Speed Dating with a Book - Contestant #8

Meet Contestant #8, a Psychological Suspense!

A bit about this contestant:
Contestant #8 will soon be a Peacock Original TV Series! But don't let those lofty credentials fool you. This contestant is just looking for someone to love...if they don't murder you first. Would you be able to clear away some of their inner conflict?

The first words they'll say to you (a snippet from the first page):
The bike lay on the side of the road beneath a gray oak, the handlebars at an odd, jutted angle as if it had been thrown with angry force.
      It was early on a Saturday morning, the fifth day of a heat wave. More than forty bushfires continued to blaze doggedly across the state. Six regional towns had “evacuate now” warnings in place, but here in suburban Sydney the only danger was to asthma sufferers, who were advised to stay indoors. The smoke haze that draped the city was a malicious yellow-gray, as thick as a London fog.
      The empty streets were silent apart from the subterranean roar of cicadas. People slept after restless, hot nights of jangled dreams, while early risers yawned and thumb-scrolled their phone screens.
      The discarded bike was shiny-new, advertised as a "vintage lady's bike": mint green, seven-speed, with a tan leather saddle and a white wicker basket. The sort of bike you were meant to imagine riding in the cool, crisp air of a European mountain village, wearing a soft beret rather than a safety helmet, a baguette tucked under one arm.
        Four green apples lay scattered on the dry grass beneath the tree as if they had spilled and rolled from the bike basket.