That evening, everyone was there, even Patrick. Luke wasn’t sure if Patrick was still sore at them and he guessed it didn’t matter. This was more important than any petty differences they may have had.
All the kids knew about most of the stuff, but the Facebook friend William Smith, and the text messages and phone calls Luke and Ellie had gotten were all new to them. ‘George,’ the pool dummy, drew a few laughs but most were shocked at how the dummy had been traded for a real dead boy.
“That must have been a shocker for you guys,” Ralph said.
“I about crapped my pants,” John said.
Luke’s older sister, Deana, looked mad. “I think you guys are stupid,” she said. “The police need to know about this and you idiots are keeping it from them.”
“Didn’t you hear a single word I said?” Luke asked. “He threatened Ellie and me, and said that if we told anyone, he would kill us. Don’t you think we would have done something by now if we didn’t have that hanging over our heads?”
“The police can protect you,” Deana said.
“Like they protected Paul?” Alan shot back.
“Paul was out all by himself. No one could have helped him,” Deana said.
“That’s right,” Luke said. “Paul was out all by himself and that’s what we need to make sure doesn’t happen to the rest of us. We stick together. Nobody goes anywhere alone. Nobody talks about what we know unless it’s with each other. Nobody keeps any secrets from the rest of the group. Something happens, you tell us.”
“I still don’t like it,” Deana said.
“Deana, we’re trusting you,” Ellie said. “Luke didn’t want to tell you all because he thought the group couldn’t keep it to themselves. Please don’t prove him right. We need help, and we wanted to make sure everybody else was safe. I convinced him to break the silence, but if you involve any adults at this point, you could be hurting your brother. And me.”
Deana was quiet for a minute, then finally said, “Alright, I’ll keep quiet for now. But if I feel like you guys are being dumber than normal, I’ll involve the police.”
“Come to us first,” Luke said. “If we go to the police, it will be a group decision. Ok?”
Everybody agreed, even Deana.
“Now that’s out of the way,” Jimmy said, “let’s play.”
Luke thought it had been the best game they had played in a long time.