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Kaveri had trouble keeping up with Jamal, in between lugging around the flashlight and trying not to trip over her big, clumsy feet. "Hang on!" She called after him, awkwardly trailing behind -- but as she pressed on forward, the smell got closer.

The scent of old blood started to draw out the vulture - and instead of feeling disgusted like she normally would have, Kaveri felt rather neutral to the smell, as if it were just like any other smell. She almost felt... hungry, but the pang was quickly surpressed when she chose to press on for her own sake. The blood's stench was getting much stronger, almost to the point where she could taste it whenever she opened her mouth to catch her breath. It didn't bother her at all, and before long she had caught up with Jamal, just a few feet behind him.

"I think we're here," she said, going to step out in front of him, pointing her flashlight over the bushes.

The vulture inside of her was morbidly curious. Sure, the area didn't quite smell like death, but the blood had already started to decay -- and the scavenger was intrigued by this. The sound of flies buzzing was also very loud -- the damn things were all over. Kaveri pointed her flashlight all over, drooping her head as low as possible, her neck stuck out as far as it could.

She gave a silent acknowedgement to Jamal, scanning for the spot on the ground where the blood was at its thickest. She found it soon enough, the flies on the ground were most concentrated there -- and Kaveri swooped in, brushing away the flies with her hand and squatting on the ground.

She saw something fell off. She knew there was something here, it couldn't have gone far... and if it were viscera, the flies wouldn't have gotten the entire thing by now. Using the flashlight to guide her, she boldly plunged her other hand in the dirt, clawing at it in hopes of finding something hidden in the mud. There had to be something here.

The vulture hoped it was something edible. Kaveri hoped it was damning evidence, like a weapon... or just some kind of clue.

Jamal stayed in the shadows while Kaveri did this but as she was picking up the object from the muck, he surfaced from the jungle's protective barrier and moved toward her to see what she found. Her hands had raked up the goo and that had only make the smell strong. The man exhaled heavily and closed his eyes, tension springing about the corners of his mouth and eyes.

"What'd ya find?"

It wasn't really a question, how it came out. More a demand to know.

Perfectly camoflauged by the mud, her finger raked directly over a lum of cloth. When pulled out the mud, it could be determined as being a hat - much like the ones Dr. Lockheart wore nearly all the time.

Jamal's eyes narrowed as he eyed the flesh chunk, that is, until she put it in her pocket. Hm...a piece of the victim? Or a piece of the victimizer? He fell into a crouch and leaned forward, eyeing the puddle with a speculative expression until she drew his attention to the hat.

"Hm..." he grumbled, trying to press the wild fire of instincts that were addling his brain to try and answer the woman's question. He thought it might be Aubrey's, if this had been where she went down, but he couldn't recall if it was hers. She hadn't worn one at the beach bar and the last time he had a good look at her, she was giving him his injection.

"Ain't sure. I ain't never seen an islander wear one like dat...I'd guess it was Aubrey's, if dis is where she was lyin'."

He leaned forward more to sniff the air over the hat as though trying to sniff out a definitive answer to her question.

"Hope they don't think ya did it cause you're puttin' traces of yo'self on it with this diggin'," he muttered. Not that it mattered, if what she told him was true. "I would guess dat hat be hers...fair enough guess anyway."

As he spoke, he pulled out his neglected flashlight and clicked it on, shinying it on the spot where she was digging for some extra light. He could see alright, but tiger eyes were made for such things. Jamal had no clue what the hell she was becoming, but figured she hadn't gained an visual advantage with her first transformation.

"Thanks," Kaveri said as Jamal offered the extra light to aid her. She found more small bits of flesh, and she pocketed those, too. After finding little else beyond that, she stood up, yawning and stretching her back.

"I think this is all we're gonna find here tonight," she said, "I'm planning to go back tomorrow, when it's lighter out. But right now... it's probably best for us to go up to the labs and drop this stuff off as quickly as possible. I don't like walking around with dead flesh in my pocket, and there's no way in hell I'm taking it back with me. I'm gonna call it a night after that."

"Yeah," she nodded at the tiger man, "something like that. I can't do much of anything with it at my duplex, so I'm going to be going towards the labs right now."

She turned, looking ready to head out back towards the road. "Wanna come with?" Kaveri asked, nodding her head in the general direction of the lab. "If not, that's fine, thanks for taking me out here, dude." The long-necked woman smiled, waving a dirty hand as she set off.