Luke leaned into the shovel and scooped more snow off of the sidewalk. John stood by and watched while Luke sweated in the cold. John offered to help but Luke told him he could handle it. He knew John had his own shoveling to do later.
His cell phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was Ellie.
“Hey.”
“Who is doing this!” she cried. She was almost hysterical and Luke knew she either hadn’t listened to him or never got the message.
“Are you ok?”
“No I’m not! What is happening here? Who is William Smith and why would he send me that picture?”
“I don’t know. I got it too. I tried to keep you from seeing it. Did your mother give you my message?”
Ellie didn’t say anything for a minute and Luke could hear her crying. Finally she said, “Mom gave me the message. But I looked anyway. I know I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t help it. I wish you had tried to talk to me.”
“I did. Your mom wouldn’t let me. She said I upset you enough already and now it looks like I’ve done it again.”
“It’s not your fault. I was warned and I did it anyway.”
More silence as she cried.
“Me and John are out in front of my house,” Luke said. “Do you want to come over and talk about it?”
“Ok. I’ll be over there in a minute,” and she hung up.
“Ellie got the picture too?” John asked after Luke put the phone away.
“Yeah. She’s pretty upset. She’s on her way over.”
Luke bent with his shovel and worked on the sidewalk a little more while John watched and kept silent. When Luke rested on the handle for a minute John asked, “I can understand some sick bastard sending the picture to her, since it was her dog, but why did he send it to you?”
Luke shrugged. “You didn’t get a friend request right?”
“No,” John said, “and I asked Jimmy too. Nothing.”
“It’s weird isn’t it? Just me and Ellie. I wonder if her brother got one.”
“Here she comes. Ask her.”
Luke watched Ellie make her way up the street. She trudged through the snow with her hands shoved in the pockets of her coat and her head bent staring at her feet. Her short blonde hair peeked out from beneath the hood of her coat and her jeans were carefully tucked into her boots. Luke couldn’t help thinking she looked cute no matter what she was doing or wearing.
She looked up as she got closer and her face was red from crying, but her eyes were dry.
“Hey,” she said. “Shoveling snow?”
“Yeah. Dad never does it anymore. Are you ok?”
She nodded but kept quiet.
“We were wondering if Patrick got a friend request too?” John asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t think to ask him, and I really didn’t have time. I called Luke right away and then came straight here. Mom doesn’t even know I’m here.”
“I know this is upsetting for you but what was in your picture?” Luke asked.
“It was Bentley’s head.” Her eyes looked shiny and wet again and her voice was a whisper, but she held it together.
“Was there a caption on it?”
She nodded, clearly upset. “It said, ‘Tell no one, or you’re next.’”
“Are you sure? Nothing else?” Luke asked.
“Yes. Why?”
He looked at John and John shrugged. Luke said, “That’s not what mine said.”
“What did yours say?”
“Are you sure you want to hear?”
Her head nodded up and down but he could tell she wasn’t sure.
“It said, ‘This is what happens when you get lazy’ and it had a frown emoticon at the end.”
Her face went white and her mouth formed a little ‘oh’ as she took this in. “Who is doing this to me? Why are they doing this? It’s like they know everything about me.” A tear fell down one cheek and Luke dropped his shovel and went to her.
“It’ll be ok, Ellie.” He touched her sleeve and she looked down at the ground.
“I’m scared,” she said.
“We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“How will you stop it? We’re just kids.”
Luke looked at John for help. John said, “We stick together. Watch out for each other. We make sure we all know what’s going on. No secrets.”
Luke nodded. “No secrets.”
“But he said tell no one. He could be watching us right now and we wouldn’t even know it,” she said.
Luke unconsciously scanned the court and then focused back on Ellie. “Even if he is, he can’t do anything to us when we’re together.”
She didn’t look as convinced. “Maybe I should talk to my mom. Tell the police.”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“That would definitely provoke whoever it is. If it’s just us, he might leave us alone.”
“I guess,” she said. “This is a nightmare.”
“I agree,” John said. “But right now, he’s only done something to a dog. I know the dog meant a lot to you, Ellie, but he hasn’t actually done anything to a person.”
She looked mad. “Killing Bentley was like hurting me,” she snapped. “If he could do this to an animal, it’s a small step away from doing it to a person.”
“You’re right,” Luke said, “but what John means is he hasn’t done anything to a human yet and maybe we can keep it that way. Everybody liked Bentley and we’re all mad about what happened. We’re not trying to make it anything less than what it is, ok?”
She nodded, slowly, looking a little better. “I know you guys liked him too. I’m just upset.”
“You have every right to be,” Luke said softly. “I had nightmares for three nights after finding him.” He could feel his face redden but kept his eyes locked on hers. Her face softened and then she looked at him funny as she reached up and grabbed his arm.
“Thanks for being my friend,” she said, looking at Luke intensely and then shifting her gaze to John. “Both of you.”
Luke smiled. “It wouldn’t be so hard if you weren’t such a Goofy Goober.”
She smiled at that. It was the nickname they called each other in third grade.
When they met for the first time back when Luke first moved into the neighborhood, she told him he was a Goofy Goober and he’d gotten mad until he realized she’d been joking with him. They hadn’t called each other that for a while now and it brought back good memories.
“You’re the Goofy Goober,” she said, poking him in the shoulder.
“You are!” he said.
“What’s this Goofy Goober crap?” John asked.
Luke and Ellie smiled at each other, but Ellie said, “Nothing. Just a joke between us.”
“Do I need to leave you two alone?” he asked, grinning.
Luke felt his face redden again and Ellie looked away quickly. “No,” Luke said.
“I gotta get back home,” she said. “I didn’t tell my mom I was leaving.”
“We’ll walk you,” Luke said.
“I can walk myself.”
“Remember,” Luke said, “we stick together.”
She smiled. “Ok.”
They walked her home and at her doorstep Luke said, “No secrets. Let me know if anything comes up. Call me at anytime and I mean anytime. Day or night.”
She nodded once.
John said, “Ask your brother if he got the same thing.”
“Alright,” she said. “Thanks guys.”
They said bye and Luke and John headed home. Luke hoped they could keep her safe.
Ellie locked the door behind her and headed up the stairs to her room. She felt a little better after talking to Luke and John, but she was still frightened out of her mind. It took everything just to keep climbing the stairs. All she could think about was turning around and telling her mother the whole story. She even stopped midway and started to turn around, but Luke’s words rang in her ears. We stick together. No secrets. She still wasn’t convinced they were doing the right thing.
Walking down the hall she passed her brother Patrick’s closed door and remembered John and Luke wanted to know if Patrick got the same friend request. She started to knock, then heard a noise. Her brother was two years older than her, and at sixteen, was insanely private. He had warned her not to bother him when his door was shut and she knew he could be mean and cruel. She hoped one day he would grow out of his mean streak, but she knew it wasn’t any time soon. The way he chose to tell her about Bentley proved that. He was an ass and at times she hated him with all her heart.
She decided she didn’t care if he got mad, she needed to know. She knocked softly and waited. Usually he would yell through the door at the person who had the nerve to bother him in his domain, but the only thing she heard was the strange noise. She tried the doorknob and it turned so she pushed the door open slowly and peered in.
He was facing away from her seated at his desk and she gasped as she saw what he was watching on his computer screen. Two naked women engaged in something she’d heard about but never in her life had she imagined. He had headphones on and the noise was coming from them. He seemed to sense something behind him because he turned quickly, ripping the headphones off and pressing the power button on the monitor all at the same time. The look on his face showed shock and anger, and then he grinned.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked.
Her mouth hung open and she forced it shut, backing out of the doorway. She was too embarrassed to even remember what she had wanted and there was no way she was sticking around anyway. She shut the door, heard him laughing behind it, and headed for her room where she closed her door softly and sat on the edge of her bed. It had been a hard week.