Jenna
Jenna was exhausted. She hadn't got any sleep in a long time. As usual, her mind was clouded by darkness, and the rare moments she had managed to fall asleep were often cut short by nightmares. More than the lack of sleep, she was mentally drained. The weight of her issues, work- everything, really- was getting too much for her, and she felt like she had no strength anymore like she was slowly dying, in a way.
Maddie used to be there during her most difficult times, used to hold her, keep her safe until the dark thoughts disappeared. Eventually, it must've got too much for her to handle, and even if Jenna knew deep down that it wasn't really her own fault, she couldn't help but blame herself for the loss of her lover.
She should've tried to be better, hide her shadow from her.
Despite everything, Jenna knew she had to stay strong, her job required it, and it was the only part of her life that wasn't completely in shambles (yet). She couldn't allow herself to sink deeper, no matter how tempting it was, she had to focus on her job, even if it meant shoving her issues in the back of her head until it eventually got too much. Lives were potentially at stake. She was going to do some good for the world, even if she couldn't do that for herself.
The brunette let out a deep sigh as Hunter came to sit beside her, two cups of coffee in his hands,
"Here, take this, you look like you need it." He said and Jenna silently thanked him before forcing herself to take a sip. She felt sick. She hadn't eaten anything since the day before, and she knew she needed to regain a bit of strength. The coffee would do, for now.
"Got anything new?" She tiredly asked her partner, the later gave her a small smile in return.
"Just got the report about the stolen items," He stated as he handed her a file and Jenna hummed, prompting him to continue.
"All of them are quite expensive, though there's no real pattern. They stole some ancient greek vase, a traditional Japanese sculpture and some European modern artist's paintings. All of them are pretty small, easy to carry, and since Tanner has other greek or whatever else items I doubt our burglar is a collector, or they would've taken those too. They were probably just after the money."
Jenna nodded, a frown of her face as she took in all the information. A collector would've been easier to track than a random person who wanted money, but at least it meant that they would try to sell them, so maybe they still had a chance to find the stolen pieces, and even the thief too. Her hopes weren't so high, though.
The detective brought her hands up to massage her temples, her head was starting to ache badly.
"What about you, how did your visit at the bar go?" Hunter asked.
"Not so well. Some people do remember seeing Tanner that night, only one client think he saw him with a woman. Dark haired, wore a black dress. He didn't remember anything else." She sighed.
"Well... At least we know Tanner didn't lie about that, I guess."
"I don't get him though," Jenna furrowed her eyebrow, looking up at her partner.
"Why is he hiding some stuff from us? Why fake a blind dating app or whatever when we know that woman might be the thief? He doesn't make the job easy for us."
"Maybe he's more embarrassed than he misses his vase," Hunter chuckled and Jenna couldn't help but join him. There was nothing really funny about the situation, the brunette blamed it on her nerves. They both knew this was getting nowhere.
"Whatever, it's on him if we can't get him his things back anyway."
"Don't say that," Jenna said, regaining her serious, professional state.
"I don't care about him or his fucking art pieces, but we have to solve this case."
"Why though? I mean, we're already doing everything we can, and a lot of cases like this end up unsolved, it's not a big deal if we tried."
"It is."
Jenna knew she couldn't afford failing, not when her captain was looking for any reason possible to bring her down, make her feel worthless. If she started messing up her job he'd get rid of her without a second thought, and Jenna would end up with nothing at all.
She wouldn't survive that.
Her head started spinning, the headache growing too strong to ignore anymore, and she felt her breathing getting shallow. Why wasn't she able to figure this case out ?!
God, get yourself together Ortega.
"You okay?" Her partner asked, voice laced with concern, and she nodded before excusing herself. She needed to get out of there. She couldn't breath.
She quickly made her way up to the rooftop, and as soon as she was out, she collapsed on her knees, feeling her exhaustion finally get to her. She was a mess, feeling the pain getting too intense. She used to be so good at holding everything back, what happened?
Jenna sat against the wall, trying to focus on evening her breathing, regain a normal state. She couldn't allow herself to be so weak in her workplace. She had to forget about everything, work on herself, or she didn't know how long she'd manage to keep on holding on.
After a few minutes, she managed to regain a somewhat acceptable state. She still felt awful on the inside, but at least her coworkers wouldn't know. The worst thing that could happen to her was to appear weak in front of them. Jenna despised more than anything feeling vulnerable.
She made her way back inside reluctantly, getting ready to get back to work. When she got in, though, instead of finding her partner sitting in front of his desk, working, like she expected him to, she saw him talking to another detective, along with Olivia and Hunter. Tilting her head to her side in confusion, she joined them, hoping they wouldn't comment on her sudden disappearance.
They all had frowns on their faces, Hunter was livid. What happened ?
"Oh, hey Jen," Olivia greeted her as soon as she noticed her, and Jenna only nodded at her friend.
"Are you feeling better?" Hunter asked and she gave him a small smile,
"Yeah, sorry about that by the way. What's up?" She quickly changed the topic, not wanting the focus to be on her, and her partner glanced at Hunter quickly before looking back at her.
"They found another body this morning, same exact setting than the one Jack was working on a few days ago, one hand bonded to a table or something, and it looks like he's been poisoned."
Jenna furrowed her eyebrows at that,
"Didn't you say the last one was a suicide?" Hunter looked away at that, and Hunter nodded, his smile fading.
"Yeah, he did. I mean I don't know the details, but from the report, absolutely nothing indicates murder, so..."
"He took the pill himself." Hunter sighed,
"We have evidence of that, I-"
"Maybe he was forced to do it, though?" Olivia intervened, and Hunter shook his head.
"It makes no sense... There's absolutely no trace of fight, not even one wound on the victim, the first one at least has no known enemy, it's so weird..."
"It can't be a coincidence though, I mean one man killing himself with a hand tied somewhere is weird enough, but two ? There's something fishy." The other detective -Jenna couldn't remember his name- added, and they all nodded.
It was odd, really. Jenna knew something was off, and her mind immediately went back to her own case, what was up with ghost criminals suddenly?
"So what are you going to do?" Jenna asked and Hunter shook his head.
"We're taking this case too, since they're most probably linked, but honestly I don't know where this is going. I hope we can find more on the crime scene, we're going there now," He sighed.
Before Jenna could answer anything, she felt a hand on her shoulder and immediately turned around, her heart missing a beat.
She let out a shaky breath at the sight of her captain's cold gaze on her, his eyebrows scrunched down in a frown, as usual. Jenna wondered if she ever saw this man smile.
All of the detectives had gone silent.
"I don't recall allowing any of you to chat during your work hours," He stated, his tone colder than ice. Even though he was talking to all of them, his gaze remained focused on Jenna, and she could barely hold back a shudder at this.
"We're sorry, sir, I-"
"Ortega," He cut Hunter off, not acknowledging him, glaring at the brunette.
"In my office, I need to talk to you now."
Jenna gulped, nodding slowly before making her way there. She felt too powerless to argue, and really didn't want him to scold her in front of her colleagues. She knew what he was about to tell her, and would rather save herself from the humiliation.
This was really not her day.
Or, well, week. Month maybe.
Jenna was starting to lose any hope of seeing better days.
Emma
Emma yawned for what felt like the hundredth time that day, struggling to keep on listening to her customer as he was describing what he wanted for his wife's birthday. She had an awful night and felt like she could fall asleep at any time, but tried hard to keep her eyes opened. She'd probably close the shop earlier that day.
When the man had finished talking, she gave him a small nod as an answer, and told him he'd get his bouquet the following day, despite not being sure she even remembered a thing he said.
Whatever, she'd improvise, he would like it anyway.
When he finally left, she allowed a low sigh to leave her mouth and slumped down in her chair, making Jules, her apprentice, chuckling lightly.
"Everything okay?" She asked, and Emma hummed.
Jules was a sweet girl, she was glad she had hired her. Not too nosy, but good at her job. Everything Emma asked for.
"Had a crappy evening," She answered, staying purposely vague, and the younger didn't ask any more questions, much to the blonde's liking.
Emma watched as the girl took care of the flowers in the shop with a small smile. The last person she hired, a guy barely older than Jules, was a brute. Sure, he was good with their customers, and somewhat charismatic, which was a pretty good quality in that field. But it was obvious he did this job for the money, not for his love for flowers.
Which was, by the way, completely inexistent, even if he had claimed otherwise before Emma hired him.
Flowers necessitated delicacy and attention, things he never gave them. Making a bouquet was like making an art piece, it required a lot of patience and obviously some kind of taste. You couldn't mix just any colour, or any flower. A bouquet didn't have just an aesthetic aspect either, flowers had meaning, so did colours. Flowers had to be chosen carefully to deliver the right message.
It wasn't that hard to understand, really.
Emma was glad she got rid of him. At least, Jules didn't make silly mistakes.
The blonde got up, making her way to the other side of the shop where they kept the roses, and knelt in front of them, admiring them. She knew it wasn't really original, but roses truly were her favourite flowers. They were delicate, yet held something so seductive. No wonder red roses were often gifted to lovers.
Emma used to love white roses the most. She remembered when she was younger, she always kept a vase with a white rose in her room, they had followed her when she kept on moving away from house to house, the only thing that truly felt like home. When she couldn't buy any, she always managed to steal them somewhere. Sometimes it was from her neighbor's garden, sometimes directly from a shop.
Emma had always been a fast runner.
Though, as she grew up, it was like that love had been tinted.
Drop by drop, the roses turned into a deep, sanguine red. The purity and innocence she once held were long gone.
A loud noise suddenly brought her out of her daze, and she quickly turned around, rushing to the back of the store where Jules was.
There was glass shattered all over the floor, and a small bouquet of daisies on the side. Jules had her eyes wide open, mouth agape in shock, and when she noticed that Emma was there too, she quickly crouched down and started cleaning up the mess she had made.
"I'm so sorry, miss Myers, I-" She mumbled and the woman chuckled before joining her down to help her.
"No worries, it happens. Go take care of the daisies, I'll clean it up."
"Are you sure? I can-"
"I'm sure, Jules. Go." She interrupted her, "And I told you to call me Emma, by the way."
"R-Right, sorry again, m- Emma, I- I'll go now."
Before she knew it, the girl had left, rushing out to put the flower in a new vase, probably. Emma moved quickly, picking out the small pieces of glass scattered on the floor one by one carefully. Though it seemed not to be enough, and the woman hissed as she felt the sharp glass cut a thin line on her finger.
She brought it up eye-level and stared at it for a few seconds before a small red droplet escaped, and Emma immediately looked away, not baring the sight of blood.
She got up, and wrapped a finger in tissue, before joining Jules who was taking care of some other flowers. The woman let out a deep sigh, making the younger look at her with big eyes.
"I'm going to leave now, Jules. I'm tired. Can I count on you to close the shop?"
Emma knew she was being unfair, the younger was just an apprentice and she shouldn't ask her to do her job for herself. But she was exhausted and felt anger starting to rise in her. She didn't want to cause another mess.
Jules nodded, probably not daring to say no. Emma had sensed her tone was much colder and figured the younger didn't want to get on her bad side.
Smart girl.
The blonde woman gave her one last smile, though it wasn't nearly as sincere as usual, before grabbing her bag and leaving the shop without another word. She wanted nothing more than to get home and relax, get some much-needed sleep. This kind of life was really demanding, but at least Emma lived comfortably. Her apartment was located in one of California's nicest places, and she knew she wouldn't be bothered there.
She took out her phone as she started walking toward the building to try and change her mind a little, and a smile appeared on her lips as the girl's profile she was looking at earlier flashed on her screen. She was pretty, really, she couldn't lie. There was something captivating about her. Something sinful, almost.
Emma smiled, not thinking about the previous night's incident anymore.
She couldn't wait to play with her.
Jenna
Jenna tried to force a polite smile as her boss sat across her on the other side of his desk. He still had a cold gaze, and the brunette wondered how much trouble she had gotten herself in.
He cleared his throat, catching her attention, before speaking up.
"I heard about the progress you've made so far, and I must admit, I'm really disappointed in you, given your reputation, Ortega."
The detective let out a small, shaky breath, clenching her fist tightly.
"I know, sir, I'm sorry, but... It's been only two days, and we're really trying..."
"Trying isn't enough!" He exclaimed, and she immediately shut her mouth.
"Mr. Tanner called earlier to tell me how unsafe he feels now, there's someone after him and you're being useless!"
Jenna gulped, looking away.
"With all due respect, sir, from what we have so far... I doubt that this person has something against him, it rather seems like they were after his money, but..."
"I need evidence, Ortega, I need you to do better," He sighed, and Jenna felt her eyes getting teary.
God, no. She had never broken down in front of him, why was she becoming so fragile? She usually managed to stay strong, and hold her ground against him.
"I will, I promise." She paused for a few seconds.
"But you can look into our reports, there was nothing there, I... The thief left no trace of his visit, and Tanner has no one after him, we already looked into it, and the only man who might want to harm him, one of his former colleagues, has a solid alibi. There's nothing else besides this, and-"
"Are you asking me to do your job, then?"
Jenna's gaze landed on cold eyes, and she slowly shook her head, not wanting to say a word anymore. She was basically digging her own grave at this point, anything she said would fire back against her.
Her captain leaned on his desk, keeping his eyes stuck in hers, making the brunette feel small under his gaze.
"For God's sake, Ortega. I really thought you were better than that." He chuckled lowly, before slumping back down on his chair, shaking his head slightly.
"Tell me you at least have a solid lead?" He asked, and Jenna cleared her throat.
"Yeah," She nodded slowly, trying to regain her composure,
"He had a date with a woman that evening, he told us himself, but he refuses to say more about it." Jenna started,
"I went to the bar he said he went to, and a client did witness him leaving with a woman, they aren't a hundred percent sure though. I also inspected Tanner's apartment and... It looks like someone has been struggling to open the door from the inside, so my theory is that whoever he went home with that evening drugged him and stole his stuff. He probably locked the door, so rather than struggling to come in, our thief had trouble coming out. I'm pretty confident with this theory, but with have no actual evidence, and if Tanner refuses to say more, well...."
She trailed, and her captain raised an eyebrow at that, before letting out a low sigh.
"Well, it's your job to find out," He said.
"I truly hope you won't disappoint me again, Ortega. You better figure this out quickly."
"Of course, sir."
"Good. You can leave."
Jenna didn't need to be told twice as she immediately got up and rushed out of the office, finally releasing her breath after holding it for so long.
It hadn't been as terrible as she thought it'd be, at least he didn't think her theory was stupid, that was a good start.
But what could she do now? How could she find that woman?
She couldn't mess this up. She had to find an idea, and soon.