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"Man, I don't want to share this story," says Brit, "I just wanna know that she's not, like, dead."

Ed scowls at Shun. "We already told you, dude, we were just walkin' back from the cliffs and there was a ********' foot in the middle of the track." He points. "We didn't see or hear anythin'. It was just there."

"Newbie, I dunno how you're used to doing things, but around these parts it's probably a good idea not to talk about the rules like some kinda authoritarian badass unless you're just as serious about following them." As she spoke, Leila snapped on some gloves and gingerly lifted the foot up from the sand with all the casualness of someone who'd found an interesting seashell or rock. "You could at least throw Mercer a 'yessir' for keeping you in line out here. He's technically your superior, right?" She already wasn't sure about this new guy, if Jeremiah's visible terseness around him had anything to say.

Her phone buzzed, but she didn't actually have a mind to check it. Text messages could wait until the gloves were off -- for now she was mostly dreading finding out whether the foot was still magically as fresh as the day it was removed.

Leila was just given a tilt of her head at her input. Mostly because she was even being in a mood was kind of a thing but the fact that this was the second time they had found the foot ...

He was still a little worried that the foot looked freshed again and looking as if it had just been dropped here. At least there was no trail of blood that lead to it this time. Jeremiah looked to Kuroda again and then to the two teenagers and young woman.

"We can get you a bottle of water if you need it," the detective lieutenant kept things in his trunk for witnesses (water, a blanket, a few other things), "but if you don't have any more information, you can leave your names and contact information with Sergeant Kuroda. We'll be in contact with your parents," to the teens, "if we need anything else." Chel looked old enough that she was likely an adult unlike the other two.

Leila swore, audibly. Extensively. It was a strained hiss that attempted to be under her breath, but failed miserably.

"Mercer.. how much blood can one body have?!" It was not a technical question. It was rhetorical, and anguished, and petulant.

They should have burned the ******** thing.

Jeremiah's expression openly flickered. Something dark there a moment before he was coming, very briefly, to rest a hand on Leila's shoulder. A moment of solidarity.

His attention flicked towards Kuroda and then the foot. "It's a clean, fresh cut." The detective lieutenant had looked at it enough to know that (but it was also previous knowledge). There were no hesitation cuts on the foot.

"It's very much possible that she is actually alive," albeit not for long if she did not get attention, "but that would also mean that there would be a blood trails which there are not as you said." Shoulders rolled to release some of the brief tension. "The best thing to do is wait for the rest of the forensics crew and put a call in for a search party to search the area."

Which would be meaningless but it was procedure. There was every chance that she could be nearby if her freshly cut off foot was. Except not a chance at all.

He was pulling his radio off of his hip. "This is Detective Lieutenant Mercer. We have found the severed foot of Heliodora Winters. We'll need to get together a search team on top of the forensic team that is on their way out. Scene is already cordoned off and initial witness reports taken."

The radio was slipped back onto his side, eyes looking to Leila and then to Kuroda. "If you're going to want to continue having time off, Sergeant Kuroda, now would be time to go. Have the witness report on my desk tomorrow."

(( we can likely wrap this up in the next few posts. ftb on police work things about to start. ))