𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒, 𝗉𝗈𝗉𝖾 𝗁𝖾𝗒𝗐𝖺𝗋𝖽

8: 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚎

Pope and the sisters find themselves at the Chateau on the porch as they listened to JJ explain what happened with him and John B at Lana Grubbs household. Y/n sat beside Pope on the couch, them and Kie listening to the blonde.

"And then we were right outside like this. And all we hear is just, "Bam! Bam! Bam!" Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him, like-" JJ suddenly stops himself. "Wait, first off, look at this shit."

The blonde walks over to the sisters and Pope, bending down before ruffling the specks of paint out of his hair.

"That's dandruff, disgusting." Kie comments.

"Look at all that." JJ points at the paint on the floor. "Alright? That's paint. At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death."

"Oh, okay, so you guys saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Y/n questions, JJ nodding in response.

"Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report?" Pope lists, asking.

"Burly." JJ blurts.

"Burly?" Pope repeats, questioning with a raised brow.

"That's not very helpful." Kie states.

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers... they're square groupers." JJ explains.

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope asks.

JJ nods as he takes a hit of his vape. "Yeah, man."

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie states.

"Okay, what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" Pope questions. "Because apparently you don't know what to look for!"

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" JJ exclaims. "But I can tell you... I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man. It's a heavy vibe right now, okay? I'm not liking this very much."

"Okay, why would they want the compass?" Y/n asks.

"That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope states before pausing, looking up at the Routledge boy. "No offense, John B. I know it's in your family-"

"The office." John B interrupts.

"Whose office?" Y/n questions.

"My dad's." John B informs as he walks into the house, the rest following. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research. We used to laugh at him all the time about it, like he was actually gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it."

"Yeah, for when he gets back." Kie replies, nodding her head when they stop outside of the office.

Y/n, Pope, and JJ all exchange a glance at her words, to which Kie notices, silently telling them not to say anything. John B, however, doesn't notice this as he unlocks the door to his father's office.

"I've slept over here like six hundred times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope informs while they walk in.

John B grabs a pin board, placing it on a table. "Here, look. This is the original owner, right here."

"Okay. Robert Q. Routledge, 1880 to 1920." Y/n reads, pointing at the picture. "There's the lucky compass, right there."

"Actually, um... he was shot after he bought it." John B awkwardly announces. "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry. He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass was given to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam."