This is the short story, The Purple Bike Man. This story will be distributed in parts and was written by Naava Dae. This document is the property of Naava Dae and upon illegal distribution, reproduction, editing, altering, or use, will be punishable by law. This is all the figment of Naava Dae's imagination. All of the characters, places, and events that take place in this story are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, or events is purely coincidental. © 2019 by Naava Dae
Chapter 2
“Do you have any idea who would have a motive to harm you, Ms. Archer?”
I looked at the Deputy Chief of police, his question ringing in my head like an alarm I couldn’t find and turn off. The seconds between his question and my ‘no’ response felt like an eternity. Because now I was numb with fear. More than I was earlier when it happened. I kept replaying the scene in my head over and over, as I told officer after officer what happened.
The text was received by me at precisely 2:17 in the afternoon. I was alone in the section of the library I was in, other than the library assistant who was stacking books and placing them on shelves. I was preparing for a meeting with my Professor who also was my senior project adviser. Our meeting was scheduled for 3:00 and it would have been no longer than 20 minutes. I received the text and immediately reported it to University Police. They asked me the contents of the message and if I knew who sent it to me. I read the message and the sender and said there is no relation between the anonymous person and I. The officer over the phone, a woman, calmly asked me where I was in the library. I told her and she said she would be there in 5 minutes. While I waited for her, I called my teacher because an email probably would not have been enough for the situation.
“Professor Cooper…yes hi it’s Lila…yes I am aware of our 3:00 meeting, in fact that’s what I was calling to discuss…yes I will have to reschedule, you see I’m in a bit of a mix-up right now…yes I’m ok for now, I just received a weird text that I reported to UPD and they are bringing me in the station to question. I didn’t know how long I’d be so I thought to call and reschedule with you…yeah I’m sure this is all a big mix up…honestly I’m sure it’s nothing, but Friday does sound good, same time?...Great, I’ll see you then, thank you for your understanding…I will, take care.”
Hanging up the phone I noticed the officer who had arrived earlier than expected, was patiently waiting a few feet from me. She had thick blonde hair that was cut to her shoulders. Her facial features were all very small- her eyes, nose, lips were all tiny- but she curved them all to smile at me when I walked over. Her face was pale but the makeup she wore made it look refreshing and hydrated. She hovered her hand over a walkie talkie letting someone know that she made it to me and was on the way back. A gun was in the holster on the side of her hip. Noticing I was looking at it, she covered it.
“Don’t worry honey, we shouldn’t be using this today.” She winked as she walked ahead of me slowly and I followed. She tried to lighten the mood a bit by asking me questions about class. I responded to them but still couldn’t get my mind off anything but this incident. My nerves redirected the subject back to the matter.
“You know this probably just a chain mail that went wrong. You know what I’m talking about right?” I paused to see the reaction the cop had. She looked back at me and nodded. She gave me a shy smile, an almost “I feel sorry for you smile”. A smile that I used as an excuse to continue my rant founded off in denial.
“Yeah. So, this was probably just a chain text, mail, whatever that went wrong. I probably didn’t get the second part, the second part where it’s just like, ‘oh send this to 20 people Lila or you’ll die at midnight’. Stupid shit like that you know. Because no one would want to kill ME! I mean I didn’t do anything to get killed over. I don’t even have real enemies; I don’t have the slightest clue who I could be threatening.”
The cop nodded her head slowly as we exited the library and headed to the student services building where the UPD was located. She was silent which I took as more of an opportunity to keep going. Except I really didn’t know what else to say to validate how I felt. No matter what it happened and whoever did it knew who I was. And they knew what I was doing. There is nothing I could say to argue that fact. So, we stayed silent.
Arriving at the student services building, we took the elevator to the basement floor where the station was located. As soon as the elevator opened, I was startled by what I saw. About a dozen police officers were waiting and chatting among themselves. Some were University police, and some were city police, however all looked very animated in the separate conversations. They held coffees, water bottles, pens and notepads in their hands as they spoke. They all seemed to be waiting for something. When the cop and I exited the elevator, everyone stopped. They were waiting for me.
As I shuffled my weight from side to side, the cop I came with, Officer Bridge, redirected me to an empty room of the lobby. She motioned for me to sit in a chair; I complied. The chair was hard, and I kept trying to move around in it to break it in, to try to make it more comfortable then it was. During this time the officer must have left the room, she walked back in as quiet as she left. She was carrying a water bottle and she placed it in front of me.
“Sorry, it’s room temperature. Our fridge broke this morning.” She says.
“That’s fine, thank you.” I took a long swish of water. The officer waited until I swallowed completely before giving me further instruction.
“Because this is a text, we can try to reach back to it’s sender. So, I will have to take your phone while you are being questioned. We believe this incident can be linked to the Purple Bike Killer. We just more proof and more time to figure out who he is. The City’s Deputy Chief of Police will be in to talk to you soon. For now, I need you to unlock the phone.”
I looked up at her reluctantly.
“I am just going to screenshot the message and send it to my phone to analyze. It will take less than 10 seconds.” She reassured me.
I take my phone out and bring it to the message. She screenshots it and sends it to herself. I hear a ding in her pocket, and she hands the phone back to me.
“See not so bad right. “she chuckles, “You kids and your phones.”
I laugh lightly, it was nice to laugh.
At that moment, the Deputy Chief of Police walks in. He was very tall with dirty brown hair and hazel green eyes. He had a muscular build that his uniform surprisingly fit over. He had broad shoulders, a sharp jawline, and glasses. Glasses? Yep, glasses. They were round circle glasses with a black trim. He was holding a notepad and pen and had pulled aside Officer Bridges to speak with her. He looked like a model about to walk the runaway, not like a city deputy. If I was in any other situation than this, I probably would have found him attractive. But right now I was just too nervous for my own self.
“Good afternoon miss- “he paused.
“Archer” I say filling in the blank for him.
“-Archer.” He smiles before continuing. “I’m going to ask you a few questions about what happened. Then I’m going to arrange for Officer Bridges to take you home. That cool?”
“Yeah sure.” I still was in shock that any of this was happening.
“OK.” He set up his pad and pen and looked back at me.
“Do you have any idea who would have a motive to harm you, Ms. Archer?”
And that’s where we are now. My mind went blank. After what seemed like an eternity, I replied no. He asked me more questions about my friends, if I had any problems lately, about my family back home. I answered all of them but still couldn’t figure out an answer to the initial question. When he finished, he asked me if I had any questions. I said no but then.
“What is the Purple Bike Man?” I asked
“The name of the serial killer. He left a purple bike as evidence at the last killing. You didn’t hear about it on the news?”
~
Officer Bridges pulls up in front of my apartment building. She asked me if I needed to be escorted upstairs. I politely declined and thanked her for the ride. As I walked up the stairs to my apartment floor, I couldn’t believe how much of the story got updated. Hearing that the killer now had a name proved that I had more work that I needed to research on. But to hear that my incident is related to him, made me really interested to learn more. To save myself.
When I approached my door, something was in front of it. Are these flowers. They were flowers. But they weren’t red. They were black. A card was sticking up from the top of the stem of the tallest rose.
The card read:
Lila Archer,
Fist bump. Love the Purple Bike Man
Did you enjoy that so far? Come back Sunday night, April 21 2019 at 8:15pm(ET) for Chapter 3!
Copyright©Naava Dae 2019
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