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Having told Aleksy he would go over and check on Laika, Jeremiah was making his way to the front door after parking his car. The keys in his pocket were pulled out, jingled in hand until he had the right key.

Except that right as he was about to put the key in and unlock the door, it swung open on him. He was not honestly expecting to run into Finn but he was not surprised.

Jeremiah was surprised to see him with Laika already ready to go out for her walk. Aleksy's memory was definitely buggy at the moment (unless he meant to ask both of them to take care of Laika and if Finn was, he really did not need to).

"Finn," he greeted with a slight incline of his head. The detective lieutenant looked a little ragged still, circles under his eyes and forever dressed for colder weather.

Jeremiah couldn't stop the smile at Laika and ended up crouching down to rub her belly and then head. He glanced up at Finn, blue-green eyes glinting briefly before he merely shook his head.

"Considering how long I've known her ..." he chuckled. "Also because she knows I'll always have treats for her but that's during the walk and then after, not before." A finger was tapped against Laika's nose before he was pushing himself up to stand.

"I've known Aleksy for years," he replied smoothly, hands slipping into his pockets, "and sometimes things come up and he can't get Laika out." Or needed to be checked on (because he hadn't heard from him in too long) or a wellness check (which that had not happened in years, not since he had made an active choice to keep Aleksy as part of his life) or a number of things but they were not his place to talk about. Jeremiah kept secrets well.

"In this case, with that head injury, I'm guessing he forgot that he already told you to take Laika out when he asked me."

Jeremiah just scratched at Laika's head. No amount of cuteness or behaving would see a treat from his pocket. Not yet, anyway.

His head tilted slightly, studying Finn before he simply gave him a small smile and took the leash. The next head tilt was for Laika so that they could get started. "We can do that but I can also let you know what happened while we're walking."

As in what happened upstairs at Blackfriars. There was a lot of hearsay and the official police statement ... Well, not everyone believed that a local group got a little too into thinking they were werewolves and drugged up.

"You and me both," Jeremiah replied, letting his feet guide him on the familiar path that Laika enjoyed being walked on. He still knew it. The older man was quiet for a moment, mind going back to Aleksy at Blackfriars, Thorne's blood as it hit his face warm and wet, and-

That uncomfortable weight in his gut at how many people they lost and those that had been injured. The students that had been bitten, had transformed, still had not shown back up and he would have to go looking sooner rather than later.

"I haven't had time to talk to anyone yet," not Heliodora or Sunny, "so this is just what I know. What I've been able to put together with limited knowledge." The limited knowledge was beginning to eat at him. There were worries in his mind but they were, for the time being, pushed aside.

A short huff of laughter escaped, Jeremiah pressing his hand to his face to stifle it after a moment. "Something like that, yes. I admit that I wasn't expecting that level of ... whatever it was." Finn was given a sadly amused look while he was crouching down a moment to give Laika one of the treats from his pocket.

Something hand made at home (because he was a cooking nerd).

"We never know until it's time - or something gets shoved on us - and so far as I can tell, this was shoved onto us. It was Michael Mitchell, Finn. He was here in Ashdown. I'm not even sure how but he was with the shifters and not happy." To put it bluntly. "The way he looked to me." The detective lieutenant shivered - visibly.

"No, I don't think he's the one that started the attack, that was -" Jeremiah stood up while Laika ran off. to do her grand doggy duty. Finn probably got an Eve-equivalent look for calling them that but it slid away quickly.

"That was the one that was found dead." Or at least it looked that way from what the pictures of the young man downstairs revealed. The one that Lara had taken care one. The one that had killed Cerby. Lara-

"Michael we pushed back into other ashdown. He looked -" Finn was given a serious look. "You know how I can see ways into other ashdown? Michael looked as if he was something of the place that was ripped to here, as if he was a way to the place." The memory of it was still an uncomfortable weight in his stomach.

"Bites was how it spread. You just had to be bitten that night and you would start to transform."

Jeremiah had thought he had-

No, there was a lot going on.

"Yes, exactly that. It hurt to look at him." A hand was raked through his hair, watching Laika as she pranced in front of them. Another treat was pulled out for her. He did listen to Finn, shoulders rolling and trying to ease the tension in them - the pain that did not leave.

"I don't know that knowing more helps at this point." It was honestly said. "There's so many that are part of this now that I don't know all the names." There had been a point that, as an officer, he had tried to keep tabs. Now he could not. There was no knowing who was part of this and who was not. "I can't talk to Sunny, I can talk to others but ... If you can, I would do it. She's part of unraveling this, I'm certain."

Standing back up after the treat, he gave Finn a serious look. "There's not much that can be done. The more we dig, the more we uncover, the more it seems like we're further out of our depth. When something makes sense, it stops making sense." If that made any sense at all. "From my perspective as a detective, it's aggravating. Everyone is scrambling." He had already been there for more than one person pushing themselves too far trying to help.

"I know she doesn't bite," Jeremiah responded almost immediately. It was, if anything, a sore point and his reaction was- "My apologies. Those are my feelings exactly. Sunny is in the thick of all of this and is likely some kind of focal point. However," he let out a sigh, free hand dragging through his hair, "I've done worse than piss her off."

He reached out with a hand to scratch at Laika's ears, watching her briefly before he turned his gaze back to Finn. "The man that I met, the one that's on fire. He offered me a deal and I took it." It was something that still bothered him. "Anything I want, any time that I want it. The caveat is that while I can safeguard Sunny, even understand her, I cannot be her friend."

The look on Jeremiah's face was something so carefully neutral that it was obvious it bothered him. "So I can't go see her because I'm not making deals with her anymore. She's-" His hand flicked in the air. "She's been at this for only a few thousand years less than Heliodora has been in other ashdown. Sunny isn't some wish granting genie. Even if she's at the center of this, she deserves better than what lot she's ended up with."

Clearly this was a thing. "She's right that we have to figure it out ourselves. Lock it back up, take it down, we've got to do something. Otherwise we'll just be doing this over again."