𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 / 𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬 | 𝟎𝟐

"They're square groupers, like narco square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope asks, looking for more details and hoping he can draw it out of JJ by asking more questions. JJ tears his eyes away from me to look at Pope before answering him.

"Yeah, man." Apparently asking more questions doesn't really get much more detail out of JJ, because that's all he says.

"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie," Kie says as she shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

"Okay, what does this square grouper look like? Specifically?" Pope asks further, still digging for details.

"You weren't there, bro!" JJ says, his voice getting more and more anxious.

"Apparently, you don't know what to look for." Pope and JJ keep getting louder and louder as they continue on.

"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the entire time. I was under duress, okay?" JJ wheezes out. I place my hand on his arm, and his attention turns toward me. As he looks deep into my eyes, he pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing on. "But I can tell you...I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming..." JJ breathes out, turning his eyes and attention back towards Pope, "that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

Out of my peripheral vision, I see John B get the compass out of his pocket. He stares at it before looking up at me. As he walks over to me, I stand up straighter, no longer leaning against the wall.

"What are you thinking?" I ask when he leans against the wall next to me, my voice just above a whisper.

"I don't know. She said Scooter didn't have it."

"Yeah."

"Then why was it in his boat? It just doesn't make sense. And why were those guys looking for it?" John B says, thinking through his thoughts out loud.

"I don't know. Maybe they thought it was a different compass. Or maybe Ms. Lana thought it was. It might not have anything to do with this one," I point out, although I don't quite believe what I'm telling him.

"It still doesn't explain why Scooter had it, though. I just don't get it."

I pause for a second before deciding to try to change the subject, no longer wanting to think about Ms. Lana's warning to us. "Do you remember what they looked like?"

"Not really. I mean JJ's right. They did look kinda burly."

"Yeah." I nod, closing my eyes as I try to recall any more details about them. "They had dark hair, too. That's all I remember, though." I open my eyes and look up at John B, who's biting his lip as he thinks.

"I just don't get why they would be looking for this," he says, changing the subject back as he shows me the compass. I stare at it for a few seconds, hoping that an idea will come to me. And it does.

"The office," I say suddenly, my head whipping up to look at John B, my eyes wide with discovery.

"What?" John B asks, not yet understanding what I'm talking about.

"You guys, the office," I say to everyone this time as I walk toward the middle of the porch. "Our dad. Our dad's office. He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." I swiftly turn away from them and walk inside the house. I can tell that everyone is following me when I hear the sound of four pairs of feet shuffling behind me.

"We used to laugh at him like he was gonna find it," John B adds as he walks right behind me.

"Yeah, but now that he's gone, we've just kinda..." I stop in front of the door and breathe a sigh before searching my pockets for my keys, "we just left it as he kept it."