A/N Buffy and the gang investigating a grave that was obviously dug up and human body parts found in a dumpster doesn't really make sense. It's the kind of thing that they should have just reported to the police. Okay, they see everything from a supernatural perspective and are going to assume demons are the culprits, but it never even occured to them to report dug up graves and found body parts to the police. And then there's Buffy and Willow illegally searching lockers, something they and Giles objected to Snyder and the police doing when the fear demon was affecting Buffy's mother. If the police had a warrant, then they could search lockers. Buffy doing it was a crime and that didn't seem to occur to any of them either. It being one of those insistences where Buffy basically says, it's okay for me to do it, it's not okay for you to do it. Basically she acts like she's the law and the law, isn't. A reviewer pointed out that if Richard Wilkins wanted to, he could have built a believable legal case against the Scoobies for all kinds of crimes based solely on their own actions and this episode is a prime example. Giles' insistence on secrecy compromised them in a number of ways. They're just lucky they got away with it.

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"The police found a shovel left by the grave Buffy and Johnathan discovered and the body was dragged away." Charles read from the forensic report and looked at Molly. "Whoever it was must have fled rather than retrieve it when they realized other people where around. They must have been wearing gloves, fibers were found on the handle, makes sense, it's wood and splinters would be a problem otherwise. Drag marks were found at two other dug up gravesites, as well. Along with the imprint of tennis shoes walking backwards on the ground. The size indicates a teenager and probably not very tall or strong based on the having to drag the bodies. The marks continue out to the street and dead end there. A car was probably used to transport the bodies. They couldn't get any useful tire tread marks on the concrete. As for your question about the heads, the coroner pointed out that all three of the girls had been embalmed. It shrinks the brain by about fifty percent. I wonder, Wilkins had a policy of burying bodies the day they came into the morgue or the day after. The coroner is new, part of my efforts to get Wilkins people out, he followed standard procedure for coroners and embalmed the bodies. Unless religious practices forbid it, it's usually automatic. The high turnover of coroners in Sunnydale previously means someone might get embalmed accidentally under Wilkins, but not on purpose. What if embalming interferes with a demon's ability to take over the body? The brain does shrink and we know demons use the knowledge that lingers in the brain tissue. Embalming may destroy that knowledge. Without ready built knowledge, a vampire would have a difficult time functioning, wouldn't it?"

"Very." Molly said thoughtfully. "And some of those chemicals have magical functions as well. It's an avenue worth investigating. At the very least, we may be able to make some changes to the embalming process here in Sunnydale to purposely hinder a demon's takeover of the body. I'll have my group meet with the coroner and start studying the possibilities. Anything else in the report?"

"All three of the girls have been identified, their faces were preserved by the embalming process after all and their fingerprints taken when the bodies were processed. They attended Fondren High School in Oxnard, but were buried in Sunnydale because their families live here. They were on the Cheer squad and died in a car accident last week. Nothing seemed odd about the accident itself, late night, tired teen drivers coming back from a meet and misjudged a turn. Unfortunate, but it happens. It's natural, digging them up and dismembering them, isn't."

"If the body parts were found at Sunnydale High School, that suggests a Sunnydale High School student or teacher, the dumpster being convenient or someone deliberately going out of their way to throw the police off. If it's a teenager, I'm leaning towards convenient and not a criminal mastermind."

"Dead body parts smell, so do chemicals. I could have the kids walk around the school smelling for them, that would give us an idea of who might be responsible. If we can get a fix on one person, we could focus the investigation on them. Right now there's just nothing to point to any one individual."

"Preferably before they decide they need a freshly dead, not embalmed person's head. Or decide to just grab someone off the street and use hers."

"Gods, that means all the teen girls in Sunnydale, including Cordelia are at risk of being the girl who's head they think could complete this piecemeal, Frankenstein body they appear to be trying to complete. We need a lead, fast. Someone the police can investigate. I'll get the kids on tracking the smell of dead body parts and chemicals and hopefully they'll find something useful." Charles Chase reached for his phone and called Alex and gave him his assignment.

A/N Credit sciencedirect dot com for information on the effects of embalming on a human brain. Fascinating and gross at the same time.