🅧 Please explain to me the scientific nature of 'the whammy'

[faithfulskeptic]

[ n a m e ; ]	Dana Katherine Scully
[ c a n o n ; ]	The X-Files
[ g a m e ; ]	spicy times in noctiumrp

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[faithfulskeptic]

"I'm a coroner, not a detective."

Which is to say: isn't this your job, Mr. Mulder?

Actually, it's a little strange that it's his job; this doesn't seem like it should be a high enough profile to warrant federal involvement. But everything is a little off about this case, isn't it?

"Escaped zoo animal, maybe?"

[bigfootfetish]

Mulder laughs. "Think a tiger caught the train up from D.C.? Or are we assuming it escaped from Baltimore?"

She might not be a detective, but she's smart. Most of the coroners he's worked with don't have half the credentials Dana Scully can claim, and none of them have featured in as many solved cases. Police officers namecheck her in interviews when reporters ask where they found the key evidence that led to an arrest; they thank her in press releases and mention her at press conferences. That's how she came to his attention in the first place, her name showing up over and over again.

And that's why he has to believe she knows more than she's saying right now.

[faithfulskeptic]

"Maybe it hitchiked." She manages a deadpan delivery, hands folded calmly before her. Tigers' jaws are too short, she doesn't say. She tries not to even let herself think wolf. Much less--

No.

"Black market exotic pets, maybe? Coyotes aren't unheard of in semi-urban areas, but I've never heard of one big enough..." Her brow creases slightly; she admittedly can't entirely resist the mystery. The problem is she doesn't have a plausible answer.

"I doubt I have any leads you haven't already come up with."

[bigfootfetish]

"Try me."

It's a gambit that might not pay off, but he's willing to try: sitting there, leaning toward her across the desk, a pleasant look on his face. He doesn't have her on the hook - that much is obvious - but if he lets her ruminate on it, maybe something unexpected will come out.

She's already shown a propensity for talking out the possibilities. Now he just needs her to think about the ones she didn't put in her report.

[faithfulskeptic]

For a long moment she just sits, silently, looking at him. Trying-- perhaps obviously-- to puzzle out what he's actually here for; what he's hoping to gain from this conversation. It's more than due diligence, showing up here to talk to her; either he's got no clue about this one, or he's fishing for something.

And she's got... nothing, she's got nothing. But saying so hasn't made him leave yet. She manages-- barely-- to bite back a sigh, and pulls her notebook from a drawer. Her report was thorough, but sometimes distance offers some clarity on conclusions. (Not that she believes there's anything here; but she'll think through it better with something in her hands.)

"I considered the possibility of a human assailant trying to make it seem like an animal attack, but the punctures seemed decisively organic, and there's no way a person could simulate the necessary jaw strength," she muses. "My best guess would be canine rather than feline, but that's just conjecture. Maybe-- a wolf-dog, trained to attack?"

She doesn't really sound convinced herself.

"If the autopsy were always enough, you wouldn't have much to do, Agent Mulder." She shrugs.