JJ and a Routledge

Kooks Always Win

I thought we were going home or something, but no, we (more of Kiara) decided to go get Shoupe from his office, and to the construction site. "Look, it was right here and this is where that maniac claimed his next victim. Right there." Kiara explains to Shoupe. I look over at him and I can tell he doesn't buy a word. 

"Uh-huh. His next victim?" He looks at us like we're ridiculous, and we kinda do look ridiculous. We have no evidence. 

"Yeah." Kiara nods. 

"Right. How long ago did you say this happened?" As Shoupe says this JJ was examining where Gavin was standing when he got shot, looking for blood maybe but the rain would've washed it away. 

"Forty-five minutes ago, Shoupe," JJ grunts as he stands back up. I'm surprised Shoupe is writing it down. 

"Ok... and so Ward Cameron just popped one off and shot him." Shoupe looks around at us again. 

"Yes." Kiara sighs. 

"Execution style? And then cleaned it all up in 45 minutes?" Yeah, we looked really dumb now. 

"Yeah," Kiara tells him. 

"Obviously," Pope adds in. 

"We filmed the entire thing," Kiara exclaims. 

This perks Shoupe's interest, "You filmed it?" 

I finally decide to join the conversation, "Yes, but we can't show it to you because Kiara screamed bloody murder, so we had to quickly run down a ladder back onto the ground and Kiara stepped on JJ's hand, making JJ kick Pope in the face, making them both fall to the ground and for Pope's nerd camera to break." I don't think I took a breath the whole time I ranted. 

"It was a telephoto and we needed to get a long-distance image, and...and... I fell and it broke so the video is basically unusable." Pope explains. We watch as Shoupe shakes his head, yeah it's really over for us. 

"So the dog ate your homework?" Shoupe rolls his eyes. 

Kiara does as well, as she fights back. What's the point? "No, Shoupe I know it sounds like--" Shoupe cuts her off. 

"Look, I don't know what you kids expect me to do with this. You drag me out here, in the middle of the night for a whole lot of nothing. Except for some crazy stories about how Ward Cameron's out on a killing spree." 

"We're not making this up!" JJ yells at him. 

"It's not a random killing spree! Gavin was his pilot!" Pope tells Shoupe. "Okay, he was paying him hush money because he was there on the tarmac that day." For a second, it looked like Shoupe was considering believing us. 

"Gavin was blackmailing Ward because he had the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin." Kiara waves her hands around like a crazy person. 

"Then he called him here and tried to pay him off. But it wasn't enough so then he shot him!" JJ finished off. 

"Exactly," Pope confirms. 

JJ continues, "Alright? With the murder weapon!" 

Shoupe looks confused. "How do you know that?" 

Of course, Kiara exposed Pope, "Pope did that thing with his phone., He, like put it in his car and.."  Kiara was basically talking shit. 

Pope joins in, to explain. "I heard their whole conversation." 

"You wiretapped him?" Shoupe accuses. 

"Yes. Yes, he did but that's nothing compared to murdering people!" I burst out. 

"Is that bad?" Kiara asks. 

"Stop. Just stop." Shoupe gestures to all of us. "I've had enough." 

"What? What are you talking about Shoupe? You gonna look the other way?" JJ bursts out as Shoupe turns his back to us, walking away. 

"Have you ever heard about the boy who cried wolf?" Shoupe exclaims, throwing his hands up. 

"Why would we make this up!?" Kiara cries out. 

"Why can't you just believe us for once?" JJ complains, I rub his back, trying to comfort him. 

"Waste of my godamn time," Shoupe mutters as we all descend the stairs. 

"Why would we lie?" Kiara continues, "I know it sounds crazy. I know that!" Shoupe gets outside at that point, not listening to a word she's saying. 

Shoupe then yells at his crew, "All right, there's nothing up there. False alarm, let's all go home. Pack it up." He gestures to the group of people around us. 

"No, no. Please don't go home." Kiara cries out, "No, why would we make this up?" She says, again. "Can you just do your job for like 20 minutes!" She screams. 

"Hey. I... I know..." He hushes Kiara, "I know you're upset. And I know you think your friend was innocent." 

"He is." I bark back. 

"But you weren't there," Shoupe tells me. The worst mistake of my life was deciding to leave the tarmac that day. We all should have stayed, but we only cared about ourselves and what would happen if we went to jail. "The only actual witnesses who are above ground say the exact opposite. All right?" I almost told him John B was alive, but I couldn't. It could ruin everything. It's funny because Shoupe was acting like he would've believed John B's word if he was here, 'alive.' "And both of them have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you right now." Shoupe focuses on Kiara and me, "I say you two's art project on Ward's wall." I throw my hands up. 

"Oh come on, they need to calm their asses down. They go around killing people and you get mad at us for painting on a wall that they could easily fix?" I tell Shoupe, I wish he would just believe us. 

"Do not do that again." He points a finger specifically at me this time. "Alright? Gonna make things a lot harder for the both of us." I was trying to find the hidden meaning in that sentence but it could've meant a lot of things. "Go home." He turns his back to us again, walking to his car. 

Kiara tries one more time, "At least... At least look for him! Someone died tonight!" She cries out. 

Shoupe replies, "Get on home to your parents." 

We start to walk off, I was surprised JJ was talking, I was so angry I was stuck in silence. "I told you this was gonna happen. Like your the one that had to drop the camera." JJ gestures to Pope. That's when I notice Pope's strange demeanor. 

"It was your fault?" Kiara yells at JJ. This causes me to immediately defend him. 

"I've said it before and I will say it again, if you didn't scream at Ward we wouldn't have had to rush down the stairs in the first place. Not to mention, you started the ladder domino effect. Yes, it wasn't all your fault but it wasn't all on JJ either, I mean JJ was the least amount of the problem if anything." 

"No, it was JJ's fault!" She screams again. "Why do you always take his side?" She argues. 

Pope finally turns around. "Hey! Hey! We're not out of this yet. We can still go get the gun." I look at him like he's absolutely lost it. He stares at the drain the murder weapon fell down. 

"Like... right now?" I ask him, "Because I've been ready for bed." I quickly get the memo that it will not be happening today because we walk right past it, thank God.