Blue

7. The yellow hoodie guy

The morning air was moist and sticky and Rylee could feel it in her skin and hair. She studied the reflection in the glass door staring back at her, as a distinct earthly smell in the air indicated the impending rains.

As soon as the clock struck 9, the sign on the glass door flipped to OPEN.

Rylee Thompson braced herself one last time before entering 'The Cryptic Quill'. As soon as she set foot inside, the sweet smell of freshly baked croissants and donuts besieged her olfactory senses. A man wearing a wizard hat was preparing five different kinds of coffee on the counter towards her right, and the woman at the reception sat with a wand in her hand.

"Welcome to the Cryptic Quill, Quintflake's first and only magic themed bakery- cafe" the lady spoke like a pre-programmed robot.

Rylee was still busy gaping at the floating candles and the flasks filled with colourful potions kept all around, along with some golden cauldrons and cards present here and there.

She flashed a perfunctory smile at the lady "Hii, I'm Rylee. I, uh.. live in the house on the other side of the road. And, I need the last week's footage from the CCTV camera installed right outside your cafe...please."

From the looks of the nauseous expression glued to the lady's face, her answer was quite obvious.
"I'm sorry are you working on a murder case or something?" she rolled her eyes and scrutinized Rylee from top to bottom "Doesn't look like that to me"

Rylee exhaled deeply as she had already anticipated this situation, and now she knew exactly how to get out if it. Yes, it was the time to play the privilege card.

"Oh well, I guess you didn't hear me" Rylee slyly smirked at the lady with all the confidence inside of her, stocked up for moments like this

"I'm Rylee Thompson" she said with a lot of extra stress on Thompson. "Daughter of Chief Detective Sebastian Thompson, who's...you know, been called to this town to solve the case of the serial killer."

Rylee paused for a moment only to devour the lady's reaction, like a purely evil psychopath. She rarely ever leveraged her one innate super power- her privilege, but whenever she was compelled to use it (under what she called 'extreme circumstances') the experience was always utterly worth it.

"We live in that luxurious mansion you see, over there...and we have been receiving some strange letters in our mailbox." she reached for the three letters kept in her handbag, all of which se had received this week.

They all just appeared in her backyard mailbox out of nowhere just like the first time, and were all dispatched 30 years ago. By now, Rylee was dead sure that this was some nasty prank and she wasn't going to rest unless she found the sicko (Rylee's words) who's doing this.

"Ohh no" the lady was now impetuously going through the files on her monitor, while occasionally rummaging the drawers attached to her desk. She looked up at Rylee and whispered "Are those life-threatening letters?? From the SeRiAL KiLlERR?!" The panic in her voice manifested itself in the form of the extra stretches.

"Probably" Rylee raised her brows highlighting how important this was "But it could also be a prank, like someone trying to intimidate us"

The lady nodded her head and urgently dialled on her black and pink telephone "Hola, sí,....necesito la grabación de la cámara frontal.... la semana pasada,..si bein ... es urgente, vale?"

"Ma'am I've talked to the authorities..but you'll have to wait for a day" she let out an anxious sigh "I'm sorry this is the most I can contribute."

Rylee was kinda disappointed with that but she didn't show it. She was already in the last stage of using her privilege card- the one that gave her pangs of guilt for using it.
However, receiving those letters was very exasperating and she was looking for an immediate solution.