The tires of the old Crown Vicky were squealing when Esposito pulled into a parallel parking spot along the flower shop, his eyes scanning the area for their suspect long before the car came to a complete halt.
The trip down to the motor pool to get a new set of wheels had taken up more time than he'd cared to waste, making the drive to the store an agonizing rush against the clock despite his lights and sirens.
His arrival had raised a commotion as several pedestrians turned around to see what was happening, giving him the chance to scan the crowd, not seeing anybody fitting their description.
He'd be a fool to think that their suspect would still be here, but sometimes…well, sometimes they got lucky.
Better yet, maybe he could catch him in the act, so that he could show him what happened to ruthless killers in this town.
His attention moved to the right when he saw a lady approach him with a bouquet of purple flowers, her body language relaxed as she smiled, visibly delighted by his arrival.
Esposito circled the hood of the police car, confused when she shook his hand enthusiastically.
"How fortunate, he said that you would be here soon. You must be Detective Esposito."
Hesitantly, he looked around some more, wondering if he was being watched.
"I am. And who are you and who did you talk to?"
"My name is Judy Meyers, I was just shopping for some flowers here when a young man approached and asked if I could give you these lilacs when you'd get here. They smell beautifully."
"A young man…", he repeated, immediately feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as she pushed the bouquet against his chest.
"Yes, he was very handsome and well-spoken. He said he wanted to give you these as a token of his appreciation. He even gave me this photo so that I could help find you."
Completely oblivious to the danger she'd been in, the woman retrieved a black and white photo from her purse. He could tell it was taken from the scene of the first murder, showing them standing together for a short debriefing.
He was about to ask her more questions regarding the encounter when he could hear sirens approaching, relieved to see the rest of the team arrive at the scene.
"Is the…the man you talked to still around? So that we…can thank him personally?", he tried, not surprised when she shook her head in disappointment.
"I am afraid not. He left about ten minutes ago, saying he'd have to run an errand."
"Did he say what kind of an errand, ma'am?"
He could hear the clattering of Beckett's high heels approaching from behind, slowing down as she got closer.
"Not really. It was something about a date he wanted to prepare for tonight. But he was adamant that I gave you the flowers because he couldn't stick around."
In unspoken understanding, Beckett took the lilacs from his hand, subtly inspecting them for any further messages.
"Ma'am, thank you for…for keeping those for us…", she chimed in, a worried Castle by her side, "We're going to need your contact info in case we have any other questions. Can you please give it to Detective Ryan over here?"
With a perplexed nod, she followed the young detective back to the waiting police car, leaving the three of them near the curb.
"There's gotta be some significance to those flowers…", she said, turning the bouquet upside down once more to look for anything she might have missed, "It could be something in his past he's trying to signal with these."
Equally worried, Castle nipped a piece of the flower off the top and smelled it, then nodded approvingly.
"There is significance to this.", the writer agreed and stayed quiet for a while, also letting his eyes drift across the walls of windows greeting them to either side of the busy street.
"During their research into the killings, the Michigan State police stumbled across an abandoned farmhouse where they found personal belongings of Collins' previous victims. A small earring and a piece of clothing. Suffice to say, they hypothesized that Collins brought all his victims there to rape and kill them before dumping the body. While they kept the farmhouse under surveillance for a while, they eventually dropped their guard and moved resources to more pressing matters in the case. Just by chance though, the farmhouse was lost due to arson, and the investigators found 5 lilac branches in the driveway, signaling the five victims at that time. Unless my math is off today, there are 5 lilac branches in this bundle right here."
"You think that this…this Danny has already killed two others?", Beckett asked, dreading the answer.
Problem was, neither one of them could be sure, Esposito mused and turned back around to watch Ryan finish his interview with the lady whose cheerful demeanor was quickly waning.
If only she knew how close she'd been.