Chapter 3 - The Purple Word
The police moved fast after that.
Not movie fast.
Real fast.
Questions.
Forms.
A second cruiser.
A detective.
A request for every camera facing the street.
June sat beside me eating a blueberry muffin in tiny bites while Emily answered questions in the back office.
“Do you know the purple word?” June asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
“What if I guess it?”
“You won’t.”
“Is it grape?”
She almost smiled.
“No.”
“Plum?”
“No.”
“Purple dinosaur?”
“That’s two words.”
“Strict rules.”
She nodded seriously.
Then she leaned closer.
“The man knew my school.”
My smile disappeared.
“What do you mean?”
“He said, ‘Your mom asked me to get you from Roosevelt.’”
“Did he know your name?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He said, ‘June Carter.’”
I stood so fast the chair scraped.
Detective Mara Collins came over.
“What?”
I told her.
Emily emerged from the back room.
Her face crumpled.
“He knew the school?”
June nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Monday.”
Emily stared.
“You asked if I could take the bus.”
June’s voice shrank.
“I said a man was walking.”
Emily covered her mouth.
I understood immediately.
The conversation had happened.
Just not clearly enough.
Parents hear hundreds of fragments.
Kids assume adults understand the dangerous ones.
Collins crouched.
“June, did the man ever say the secret word?”
“No.”
“Did he ask about it?”
“Yes.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
June looked confused.
“He said, ‘Your mom told me there’s a word. Is it violet?’”
Emily stumbled backward into a chair.
Collins asked, “Was violet the word?”
Emily whispered, “It used to be.”
“Used to?”
“I changed it six months ago.”
“Who knew the old word?”
Emily looked at me.
Then at the detective.
“Three people.”
“Who?”
“My sister.”
She swallowed.
“My mother.”
Another breath.
“And Darren.”
Collins stared at her.
“You told us Darren Pike was dead.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“He is.”
“Then explain.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Darren wasn’t June’s father.”
“Okay.”
“He was my husband.”
“We know.”
“And seven years ago, he didn’t die.”
No one moved.
June looked at her mother.
May you like
Emily whispered the rest.
“He disappeared.”
