Laughter followed Lindsay into the bar where the girls were having their monthly girl's night out.
"Hey glad to see you made it, Linds," Jaylin called as Lindsay took a seat between her and Taylor.
"Sorry I'm late, Lucy was fussy. She didn't wanna take her medicine for her ear infection. Thanks for the suggestion for getting her to take it," she said to Taylor. Taylor was Lucy's pediatrician.
"No problem, that's my job," Taylor replied.
"I'm buying the next round what's everyone having?" Stella asked.
"I'll have a Sex on the Beach," Ashlynn answered.
"Oh, make it two of those," Jess requested.
"What about the rest of you?" Stella wanted to know.
"Strawberry Margaritas!" Taylor and Jaylin answered in unison.
"I'll have a beer," Lindsay told the waitress.
"Same for me," Stella said. Once the waitress walked away to put in their orders the conversation started up again.
"So how are things going with you and Sheldon, Jay?" Lindsay asked.
"They're going great. The date we had to make up for the one I wound up in the hospital for was wonderful. He was so sweet. He walked me to the door and gave me a goodnight kiss," Jaylin admitted her cheeks going Pink.
"Awww," the girls chorused.
"What about the rest of you how are your love lives going?" she turned the question to the rest of the table. Various responses such as great and good followed her question. The only one that didn't answer was Taylor.
"Tay?" Ashlynn asked.
"Huh?" she replied distractedly.
"Everything okay with you and Tom?" she asked in concern.
"Yeah, it's fine," Taylor answered dismissively. Just then her cell phone rang. Pulling it out of her purse she glanced at the caller ID. A frown briefly crossed her face before she plastered on a fake smile. She thought no one had noticed, but Jaylin had.
"Hey there, Tom, how's it going?" she asked in a false cheery voice.
"Hey, babe, things are going okay. Where are you tonight? I've tried calling you a couple of times before now?" he asked sounding kind of irritated.
"I'm out with the girls, remember?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot that was tonight. Well how long are you going to be with them? I really wanna see you, baby."
"I don't know however long we stay at the bar. Not sure how long it'll be," Taylor said.
"You're always spending more time with your friends than you are with me," Tom argued. Taylor could feel the frustration mounting.
Trying to keep the irritation out of her voice, she said, "I'm sorry you feel that way. That's not my intent. Now can we continue this discussion later?" she pleaded.
"Fine if that's what you want," he responded.
"Okay, bye," she said softly.
"Bye Tay, love you."
"Love you to," she replied before hanging up her phone and placing her head in her hands. Taking a moment to compose herself she forced a smile on her face and looked up at the other girls who were looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine, he was just wondering where I was," she explained. The rest of the night went by without a problem. It was around 10:00 when everyone left the bar. Lindsay who had only had one Beer drove Both Taylor and Jaylin home. Stella and Ashlynn got a cab.
"See you two tomorrow," Lindsay called as she settled the two other women in her car.
"See you tomorrow, kiddo," Stella called back as she pulled out of the parking lot. An hour later found Lindsay pulling into her own driveway glad to be home with her husband and daughter.
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"Good morning everyone," Mac said as he walked into the break room the next morning.
"Morning," was mumbled back by everyone. Taking a look around the room he laughed at the looks on the girls faces.
"It was girl's night out last night, wasn't it?" he asked with a laugh. He'd spent last night working so he didn't get to see Stella.
"Yep," Jaylin answered.
"Well I trust that you're all in shape to work today?" he questioned. Everyone nodded. "Good, Stella, you and Danny have a shooting in the Bronx, Lindsay, you and I have a murder/suicide on fifth Avenue, and Jay, you and Hawkes have a robbery gone bad at McAdams Jewelers. Lets get to work."
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"Hey there, Don, what've we got?" Sheldon asked as he held up the crime scene tape so he and Jaylin could walk under.
"Someone came in and stole a large amount of diamonds. They had smashed a case holding gold necklaces but nothing appears to be taken from that. That may have been because of the owner appearing and scaring them so they shot him and ran like hell," Flack informed them.
"Any witnesses?" Jaylin asked. Flack shook his head.
"One employee, a..." Flack checked his notebook. "A Danielle Barton was in the back room. An officer is questioning her now, but she didn't see anything. The only thing she heard was the gun shot. She's the one who tripped the silent alarm," Flack explained.
"What about cameras?" Hawkes wondered.
"None around this area as far as I can tell. There's one in the store, but the girl isn't sure if it really works or if it's just for show. She's looking into it," Flack answered.
"Okay, thanks, man," Sheldon said as he and Jaylin made their way into the store kits in hand ready to begin processing.
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"What a mess," Jaylin observed.
"MMM-hmm," Hawkes agreed. Walking over to the body, Jaylin scanned her surroundings to see what she could find.
"Tell me what you see," Hawkes requested, knowing this was a perfect moment to have her show what she'd learned so far.
"It looks like he was shot at fairly close range. No other wounds that I can see so I'd guess he was shot with very little warning," she concluded.
"I agree," Hawkes said.
"I'll start dusting for prints," Jaylin offered as she walked over to one of the display cases and after getting out her fingerprint powder and brush began dusting for prints.
"Hey Jay?" Hawkes asked, looking at the display case with the broken glass where nothing was taken.
"Yeah?" she called back.
"C'mere a sec I wanna see if you can figure out what they broke the glass with maybe?" he asked.
"Okay, gimme a sec I'm almost done with this case then I will." A moment later she packed up the cards containing the prints she'd lifted and made her way over to where her boyfriend stood next to the case of necklaces. Leaning down so she could get a better look.
"It looked like whatever they broke the glass with was glass as well. Some of the glass shards I'm finding don't appear to match the ones from the case," Hawkes observed as he put some of the glass in an envelope.
"Let me see that big shard right their, please," Jaylin requested. Reaching for it, Hawkes handed it to her with a smile. Holding it carefully in her gloved hands, Jaylin brought it close to her face to see if she could make out the writing on the glass.
"I think what we're looking for is a perfume bottle. This glass is from a perfume called Warm Vanilla Sugar. You can only get it at Bath and Body Works," Jaylin informed him.
"Well that changes some of what I originally thought," Hawkes said.
"What did you think that this was the work of a man?" Jaylin questioned.
"Yeah, didn't you?" Hawkes challenged.
"Yeah I did," she said.
"So now I'm thinking it was a woman," Hawkes thought out loud.
"It could be a man who just happened to buy the perfume for a wife or girlfriend. There's a Bath and Body Works just down the street from here," she said.
"Okay," Hawkes replied. Reaching for his phone he called Flack.
"Hey, Flack, we think a perfume bottle from Bath and Body Works called Warm Vanilla Sugar was used to break the glass of the cases."
"Thanks, Sheldon, I just have one question for you," the detective said.
"Yeah?" Hawkes answered.
"How is that you know what it's called and where you can buy it? Is there something you're not telling us?" Flack snarked.
"Shut up, man. I asked Jay, and she told me, thank you very much." Flack's laughter could be heard through the phone. Jaylin bit her lip to keep from laughing but it was no use. A giggle escaped her mouth. Hawkes turned and gave her a mock hurt look. It only succeeded in making her laugh harder.
"Well, it's one of my favorite scents," she admitted softly.
"I'll remember that," Hawkes told her. A chuckle from the phone reminded the two of them that Flack was still on the phone.
"Thanks for the info, I'll go to the Bath and Body story down the street here and see who all bought that particular perfume today and see if we can get something from that," Flack said before hanging up.
"Flack said he'd check it out," he said as he turned to his still sniggering girlfriend. Deciding there was only way to get her to stop laughing at him he leaned over and kissed the unsuspecting young woman.
"What was that for, sweet stuff?" she asked breathlessly when they pulled apart.
"Just cause I wanted to, and it got you to stop laughing at me," Hawkes answered.
"Well if I knew I'd be kissed like that I'd have started laughing at you a long time ago," she said cheekily. Hawkes just rolled his eyes and turned to continue his work trying to fight the smile creeping onto his face, but with little success.
TBC?
A/n, please read and review. The faster people review the faster I'll update.