Dr. Josefine Wolfe was at the farmer's market with her self-proclaimed assistant Margaret Bates. Josefine had never been to the farmer's market except to buy produce cheaper than she could get it at the market. This trip had started with an innocent enough conversation held over breakfast as Bates handed her the newspaper having just finished cutting out the puzzles so that she'd have a chance to try them.
"What do you do for fun, Doc?" Bates asked, likely because all she'd really seen Josefine do with her time was work cases and go through crosswords and sudoku like they were nothing.
"Murder," Josefine had answered simply, unfolding the paper to skim the headlines.
"No, that was work," Bates assumed she was referring to her time with the Bureau working as something of an alienist. "I mean something you do for fun."
"Homicide," Josefine answered again. Bates breathed a long-suffering sigh.
"Let's go out today. There's no case and the farmer's market is set up," she suggested.
"Hmmm," Josefine barely looked up; there was another missing person, but no leads. So she found herself at the farmer's market trailing behind Bates who had entirely too much energy for her to keep up with. She was just passing by a little booth of paintings when one caught her eye: a portrait of the young man she'd seen a sketch of in the paper earlier that day except wreathed with rose vines and with flowers growing from his mouth. Josefine stopped and approached to study the painting, taking in the corpse-like pallor and other tell-tale signs of death. Then she moved to look at the other four paintings in a similar style in the rack beneath it.
"Hello," a young woman with straight jet-black hair and paint smudges on her hands and clothes and across her cheek approached upon seeing Josefine's interest. There was another portrait partially covered beyond her shoulder.
"Hello," Josefine replied, barely looking up from the portrait of a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to the painter, this one with the rose vines like a tight noose around the neck. "These are all people from missing person's ads, right?" She asked for confirmation that her eidetic memory already gave her. The woman nodded.
"My sister, Kimiko, went missing so I started doing the portraits in Memorium," she trailed off for a moment, "They are still for sale, just raising awareness in the meantime." Josefine straightened up and offered the woman a hand.
"Josefine." She lifted the portrait of Kimiko, "I'd like to take this one off your hands." The woman beamed and shook her hand.
"Sachiko." Once Josefine had paid, she caught up with Bates, who was looking at a curio booth further along.
"What did you buy?" Josefine held up the portrait and she pulled a face, "That's in poor taste." Josefine shrugged.
"It's my office, you're moving out soon anyway." Josefine heard a cheerful call from behind and glanced back to see the tall man Josefine was pretty sure was in the newest portrait approaching Sachiko with a broad smile. He greeted her with a familiar hug and a chaste kiss.
"Prey," Wolf, the homicidal Monster in her head whispered and Josefine was inclined to agree with it.