Established in 1768, T&S is the best place in Europe to find rare texts and old books. The proprietor may be willing to buy back old books if they're rare enough, and she's always ready to chat about books with a curious customer.

There is a hastily-penned signed hanging in the front of the locked door to Tomes & Scrolls that reads: SHOP CLOSED FOR INVESTIGATION BY ORDER OF DMLE.

Don't bother trying to break in. The redhead that used to enjoy serving tea to students has long since fled the premises.

The shop looks the same as it did when Amarantha de Talone fled Hogsmeade back in June of last year. There's still two teacups sitting on the now-dusty counter, although any tea inside them has long since evaporated. The teapot that contained de Talone's 'special' brew of tea is surely somewhere still in the shop, as are her many, many tomes and scrolls.

The shop is closed for investigation by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so who knows what they will turn up once they go through the abandoned shop...

This was, of course, what she had been looking forward to. Here was one of the sites frequented by de Talone before she had managed to escape. Esme paused just inside the doorway of the shop, eyes moving from the left side of the shop to the right. She drew in a deep breath and then closed her eyes for a few moments, letting her hearing take over. She did for every scene she entered. It was amazing what the senses could tell you if they were used properly.

Opening her eyes, she tugged the bag slung over her shoulder so that it sat more securely. Where to begin?

The past couple of days of working down in de Talone's shop had actually gone well. No major arguments, no unpleasant surprises in the form of certain creepy crawlies, and the locals hadn't become overly curious yet. All this combined with who she was working with (or one of them, anyway) made Roxanne somewhat eager to get to work that morning. So much so, in fact, that she had almost forgotten breakfast, only to be reminded by her grumbling tummy. Anyway, she was here now, and apparently, so was someone else. Someone who wasn't Dorian or Millie, or any of the Auror/MLES team. Grr. But at least it was someone from the department. She leaned in the shop's doorway for a few minutes, watching the person. And wondering why exactly the woman hadn't spoken up, when she'd asked for volunteers. Come to think of it, she didn't even remember the woman even being in the office then, or having been introduced to her at all. That was slightly suspicious......

Roxanne got tired of watching her teams territory being encroached upon by someone who hadn't seemed to care enough to be there to volunteer. She cleared her throat and waited for the other woman to notice her.

She sensed a presence before she heard the soft noise that sounded very similar to someone clearing their throat. Esme turned her head slightly to one side before turning completely, and then nodded once in the woman's direction. She looked vaguely familiar, but she wasn't absolutely certain who she was.

"Good morning." She greeted, hitching her bag again onto her shoulder. She was surprised that the rest of the team wasn't here just yet. They were, quite frankly, wasting daylight.

Emily arrived, as alert as ever, her eyes were already scanning the scene and her mind processing everything in plain sight. Hopefully the others weren't far behind.
"Esme, Roxanne," she greeted with a fleeting smile as she stepped into the shop.

Well... this was a ... somewhat dirty place.
"This should be fruitful," she commented stepping further into the room, looking around, not touching anything for the moment.

It was going slowly, but Dorian knew that was only because they were being thorough. They didn't want to miss that one clue that could help them close the de Talone case. Plus, it helped that things were otherwise quiet in Hogsmeade. No onlookers asking questions, or trying to help when they weren't needed. There were enough people from MLE here as it was, both from his side of the department and from the other. However, as he'd arrived that morning, having taken a quick trip to get a double espresso from London before apparating to Scotland, it seemed he'd walked into a bit of a standoff. At least, on Roxanne's case, as Ms. Bass seemed to be acting as professional as he'd always seen her in the office. It just appeared the Wizengamot worker had appointed herself defacto leader, which amused him slightly. But then perhaps she wasn't as informed about the MLES workers as he was, seeing as they had every need for the evidence retrieval officer being here, and he inclined his head as he'd stepped inside the shop.

"Ms. Bass, Roxanne. I trust we're not letting things interrupt the investigation," he said, the faintest smile quirking a corner of his mouth before he lifted his coffee cup to take a sip, stepping aside as Emily entered as well and giving her a nod. Yes, it might be a bit of taking charge as the higher ranked member of the team, but it also hopefully would defuse whatever had gotten the blonde prosecutor's ire to come to the surface. They were all part of a team. They didn't have time to make things personal, not when one slip could destroy the case they were building. Besides, even out here, Wes still was technically in charge. It wouldn't be dificult to send word that the team members weren't working well together if things went awry.

Dacs stepped into the shop that had been closed down. There were people here already. CMEC people were here and so was Wes, Emily and Esme. Tucking one hand in her pocket, she walked in, eyes roaming and probing the room. At the end of the day, at the end of all this she was the on ewho had to write up the investigation report, after all tests are clear by CMEC, de Talone is fully interrogated by the Aurors. She looked around even more, she saw two tea cups sitting on the counter. She walked over and looked at it, dusty and all,"I want to make sure she pays with everything she has left and I don't mean money.". It was more a conviction to get the work done and get it done properly. Much like her other investigation she had going on, the one that no one at work knew about. She needed that conviction to do it no matter how tired or upset she may feel burning like a live coal in her belly.

Turning away from it she said to Esme,"You make sure to get anything that is not enchanted, or we'll have to clear it CMEC first. You record it and bag it and tag it. I want her to pay. So, let's corner her with what we can, no wiggle room." in the most dis-compassionate, cold and hard tone ever. She hated those who preyed on innocents.

She turned in Wes' direction and walked over to him."Nice day out huh?" she said, looking over his shoulder and around a little more before settling on him him again.

Well, now they were getting somewhere. "Emily." She responded with a nod and brief smile. The woman certainly didn't waste any time in providing her assessment of the scene. "I certainly hope so"

So Roxanne was her name. Esme's eyebrow quirked upwards for a moment as she glanced at the other female. She hadn't spoken, but the aura around her certainly didn't seem one of pleasantness.

As Dorian passed by and spoke, she shook her head. "Of course not...simply taking in the scene to gather an overall impression is all." She said nothing more on the subject, not intent on getting involved in anything more than gathering evidence.

As she was addressed by Dacs, Esme turned her gaze in that direction. She didn't have to be told twice. It was evident how important this case was, and though she treated each case just as carefully, there was a particular urgency about this one. The bite to Dacs' words was evidence enough.

"Understood."

She stepped further into the shop and then wandered off to the left. Walk the grid. Vertical and then horizontal...just to ensure that nothing was missed. She had noticed the teacups, but would gather them later when she walked that part of the shop. They had been there for a while already, wouldn't hurt anything if they stayed for minutes longer.

Emily would usually have rolled her eyes, but she refused to invest energy in to such an act... yes, Dorian had a point... now WHO exactly was interrupting the investigation? Cause she'd ask them to leave if necessary.

She offered Esme a fleeting smile at her reply, before continuing to canvas the room, paying particular attention to the tomes and scrolls that have been left off their shelves. At any rate, it seemed as if de Talone left in a bit of a hurry, maybe she left something behind, out in the open. Still not touching anything, Emily circled the room carefully, eyeing off particular items in the room.
"Got anything?" she asked, knowing full well that if someone found anything, they'd say so.

She had been about to ask the other woman what she thought she was doing there, when she spoke. A good morning and that was it. No explanation, no 'I'm sorry, can I join you guys,' nothing. Roxanne kept up with her studying of the woman, still wondering what exactly she was doing there. After all, shouldn't there have been some kind of warning that they would have guests?

Hearing someone come up behind her, she moved out of the way to let the Auror through. "Morning, Emily," she returned politely, slightly grateful that the young woman had finally provided the other woman's name, since the other woman hadn't thought to give that little piece of information. "It really hasn't been so far." But then, they had been going through everything with a fine toothed comb to make sure they didn't miss anything.

She smelled the next person's coffee a few seconds before he walked by her on his way into the shop. His appearance brought a smile to her face and a genuine warmth to her demeanor that hadn't been there previously. "Good morning, Dorian." It seemed that he knew the other woman as well, which probably meant that she was staying. She'd really have liked nothing better than to send 'Ms. Bass' back to the Ministry and have her send a patronus before coming back, teach her the value of warning people before just showing up at the scene of an investigation, but they really didn't have that kind of time. Grr. So, she'd just have to settle with hoping that her reaction upon finding Bass here with no warning had impressed that need on her. "Oh no, no investigation interruption going on here. Ms. Bass just kind of startled me," she replied, walking away from her post at the door and further into the room.

She sort of ignored Dacs' instructions when she came in, figuring that they were for her team rather than the group as a whole. Especially since she had just referred to CMEC by name with their Head right in the room. Instead, she gave the woman a polite nod of the head in greeting, then focused in on what this Bass woman was saying. And doing, as she seemed to be walking a grid-esque pattern. Roxanne turned to Dorian then, just for some clarification on what she was doing, but not wanting to break her concentration. "Um, is she okay?" she asked, lowering her voice a bit and making sure she was out of the way.

Sabel slipped into the shop shortly after Emily and Dacs. The last few moments had been spent doing a brief scout about the exterior of the building - something that one side of his mind told him was hardly necessary, but which instinct prompted him to do without allowing for debate. It had settled his nerves some, to at the very least ensure for himself that the perimeter was clear, and given him a few private moments to pull his head out of the drama of his return and back into his job.

The dusty, gloomy air in the shop made his vision swim for a moment and he paused to get his bearings on what and who was littered about the place. He gave a nod to each in the room, but didn't offer any energy into a greeting. Communication was essential, conversation not so much.

Checking to make sure that his wand was secure in his wrist holster, and adjusting his jacket sleeve overtop of it, Sabel moved over to the tomes and scrolls still sitting on the shelves, scanning the spines of the large books and what little he could read from the furled parchment of the scrolls. He wanted to crack the books open and see if there was anything of value inside. If anything, it might give them a better insight into de Talone's psychology.

His eyes flicked to Emily, curiously. No matter how much he thought it permissible, he was here to follow her lead.

Dacs moved around, when she saw Sabel them as she began looking at everything closely before she went to Dorian and the other lady standing with him.
She gave her a friendly enough nod before turning to Dorian."Hey Dorian. I suspect, well more than suspect you guys have everything already. We just needed to come in and do our own sweep, get a feel of the place, get some other look at the criminal." she said, her hands in her jacket pockets."Esme will work closest with you guys, concerning evidence."

She looked up at a near by shelf and knocked at the dust covering the books, to see them better. As she thought back to the primary report on the case, Dacs turned toward the counter and said, "I want those tea cups." She could be wrong, but she had to follow the instincts that kept her out of the arms death. Turning to Dorian,"I want those tea cups. If I ask nicely, can they be run through CMEC first?"

Dacs moved to the counter and looked at the tea cups carefully. She wanted to pick them up but didn't want to comprise it. It could be enchanted, a last laugh at the poor sap who touched it. She would have used her wand but further magic might set it off. She decided to leave it to the specialists. But she wanted in the chain of evidence should it become necessary to the investigation.

At least nobody had seemed to take his reprimand as an insult. Dorian had nodded as Esme had responded in an entirely professional manner, going straight to looking for evidence. That didn't surprise him in the least, although Roxanne's change in demeanor as he'd spoken was a bit intriguing. She'd seemed to forget about whatever it was that had irritated her earlier, at least, which was useful as their number had increased to include Dacs and Sabel. At least now there was more than one division head here at the scene, so he could hang back until he was needed. "I'd recommend not making things difficult for our fellow investigators, still," he'd said to Roxanne in a low voice, even as she'd started heading off to join Esme and Emily in looking for clues, a wry smile creeping onto his face at the follow-up question. "It's called being thorough. She's making sure nothing gets missed, by being methodical," he explained, keeping his voice low as well. No need for any of the others to know that she was that uninformed about proper investigative techniques.

That was why having the others around was better, and he'd nodded again as Dacs had turned to him. "Of course. One never knows what can be learned by seeing where someone spent their time, and we know de Talone did most of her work from here. Lately, if not before," he replied. It made perfect sense they'd double-check for remaining evidence, even as he stayed back for the most part. They knew he was there if he was needed, and he trusted they wouldn't do anything stupid. Especially not Dacs, and he'd inclined his head as she'd spoken again. A rush on the tea cups could be arranged. Although for now he simply took his wand out and flicked it toward the cups as he cast a silent charm to detect enchantments. Elinor couldn't protest them being safe while obtaining the items, at the least. And nothing seemed too amiss besides the residue inside the cups. "Looks clean. I'd avoid what's inside them until we can test it, but they shouldn't bite," he said. Meaning they could collect them without too much problems.

Esme paused in her search of the shelves in the corner of the shop when Dacs mentioned the teacups. Or..she could get them now. It wasn't a problem either way, but apparently Dacs was intent on gathering that particular bit of evidence first. She straightened up, watching as Dorian flicked his wand and then declared the cups to be safe to collect. Right.

Walking through the shop, being careful not to bump anything, she approached the teacups. Both were dusty, and as she peered into each, she could see the remnants of some substance left in both. Perhaps ingredients from a tea, or perhaps something more ominous, though she assumed for the moment that one was de Talone's and the other a visitor, and why would both cups hold what appeared to be the same ingredient? Unless it was a trickery of some sort and one held a more potent form of an ingredient. Herbology and such had taught her that certain plants could be lethal in certain concentrations.

Of course, all that would be deciphered once they made it back to the lab. For now, she would simply retrieve them.....and photograph, of course. Always photograph before collecting the evidence, just to have a proper recollection of scene location once the trial began.

Once she snapped a few photos of the secondary scene, she removed a kit from her shoulder bag, Esme set it carefully next to her on a table and then pulled out a small machine that almost looked like a handheld vacuum. It made a soft humming noise as she ran it over a layer of dust on the counter near the cups to collect a sample to compare it to the sample found within the cups themselves. Any difference may provide a clue to the identification of what had been in that cup.

Having gloved her hands, she removed the filter from the machine, labeled it appropriately with date, time, location, and her initials, and bagged it.

Now on to the teacups...she wouldn't collect the residue from inside thanks to the fair warning by Dorian, but she could collect the cups themselves, and allow for further testing within the lab.

She collected them separately of course, bagged and tagged them as required and placed them into the proper section of the case, making certain that the residue inside the cups was not disturbed by using a light sterile wrap and that the cups wouldn't be jostled during transport. That in itself could disturb potential evidence and she wanted, as Dacs had mentioned, no wiggle room for error.

Stepping back, she glanced towards Dacs. "Is there anything else that I should collect first, ma'am?" The woman had been with the Ministry for a while, and had obviously honed her instincts. For whatever reason, she thought the teacups were an important piece of evidence to collect right away and Esme certainly was not going to argue with that. It was, after all, the most prominently featured. Now she wanted to make certain that the woman did not have any other instinctive pulls to other potential evidence before she resumed walking the grid.

Hoping he was not late, as he had sneaked off to see his girlfriend before, Josh arrived into the shop. There were already MLE people in working on...things. Whatever they were doing. Investigation, of course which was what he was supposed to be doing in here but being a YATI he was going to wait for Emily's words or orders. "Hello" he said to them all just to annouince his arrival. Then tucking his hands into his pockets so he would not be touching anything he was not supposed to touch, the young man started to walk around and eye things a bit. Books, dust, cups, dust, other things, dust.

He did not know if it was just him but it looked like either this investigation had been taking longer time than estimated or De Talone did not like cleaning. He peeked into the tea cups feeling like smelling the liquid inside it a bit. But that was probably not a good idea, so he walked to Emily and stood next to her giving her a questioning look.

Yes, leader lady. Waiting for your orders.

Emily continued to sweep the room, every inch of it, with her searching gaze. The conversation regarding the teacups didn't escape her and she absorbed all the information communicated by her colleagues.
Sabel seemed to know what he was doing... which didn't surprise her, even as a YATI he was very clued in. "Anything useful?" she asked, nodding her head at the volumes he was looking at. An insight into the witch would help... but so far she hadn't seen anything worthwhile. Maybe they'd get lucky and find some notes or letters or... SOMETHING in this mess.

She'd noticed Carter slip in - late - and meander around the store, looking a little lost... Merlin this boy needed discipline.
"Right, Carter," she acknowledged as he stood in her vicinity. It was time to go YATIL on his butt. "Remember one thing, evidence retrieval is not our job." They had specialised people for that, people that wouldn't stuff things up. "What we need to do, is canvas the shop looking for anything unusual or out of the ordinary... anything we might be able to use to get a sense of who our perp is, and most importantly, what we might be able to use against her."
She stared at the YATI. Did he follow?

At any rate, she wanted to guage how his mind worked, perhaps he'd need to read up on some cold cases, conduct a case study or something.
"Based on your preliminary observations... what could you say about this crime scene?"

Glancing up from scanning the volumes on one of the lower shelves, Sabel let his eyes drift over the tea cups - where there was a great deal of activity - and to Emily. "I'll know more if I can open a few of these."

He made a vague gesture to the shelving unit containing what he assumed was de Talone's personal library. Somehow, he doubted it was the only one of its kind. It was hardly his intention to seek out obvious evidence - there were enough people mingling around the shop that he felt he could devote his attentions to smaller, but perhaps significant, matters. "With your permission of course."

And Dac's. And whoever else was commanding the scene - there seemed to be a few, but he'd only been lending an idle ear to the hum of conversation that resounded through the shop. His eyes flicked to Carter curiously, wondering what the YATI would come up with in his initial assessment. Perhaps he could wrangle the young man into helping him sift through the literature, but he wasn't about to ask that much.

Emily smirked. With HER permission... she could get used to this. "Just don't curse yourself or anything will ya?" she warned, an eyebrow raised in concern. Heck, she'd only just got him back, if he was harmed on her watch, she'd.... she'd... not cope well. Emily knew that Sabel was careful, though sometimes reckless, but they both matured over year it seemed. Either way, they'd been trained in this sort of stuff, now all they had to do was put it into practice.

Emily continued to observe the bits and bots in the room, blowing at the dust here and there to get a better look. But perhaps what they were looking for wasn't in plain sight... If she were an evil time stealing witch, where would she hide her pried possessions, her trophies... her method. She'd definitely conceal it. And conceal it well at that.
With a swift flick of her wrist, her wand shot into her hand, where it felt at home... the beak of her phoenix tattoo just noticeable at the hem of her sleeve.

It seemed that their number was getting even larger there in the bookshop, as another Auror joined them. Roxanne found herself being glad that the third member of her and Dorian's team, Millie, hadn't shown up because who knew who else would end up coming from the Auror/MLES squad and this wasn't exactly a large shop..... She returned the young man's nod while trying to remember his name. She knew she should know it, but it had slipped her mind. Nevertheless, she kept an eye on him as he walked over to a bookshelf and started examining the books and scrolls perched there. "I've already been through those, nothing there but some basically harmless potions." She had hoped to find a spell or potion that could've caused de Talone to be able steal time through the orb with no luck. "But I haven't gone through the other shelves yet...." Since she'd only started on them late the day before.

She returned Dacs' nod with one of her own as the woman spoke to Dorian about well, whatever it was, she was having trouble following her. Until she got to the teacups, anyway. She also had the feeling that there was something important there, but she was no lab expert. Which meant that she would leave that for those who were. Anyway, she turned to face Dorian when he said something about not making things difficult. "Who me? Make things difficult? Never," she returned with a playful smile. Honestly, she knew she could be a bit of a handful at times, but it was the handfuls that kept life interesting.

And it seemed like she had missed some things somewhere in her training, as it that what Esme was doing was actually protocol. "Oh." But then again, none of the jobs she had held in her lifetime had really required knowledge of the proper way collecting evidence. So, she decided to just stand back and observe while the other woman worked. On the job learning. She didn't really acknowledge the other Carter entering the shop, beyond returning his greeting with her own "Hi." And seemed like that was okay, since Emily had almost immediately assigned him a task.

So she did still care. Or it was a misguided perception of caring.

Either way, Sabel nodded his understanding. It was a good reminder, even if he knew not to act like a toddler with a new bucket of toys. He wasn't particularly interested in getting cursed either - although he did suppose it would give indication to something de Talone didn't want them snooping around in. Then again, the witch might have just left several traps out of spite to thieves and those who would invade their privacy.

He was just about to start in on his self-assigned task when one of the women involved in the investigation spoke - Roxanne, he believed she had been addressed as. Curiosity had him glancing from her to the books and back again.

"Just potions?" He made a vague hand gesture at all the books and tomes there. "These are all about potions?" It would certainly make sense, given their culprit.

Emily looked up as Roxanne interjected with her own observations.. interesting. "Any particularly dark potions relevant to stealing time?" she asked, or had the woman not bothered to read them?

Feeling like she NEEDED to do something more productive than just standing and looking and ordering her YATI... she meandered over to the counter to check out the drawers. Following her previous line of thought, she extended her wand to the counter, "Revelio."

"Just potions," Roxanne confirmed, nodding slightly as she did so. She hadn't found it odd, really, since this was a magical shop in a magical village. Given that, she would've been surprised if they'd contained muggle related things. She gave a small sigh at Emily's follow up question. Had the young Auror not been listening, or did she just have selective hearing? Because she was pretty sure that she'd said that the potions were harmless. "Unless ancient beautifying potions, pepper ups and the like have suddenly developed that ability, none of the potions are related to stealing time. You can check for yourself, though, if you want to. But not even revealing spells turned up anything. Those books and scrolls are harmless." She trusted both her revealing spells and her instincts and both told her that the entire bookshelf in question was completely safe and harmless. She was wanting to move on to the other bookshelves, however, but it didn't seem like she would get that chance today. In fact, it seemed that her team had been regulated to a mostly supervisory position, not that she really had a problem with that. Gave her a chance to stretch muscles that she rarely got to use these days.

She leaned over to Dorian again and spoke in a low voice. "I think I'm going to pop back to London real quickly and get me some coffee. I'm going to need it today, looks like." Not to mention that she had been wanting some ever since she'd smelled his and had been looking for an opening to go get some. "You want a refill or something?" Yep, she was just being nice. Totally didn't didn't mean anything. If that's what you need to tell yourself, Roxanne. If both her mind and conscience had eyes to roll, they'd be rolling them right now. But at least it could be construed as doing something nice, which was something she guessed.

Dacs looked around a bit and said, "Look I have to head back and get started on the zombie investigation. I'll be back or send a patronus if something come up. Esme are you gonna be ok?" she asked the lady. It wasn't what she wanted to do but she was sure she could handle herself and if not she trusted Em and Sabel to at least look for her.

She looked over at Dorian and said,"You can take point here.You have people on that case too? Just in case something might have spells on them, clear it first. I would hate to have to hear something bad happened here after I left. I'd be supremely angry."

Dacs had to make sure that everything was good before she left. It was not her style but work was really tugging at her today,"Em, she comes back in one piece, evidence and all. She's my favourite right now. I'm about to go find out about the rest." she said, tone that had not hint of humour.

As she tucked her hands into her jacket pocket while making her way to the door,"This woman was not right in the head in the wrong way but she clever. Be careful. I'll see you later." she remarked.

Welp, it seemed like no one else was here yet, which Roxanne wasn't sure rather to be happy or upset about. On one hand, it would give her a chance to work unencumbered by people trying to double and triple check the stuff she had already double and triple checked. On the other hand, it left her alone with her very jumbled thoughts. Something she had been trying to avoid for a few days now. Unsuccessfully. She had kind of hoped that her coworker's bustling about and shouting out questions would be the thing that finally worked. Anyway, she surveyed the shop, looking around to see if anything seemed out of place and wondering how her life had gotten so completely mixed up. Honestly, she figured it started right about the time she moved to England and started her work at the Ministry. Or maybe it was when she met Konrad. Either way, it was still a fine mess she found herself in. Working so closely with Dorian wasn't helping matters, but she couldn't make herself stay away. Besides, there was no way she going to be working on the zombie case. Nope, too much drool to deal with.

Determining that nothing was, in fact, out of place, she stepped further into the store. Finding a table to set her coffee on, she weaved her way through the boxes and milk crates she had finally had the idea to put the already searched books and scrolls in. Headed for a bookcase towards the middle that they had started on the day before. Knowing that the contents within had been checked and cleared of any dangerous spells, Roxanne sighed and pulled one of the books off the shelf and began to search it, page by page, for anything de Talone could have used to steal time.