lean towards the pictures and frown. The frown doesn't look as good on her as it does on the Texan, but at least her eyebrows are knit together, showing the blonde moving into Cop Mode. "She was attacked there, fled to the entrance, and got caught. Tough break. But... The strip of skin missing. Buffalo Bill. No question about it."

"I'm not only one who saw Silence of the Lambs, right? Someone is totally making a skinsuit."

Tessa listens to Sarah's rundown of the crime, and she quirks a brow. Buffalo Bill does sound made up, and once the blonde clarifies that it is, indeed, very made up, Tessa rolls her eyes.

"Can we take this seriously, Stevens? Someone's dead."

And then, the biggest show of empathy and softness Tessa Chen is capable of doing in the precinct. Those eyes go wide for a second at Sarah, her head lowering a tad as someone who is expressing, with all her patience and love: please be an adult right now please? In front of our co-workers, maybe?

It is gone a moment later, the stern facade of Chen coming back all too naturally as she frowns at Esme. "What are you searchin' there?" As she engages Esme in conversation, the Texan takes Sarah's cut out away from the blonde and keeps it by her side, painfully aware of how much more surrounded by Sarahs she is right now.

It is indeed like a nighmare she has recurrently.

"I'm going to be supremely pissed off if we're dealing with a cannibal." Esme muttered, but with her luck? They probably were. Why was this town so fucking weird. Had it always been like this?

Esme sighed and then refocused. "The search there-" She motioned to her computer. Oh hey cool, they were almost done. "A body was pulled up from the harbor not too long ago. Throat slashed. Potentially a William Gohl copycat. Just double checking on some of the people he's associated with. And trying to see if the few other people killed the same way have any kind of connection with him. "

She accept the sprinkled donut gratefully, taking a bite. "Mmsprinkles." Is mumbled out before the donut bite is washed down with coffee. "So-" She taps on the paper. "The hell was this shootout about?"

It's the slug to his shoulder that has one dark brow quirked upwards at Sarah, a flicker of mirth, but whatever his thoughts if it all are get tugged back to the far more intriguing thoughts of the case. "Some fucker with too much creativity and happens to be a little too smart. We'd get a couple cases in NYC, right? Someone who watched too many episodes of whatever the latest cop show is. Use a weapon with fake teeth. Multiple different weapons."

There is a but in there, the one thing that Yule just can't get out of his head. "Just can't get over how damn precise it was though. I can cut /really/ well, yeah? But the amount of skin flayed off, without a tendon or filament touched? It'd have taken so much time. Just can't get my head wrapped around it."

A hand lifts up, fingers raking through his hair as that offering of the case and those details is given to all involved, and it's Tessa's look towards Sarah that draws a touch of amusement back to life, unable to dwell too long in the morbid. "Thought about going by and seeing Thewlis. Caretaker at the cemetery. If anyone remembers about the bodies? He would. Sharp mind, that one, at least when it comes to dead bodies." Not that it's precisely in his job description, but damned if the examiner isn't curious.

"Yeah, someone's dead. Because they got Buffalo Bill'd. C'mon, I can't be the only one who noticed that reference." The blonde stands up straight, folding one arm over her torso to support her elbow, the other holding up her pastry as she carefully chews another massive bite before swallowing carefully. She catches the look from Chen, meeting the Asian woman's eyes, before shrugging her shoulders and looking away.

They deal with dead people and victims going through tragedies on a weekly basis. Humor is her method of coping and not eating her gun.

As Young Sarah is taken away from her, placed on the other side of her partner, the blonde freezes in place for a moment, narrowing her eyes. It's a gaze that promises unholy vengeance if anything bad happens to her new two-dimensional sister. After a moment, Stevens sidles just a hair closer, leaning in to whisper something to Tess, before pulling back with far, far too wide of a smile, shoving the last of the bearclaw into her mouth to cover it.

She points at the photos, looking at Yule. "Can't be too smart. If this happened right at the entrance of the zoo. We have ourselves a risktaker. Which means they'll probably get seen, and soon. Depending on how... frequently, they do this." She turns her gaze on Esme. "You check with the SO and State to see if there's been any others?"

Sarah's eyebrows raise up as Esme touches on the paper, glancing at it. "Muh? Oh! Hahaha, funny story. So I'm grafting this guy, right, busting him for possession with intent to distribute. Then right out of a scene from Taken, these cars pull up and SNATCH!" she snaps her fingers. They get me in some dingy ass building tied to a wooden chair full of ants or something, it was so itchy. Seems like forever, but then Tess Chen, Hostage Recovery Extraordinaire shows up!"

"She got herself caught to find out where I was, busts us both free. We take out the guys that came to execute us, have to shoot our way out. Turns out low-level scumbag I was arresting? Works for the Sinaloa. Yeah. They thought I was onto them for... something. Well I sure as shit am now!"

Tessa eyes Yule, and the she eyes Sarah. Sarah, she doesn't give too much credit too, because how could she? Chen's method of coping is the old school drinking heavily and dying early, not this humor thing kids do these days. She learned a lot from her pop, don't hate.

Still, Yule brings up some interesting points. If people are idiots, and they are, then they WOULD copy media to do real crime. That just blows Tessa's mind, so much so she eyes Sarah with new eyes, like an idiot savant of sorts.

Maybe Sarah... Knows Things?!

"Cemetery groundskeeper is a honest job. You should ask him." No, not going with the 'he must be creepy' stereotype here, even though Thewlis might be. "Doing anythin' in front of the zoo seems to me like it would be method, not incidental. You must be out of yer mind if you do not remove a corpse out of there if you are doing on impulse or afraid. Serial killers often leave clues. They like to leave statements, messages, right?"

She looks around, wondering aloud, until the newspaper gets asked about. That is when Tessa pinches the bridge of her nose again, shaking her head. She doesn't want to talk about it.

"I dunno if one long strip of skin can count as Buffalo Billing though." Esme countered, taking another bite of donut. "There were some other organ harvesting related murders recently that I'm looking into checking out. Seeing if there's a connection. I'll go wider after that." She explained.

"And yeah, they were brave. Though it was the middle of the night. But, honestly. I still don't know how NO ONE heard her. She had to have been screaming or something. So my working theory is that she was knocked out first somehow. Anything back on that tox screen yet?" She asked Yule.

She also offers up her donut as if asking if he wants a bite. She has it turned towards the side she hadn't bitten yet. Isn't that nice of her? "Thewlis. Yeah, I know who you're talking about. I won't stop ya. Any help is appreciated. If you want an extra set of eyes and ears just let me know but otherwise - go wild." Esme took another drink of her coffee.

"I think it's weird too. Like I don't know shit about cutting people up - but it seemed too clean." Esme agreed and then raised a brow again as Sarah explained what happened. "Well, shit. That is a pretty big bust. I remember I was working a case a few years ago with loose connections to them. Didn't get any one to roll over unfortunately, but we still got the bust. had to have thrown a wrench in their supply chain at least temporarily."

"Or they finish playing Dr. Frankenstein and make their monster before they are seen." Yule, clearly, has no reservations about the darker side of humor, his head just shaking a bit. "What's the weather section say, Wilkinson? And I'm not asking cause you need to find the best time to take me out to find another body,"

He takes a step back, leaning against the side of one of the desks of the detectives that isn't currently accounted and present. "I'm just saying. If they are predicting the lightning storm of the century? Go look for the big lightning pole and find your man. Or woman. Or ape." A wink accompanies that tease of words, before his head shifts, brown eyes watching as Sarah explains the whole ordeal of the shoot out.

"Am I going to have more work to do when I get back to the morgue?" It's Tessa's thoughts that tug at him, his head giving a small nod of agreement with that last point, especially. "Yeah. If it's connected. I'm still working through the body... just /so/ much of it was flayed. But in strips. Been looking to see if I can match it with a pattern of death rituals, or who the fuck knows. Might be nothing. And it was branching. So not just /a strip/. One piece, yes, but strip implies long and a narrow. Fuck, it was more like when you cut stick people out of paper." Let that hunt your nightmares, finding strips of people flesh people shapes strung up like birthday decorations.

"I'll peek in on him. I'll let you know when I plan to. If you aren't too busy at the travel agency booking our trip," Yule's hand comes out, curling about Esme's donut. It was a generous offer, and who is he to say no? It's a small bite, but not tiny, at least not consuming the whole thing so she's left with crumbs. "we can go talk to him together."

"And no. Nothing on the tox screen yet. Too early... had them run /everything/ I could think of, just to be on the safe side." Cause Yule's player totally didn't mean to work this into his pose and then over edit it out.

"Why does the... cemetary keeper know about the bodies? Is he... stripping them down and examining them before burial?" Sarah places her hands on her hips, glancing from woman to woman to man around her like everyone else might have lost their minds. "Is he also an undertaker? Does he handle cremations? Because that is... yeah, creepy, if he's taking off their tuxes and dresses after the casket is delivered for burial."

Detective Hollywood snap-points at Esme with a too-satisfied, smug little smile on her face. "Buffalo Bill only took two large flaps from the back! Maybe the circumstances of being in such a public area forced them to hurry it along and go home with only half the prize! Or... maybe their skinsuit is different."

"I imagine no one heard her because it's a small ass town and people were trying to sleep. Even if someone had, if it was cut off quickly enough... and our response times aren't always the best around here. It makes no sense why they'd purposefully take her from the exhibit, where it's relatively safe, right up to the entrance. I'd think she had to have been trying to escape. But with that much blood..."

"Fuck." Sarah's face falls for the first time. "Was she alive when that happened? The skinning, and then she tried to get away? They let her limp off a little thinking she was escaping, then finish her off? Jesus, I just gave myself the hives."

The blonde looks to Yule. "Were the wounds post or pre-mortum?" She lifts a shoulder at the question about more bodies to sift through. "Nah, it happened in the SO's jurisdiction. It's the county's problem. Or is that your problem, too? Eh, it's just bullet wounds, a broken neck, and a fractured skull. And, uh, death by jagged metal edge to the skull." She glances pointedly at Tessa on that one.

Esme brings up Buffalo Bill again, and Tessa's head, by now, is just ping ponging around about whether she thinks this is a serious conversation and lead, or something that Sarah infected the investigation with. She frowns and looks around, to see if this is a thing she should be paying attention to.

"Maybe gagged," she offers a possibility for the woman not having been heard, but at this point, she just sighs and looks up at the ceiling, "Or I don't know, maybe telepathy."

Fuck it. They all know there is something wrong here. She might as well throw it out there and sound insane. It is really hard to figure out what is going on after Sarah has injected her branch of random in the conversation, especially now that even Yule is talking about Frankenstein and death rituals.

Worst thing is that Tessa can feel her brain filing away that information on the 'maybe but unlikely' column. Fucking Gray Harbor.

"Wait. Are you askin' her out or are you schedulin' an interview with the caretaker? I don't know anymore," she finally asks.

And then there is Sarah talking about skinsuits. "Do we know about any skinsuits? Why are we talking skinsuits?" She really needs to see Silence of the Lambs. The accusation of death by jagged metal edge to the skull goes without mention, but Tessa does -stare- at Sarah.

She can't believe Hollywood brought that up!

Esme took back the remainder of her donut, "You know, all this trip planning I'm doing - you're gonna owe me dinner at some point." Esme took another bite of donut. She clearly didn't have any qualms about germs or anything like that. At least when it came to eating. She flips to the weather page. "Uhm. Rain. No thunderstorms for a couple days. Just like regular rain but who knows. It could change." Esme shrugged, finishing off the donut and washing it down with the rest of her coffee.

"I've never seen anything like it before." When Yule explains how the woman was flayed. "I hope she wasn't alive when it was happening." But Esme definitely doubts that she wasn't. "Anyway." She gets to her feet. Tessa gets a raised brow at the talk to telepathy. "Man. Telepathy would literally solve so many things. Wait. Is telepathy the same thing as mind reading?" She clearly doesn't actually believe either of those are a thing.

Then she laughs. "I dunno Yule. Is talking to the caretaker a pre-date?" She wiggles her brows at him, teasing clearly. "Alright, I have to run downstairs and take care of a few things before these searches are done. And make sure they didn't fuck up the evidence for either of the cases I'm working." Esme had trust issues when it came to evidence! So she was always double checking that everything was still where it was supposed to be.

"I'll hit you guys up soon with some names of people to talk to about this zoo thing if you're wanting to get into something."

"Still working through it. And it wasn't quick. Couldn't have been," Just no way Yule will believe it, not with what he's been able to find out so far. "You are talking a high dose of surgical skill and expertise." He comments to Sarah, his head shaking back and fourth. "Should know more in a few days once I can confirm everything. Still trying to figure out how the teeth marks play into it."

His arms branch out, hands planting against the desk as he listens, a faint smile cast from Tessa to Esme as he muses, "Yeah. It's like in the old days, asking someone for a cup of coffee. When I left New York, /everyone/ was doing it. Bump into someone interesting, 'Hey, wanna go chat up the guy who buries bodies?'" But up his hand lifts, a wave given to the Detective as she has to do actual work.

"If she was alive? It wouldn't have killed her until all of the blood loss. I'm telling you, all kidding aside? It's fucked up. Not a nick of a cut on muscles or membrane. A skin graft surgeon would be telling everyone about those clean of cuts if they managed that much of it." Already there is a glance to the side, that monitor that is running the search, but his focus isn't really there, dwelling on the potential means for making it happen.

Tessa eyes Yule, and for a moment there she is judgy as fuck over his dating habits. She just is. Or at least she looks like, before nodding. "I appreciate the candor, Duchannes." That is as complete an approval of behavior as Tessa can give. If people want smiles and hugs and high-fives and Facebook likes, Sarah is right over there, bonding over how hard it is to find the right barista when you need one.

More at ease around the man, Tessa frowns briefly, her mind going back to work immediately. She folds her arms and tilts her head, staring down at nowhere in particular.

"You have been an examiner for a while now. Born here too. So... I gotta ask... to solve things in Gray Harbor we need to think pretty right out of the box, right?" She arches a brow, eyeing Yule. Like in OUTSIDE THE BOX, outside the box.

"I have heard and seen strange things here since I got to Gray Harbor. I am starting to think they are not as strange as I thought, though."

"All bullshitting and fun banter aside? It's my job to be direct, Detective. Good thing it's the way I'm wired. Promise." He won't be pulling any punches in describe the things he comes across, that ghost of a smile flickering to life as he listens to those thoughts the woman puts out there.

"Been away for twenty years. Just moved back and started a month ago. Eight years doing this in NYC. There," It's all a rather casual conversation on the surface, an ease about the man in talking about things, but it's the shrewdness of that gaze that shows he is watching to see how she responds, what small notes she picks up on. "you came across a lot of crazy shit. People can be really inventive about how they kill one another. Here," A beat of a pause, before he summarizes, "You come across a lot of weird shit." And weird? Is so far, far worse than crazy in the way his voice expresses it. "Yeah. We have to keep all options on the table. No assumptions."

Tessa nods at Yule, what might be the faintest hint of a smile on her lips as the man talks about being direct, and calls her detective. It is professional. So refreshing! She nods, and those arms unfold as she grips her own belt, listening intently.

"I am used to the nasty side of people myself. It stopped shockin' me after a while, but every once in a while I still got a wake up call. Evil goes deep." And then she looks around, so the chief isn't watching them, before she continues.

"But this city isn't normal. Not like that. Somethin' ain't right with Gray Harbor. People who make you see things, folks go missin' nobody bats an eyelash. Makes you wish you were seein' things sometimes, but you can only pretend so many times before acceptin' things for what they are. As weird as they are."

With grim resignation, but at least having FINALLY found someone who shares her mindset, Tessa offers her hand for Yule to shake. "No assumptions. If yer need a hound for this case, let me know. I'll wrangle Stevens and we can get it done."

"Remember growing up here, you'd hear things. And so many people would leave... but end up back here. Fuck, look at me, yeah?" Yule says, even as those brown eyes continue to weigh and calculate his opinion about that detective.

"As teenagers? You'd always chalk it up as the ghost stories your parents would tell you to make sure you didn't do stupid shit. Now? It's like a duck on the pond. Everyone will tell you everything is fine on the surface, nothing wrong here. But underneath? It's a churning, nonstop motion of weirdness." Fingers tap gently against the desk he leans against, eyes narrowing.

"All right." Judgmental? Absolutely, but it all comes down on the good side for Tessa, something found that resonates with the respect of the job, the bluntness of the woman and her no-nonsense attitude. His hand extends to clasp her own, that faint smile flickered to her. "Likewise, yeah? I try to get assigned the weird shit, but if you need a second pair of eyes on something? Let me know."

Tessa gives that half-smile with a corner of her mouth, something pleased with the way this has gone. She doesn't say it, as the Texan probably has no practice in controlling her smiles. They just don't show up often. Still, there it is. As that awesome samurai man said at the end of one of Tessa's favorite movies, "This was a good conversation."

And it was.

As her Sarah Sense tingles and she realizes the blonde is probably shoving her foot in her mouth, the Texan tips an invisible hat and excuses herself. "See ya 'round, Duchanes." And she will. People who shoot straight in this god damned department are hard to find!