Eli Elson’s eyes slowly opened. It had to be getting close to noon. His head slowly lifted from the pillow, while his eyes barely opened. His head was pounding out what would be a great native beat, but he wasn’t in a musical mood. He shuffled to his home office and plopped into his desk chair. His phone was blank, and he didn’t have any new messages in his email. He looked over his list of projects, and he was ahead on them all. One was crossed out in an unusual manner. Someday I’ll learn not to code drunk he thought. He flipped on the TV which was strategically placed on the other side of his desk. I’d better see what is going on…I have a reputation. He started to log into his Dakota Infodump blog, and once in, he fiddled with the remote to watch all of the morning news he’d missed. Ah, good old KELO he thought as he scooted the chair backward to a small fridge. While he was pulling out an Amp, he heard the news anchor’s voice.
“Good morning. Our top story today is the ongoing investigation into the death of Sioux Falls Police Officer Jeff Stevens sometime Friday. HIs body was found at the apartment of a man named Gerrard Dinkley, who had died earlier yesterday as well. Police aren’t releasing any more details, but they are still looking for two people of interest. They are Phillip Anderton and Robert Fulton, both of Sioux Falls.”
Eli’s head darted up. He pointed the remote at the TV and rewound a few seconds back.
“…derton and Robert Fulton, both of Sioux Falls. These are their pictures, released to us by the Sioux Falls Police.”
Eli paused the TV again. “Son of a bitch. Bob, what are you into now?”
Eli stared at his screen, then he rolled his chair back to the computer. As he was typing in a Google news search, he was unaware of the police cars pulling up outside.
***
Bob’s head spun around. Phil rotated his entire body around. There was a young girl lifting up the pink bicycle, and she was staring at the both of them.
“Uh…well…we…”
“My friend was looking for something he forgot in the store. He thought they threw it out.” Phil knew he wouldn’t need his best poker face for this, but he remained more stoic that Bob.
“Whatever.”
“Say…we talked to a policeman, who told us about a missing girl on a pink bicycle…”
The young girl rolled her eyes. “That’s my mom, she’s awake a lot earlier than I was hoping. Usually she sleeps in on Saturdays when dad is out of town for business.”
“So, are you…running away?”
“No. Why do you care?”
“I just…I mean…”
“Look, I’ve been saving up money and I wanted to buy something, but my mom wouldn’t let me. So, I decided I’d bike over before she woke up.”
“So, you’re being looked for because you wanted to buy something?”
“My mom says I can’t have this, but I saved up for it fair and square. Since she’s awake, I’ll have to sneak it in. The bogus thing is she said I could buy whatever I wanted if I saved my own money. Now I’ll be grounded and I’ll have to be sneaky. You two didn’t call the police yet, did you.”
“Uh…no, no.” Bob said as he placed his hands behind his back.
“Good. Do me a small favor. You never saw me.” The girl started riding off up the street, and then back on the path Bob and Phil had walked down earlier.
Bob looked at Phil and shrugged. Phil gestured towards the front of the store. “C’mon. I have an idea.”
