Youthful Hearts

After hearing what happen to Chief Moss' son, the office is busier than usual. Paper flying everywhere and phones are blaring with unstoppable calls for potential leads. Amourphous sighs and leans back on his chair and massages his temples.

He looked over to Detective Lilibush who just ended his call. The news about the dead son becomes a media frenzy and every reporter wants to have the first line of information from the police station.

"How is the condition over there, Lilibush?" Amourphous asked. Lilibush just sighs and laid back. "Same old information," he answered. The latter just chuckles as he leans forward to the phone to answer again.

"This is Detective Amorphous speaking," he said. "Uh-huh, yes. Yes. Of course, thank you," he added then hangs up before taking a sandwich out of his bag then enjoyed his mini-lunch break. Days and weeks passed by and the news about Mr. Garance finally died down and the office was more peaceful than last week.

Detectives now finally have the time to relax for a while before going back to work later in the afternoon. Police start patrolling the whole city more often after that discovery. Flower shops and other businesses start opening up again since Christmas is near and people have to prepare earlier than December.

Lilibush drags Major to a supermarket to buy food stocks for Christmas Eve. Major happily obliges and texts his mom if she wants something from the store. "You are not from this area, right?" Lilibush asks while driving. "Yes, Sir. I came from Eclair, Sir," the boy answers.

"Eclair?" Lilibush asks curiously. "Yes, Sir," Major answered. "My wife is from that area also," Lilibush shared. Major was amazed that the Detective's wife is from their area so she must've been so beautiful.

Major just hums thinking about his home town. He misses that place every single time his mom calls. They parked near an oak tree at the supermarket's parking lot and proceeds to enter the building.

Major get the cart when he receives a text from his mom. He confusedly looked at the message then asks the older Detective about it. "Oh, it's a common saying amongst outsiders that if you don't want to be punished by the lawmaker of Emir City, never buy their goods and bring them to other places," Lilibush explains.

"I never heard such things before," Major wonders out loud. Lilibush chuckles a little then proceeds to follow the younger one to get a basket. They walked along the aisle of food and get what they could buy when Lilibush saw the grandmother they interviewed when Ms. Sorrel's body was found.

"Isn't that Mrs. Prime?" Lilibush blurts out. The latter looks at the direction he is pointing. He nods at the detective then he looks once again, this time, he also saw Mr. Sage helping the grandmother buying her grocery.

"No, Mrs. Prime. Alexys specifically said no broccoli," he persists. "But that boy never eats his vegetable. So, I am going to force him," the old lady exclaims. Both detectives see Mr. Sage sighing before following the lady.

They look very close. They proceed to pay for everything when Major saw Mr. Sage once again but this time, a young man, the grandson of Mrs. Prime is with him. "She bought another broccoli?" A tall young man asks Mr. Sage. "Yep, tons of it," Mr. Sage answers. The man sighs and looks at Major's direction and bows.

Mr. Sage looks in his direction and smilingly waves at him. Major bows back and waves back before Lilibush forces Major to focus on carrying their mini groceries. Major snaps back at him with glaring eyes and the detective just laughs.

The two of them drove back to the station when they saw Mr. Sage and the grandson walk happily while carrying grocery bags and Mrs. Prime is talking to the lady who walks with them. "Jealous?" Lilibush asks.

Major just chuckles but continue to look at them. "You should tell him how you feel, Major. You could have a chance," Lilibush encourage. "Tell him, before that guy will take him away from you," he adds. Major sighs and said, "I'll try," Lilibush shook his head and drove fast to the station.

The day ends with pent up frustrations and an unsolved case. Major's car passes by Mr. Sage's shop when he notices that the guy is carrying something heavy. He suddenly parks his car not so far from the guy is and turns off the engine.

He also asks himself why but even he doesn't know the answer. He bends down on the pavement and picks up the remaining flowers outside the shop and he quietly enters the shop when the welcome bell dings. He scrunches his face and bit his lips when Mr. Sage speaks.

"Detective? What are you doing here?" He curiously asks. The detective puts down the flower in the corner and sheepishly scratches the back of his neck. "I saw you having a hard time carrying some flowers so I decided to help," he sheepishly replies.

The latter just looks at him then smiles. "That's so sweet, Detective. Thank you," he said. The detective docks his head feeling his cheeks heat up. The florist giggles at the latter then he clears his throat.

"Is this all?" The detective shyly asks. The florist thought for a minute before nodding back to him. The detective frowns in secret but that didn't escape the florist's observant eyes. The florist clears his throat then he suddenly asks, "Are you tonight, Detective?" The detective looks at the florist with shocked eyes.

The florist smiles flirtatiously at him as he waits for his answer. The detective smiles and answers, "Yes." The florist just looks at him with teasing eyes then licks his lips. The detective gulps unknown to the grave danger that he puts himself in.

As the sky darkens the whole city, a shrieking sound would wake up the city's beautiful daydream as the mysterious killer roams to the city finding his new prey.