third investigation

[stagemanagers]

[The Opera House is quiet on Friday, just as it was quiet last Friday. There's no immediate smell of blood the air and most everyone was pretty blase about the motive earlier in the week this might just be a deathless week.

The only way to know for sure is to investigate.]

Comments

[stagemanagers]

[They're more raised welts than fighting with a rosebush but not deep enough to break skin. On her left wrist there's also a large, fresh-looking bruise.]

[allicareabout]

[...Looks like somebody put up a fight. Good girl.

Aside from the scratches on the backs of her hands, is there anything else going on there - he'll be turning them over, taking a look at her palms and making sure she's not holding anything - or should we move elsewhere?]

[stagemanagers]

[There's nothing in her hands so moving on to examine other parts of the body would be a good idea. By now Billy might start to notice a smell around Eliza. It's not a bad smell but it's definitely noticeable.]

[allicareabout]

[...Is it due to whatever soaked her shoulder, by any chance.]

[stagemanagers]

[It very well could be because it smells sweet, kind of like vanilla cake.

And because I'm a genius and missed this in the doc there is some light bruising on Eliza's knuckles.]

[allicareabout]

[...Did she actually haul off and punch someone, that is fantastic.

Anyway. All right. She smells like vanilla, her arms and hands are roughed up a bit and her shoulder's damp... All of this is still not pointing to an actual cause of death. Is there anything going on with her head/face? Signs she was hit or choked out, signs she couldn't breathe for whatever reason, anything to indicate poisoning...?]

[stagemanagers]

[Her hair is damp, just like her shoulder as a first note, and there are some small fragments of ceramic stuck in it. As far as wounds go, there's a bloody gash running from her left temple to almost behind her ear. It's deep and painful-looking but it doesn't look like it was enough to kill her.]

[allicareabout]

[...Huh. Is there blood in the immediate area, or is it clean?]

[stagemanagers]

[Despite the chair being very lightly damp, there doesn't look to be any blood in the immediate area.]

[allicareabout]

[Just for clarification's sake, then, for visualization purposes - does the gash look like it might have been caused by something else, or is it reasonable to think that it was caused by the ceramic? Judging by the way there are fragments of it still in her hair - are they around the injury, are they elsewhere, are they sort of haphazard?

If it's difficult or impossible to tell, that's fine as well! o/]

[stagemanagers]

[It's absolutely reasonable to believe the wound was caused by the ceramic.]

[allicareabout]

[Excellent, thank you!

...Also this is kind of repulsive, but what the hell are forensics, he's from 1924 - if one were to take a white pocketsquare out of one's pocket and touch it to the damp spot on the chair, would it come back bloodstained due to transfer, or no?

...Ditto for her shoulder, actually. White fabric on whatever's damp there. Anything?]

[stagemanagers]

[It's definitely not blood in either case. The white of the pocketsquare gets stained a watery, pale brown, like spilled coffee or tea. It's noticeably darker from her shoulder than from the chair but both areas have the same sweet, dessert smell although it's much stronger coming from Eliza.]

[allicareabout]

[Duly...noted...

Just...checking her over one more time, to see if there are things that were missed or things that should be jumping out at him - is there anything else noticeable going on with the body/anywhere else that he should be looking but I am too much of an idiot to figure out?]

[stagemanagers]

[You've pretty much garnered everything, Billy. Great job, good egg.]