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Beauty and magic were the precise things I was looking for.

“Sounds great. I’ll take it.”

The blonde beamed at me, her eyes glittering. “Awesome. I can get that going for you right away. What size bundle would you like? We have small, medium, large, and XL, which is the largest we offer.”

“Medium is fine. Do you happen to sell flower vases?”

“We do.” The woman nodded and then pointed all the way to the opposite side of the flower shop. “We have different selections from glass, plastic, ceramic, and we even do special engravings should you decide to go with one of our metallic vases.”

“That sounds great.”

“I’ll be at one of the larger tables in the back of the store,” she said, pointing in said direction. “It’ll take me a few minutes to get your arrangement ready. If you find a vase you like, then you can bring it over to me and I’ll set everything up for you. If not, then I can box everything up separately.”

“Sounds good. I’ll think about it and let you know.”

I left her to begin her work and continued to browse through several tables harboring different flowers bearing names I couldn’t dare pronounce if I’d tried, until, as promised, a large aisle stocked full of all sorts of vases blessed my vision. I had no fucking clue what I was doing and if my parents were still alive, I could’ve called one of them up and asked for some advice. Given that it had been two miserably long years since their passing, and four lonely years since I felt serious about someone, the Lord knew how much I really needed it, and them. I’d only just discovered the mystery woman I’d been longing for was the CDA I was currently working with. Aside from that, and of course, this ridiculous fucking situation she was in with her ex-husband, I frankly didn’t know shit about Charlotte Greene or anything pertaining to her likes, dislikes, hobbies, her favorite color—hell, none of it. Spike said the plan was to invite her out to lunch so we could speak with her privately, so I wanted to do something sweet, like buy her some flowers in hopes it would help make things less awkward once we broke the news to her. I was so damn nervous, but I could do this. I knew I could. Picking out flowers was one thing, but seriously, how hard could it be picking out a vase?

It was less than a minute later when my eyes landed on a stunning, crystalized vase which had what appeared to be a leaf and vine pattern professionally molted top to bottom inside the glass. It was a little on the smaller side, but after taking another look, I suppose the mouth was big enough to hold a mediumish size bouquet. There was only one way to find out, so I eagerly grabbed the glass and looked it over with a pleased smile before starting my trek to the back of the store.

I was about halfway there and could literally see the woman I’d spoken to busy assembling my order, when my phone started buzzing in my pocket, halting me in my tracks. After safely tucking the vase away under my left arm, I fished out the phone and glanced down to see it was Spike calling.

“Hey. You at the precinct?”

“I am. And you’re never going to believe this shit. We have another case.”

My body stiffened where I stood. Swallowing hard, I asked, “Like a rape case?”

“Amber Strickland. Dark hair, blue eyes, and twenty-eight years old. She was found by her husband in their living room about thirty minutes ago. She’s been beaten and her clothes are torn.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear long enough to check the time. It was still early, just a little after 8am.

“Is it connected to Delilah’s case?”

“Chief seems to think so. He called Cap with the info and had him update me first thing when I walked in. Where are you at?”

“I’m about ten, maybe fifteen minutes away.”

“Do me a favor and put the pedal to the metal. I’m low on gas, so I need you to swing by the precinct and pick me up. CSIs got there ten minutes ago and Cap wants us there ASAP.”

Shit.

I had no idea how much longer it was going to take here in the flower shop. The EMTs would have Amber on the stretcher and over halfway to the hospital by the time I left here and made it to the precinct.

“I’ll be there as fast as I can, Spike. Sit tight.”

I hated rushing people, but this was an emergency and unfortunately, I didn’t have much of a choice.

“Hey hon,” I said, greeting the nice lady who was helping me. “Work called and I’m afraid I have to leave.”

“Oh, no problem. Believe it or not, I just finished up. Is that the vase you want?” she asked, nudging her head to the glass trapped under my armpit.

“It is,” I replied, handing it over. “Is it big enough to fit?”

She nodded. “All I have to do is cut the stems a little shorter but yes, it’ll fit just fine.”

There was a register on the counter beside her. After placing the bouquet down long enough to open the register, she handed over my bill and then disappeared through a door behind the table.

She appeared moments later with the arrangement placed neatly and beautifully inside the water-filled vase and a huge smile on her face.