The Girl With the Red Hair

XVII. Snack Sized Gate

sorry for the late update haha
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"What exactly were you all doing at the lake?" Chief Powell questioned the four freshmen. The Wheeler, Henderson, and Sinclair parents were scattered in the Wheeler's living room as their children were being questioned by the cops.

  "Uh... it's- it's complicated-" Dustin looked at his friends nervously.

  "We were... we were just going for a walk," Max shrugged and the other three nodded in agreement.

"A walk? At 9:00 p.m.?" Officer Callahan repeated skeptically.

  "To the lake," Benny reasoned.

  "We were gonna... take a little swim," Dustin squeakily added. "Little night swim."

  "Dusty..." his mother frowned, "someone was just murdered there."

  "Yeah, we.. we didn't realize that until we got there," Dustin let out a nervous laugh.

  "That's why we didn't swim," Lucas leaned forward.

  "And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?"
Mrs. Wheeler questioned.

"No."

"Yes."

The four went silent for a few moments before Lucas spoke up, "We're not sure."

  "She was there, and then she left," Benny tried to cover up the mistake made by his friends.

"It's all a little... confusing."

  "That's when you guys came," Lucas motioned to the cops in front of him.

  "Right, and then they dared me to say what I said," Max gave the adults an apologetic look.

"Oh, yeah," Lucas smiled nervously. "About the killer," he and Dustin laughed sheepishly.

   "You're lucky you didn't get shot," Mr. Wheeler shook his head.

"Have you had any contact with Eddie?" Chief Powell calmly asked.

"That psycho.. freak killer?" Dustin spoke as if he hated each word that came out of his mouth. "God, no."

   "Nope, absolutely not,"

  "We haven't heard from him in ages."

"We barely know the guy," they scoffed as they looked around the room nervously.

"Oh, that's a bunch of bull," Erica stepped forward with her arms crossed.

  "Erica!" Her parents scolded.

"I mean, you realize they're lying. The whole couch is on fire," Erica threw her hands up in annoyance.

  "Erica."

  "Just the facts," she shrugged.

  "Are you lying to these policemen, Dusty?"
Mrs. Henderson gave her son a worried look.

"No!"

  "Lying to cops is a crime, son," Mr. Sinclair tilted his head to the side as he looked at Lucas.

"I'm not lying!"

"The fire is consuming us," Erica scoffed and Dustin gave her a warning look.

"It was the wrong place at the wrong time," Benny defended.

"Threaten them with a little jail time. Maybe that'll loosen their lips," Mr. Wheeler leaned back in his couch.