"I'm falling too deep.
without you, I don't
want to sleep."
ONCE THE GROUP ARRIVED at the restaurant, Kie was bombarded with questions by her parents, but eventually got them off of her back.
“Just for the record. I never doubted them.” JJ grinned, following Red, Pope, and Kie out the back door of the wreck.
Kie laughed softly, “I owe you five bucks.”
“Hey Kiara, I do need those setups done by five!” Kie’s mom called from inside the restaurant screen as the teens continued heading out towards the dock.
“You know there are other people that work here.” Kie hollered back, Red letting out a playful scoff, knowing well that her dad would never in a million years let Red talk to him like that.
“But ain’t none of them my children!”
“I feel that.” Pope chuckled, sitting down on a bench on the dock. “On a deep, emotional level I understand that.”
JJ made his way to sit around the group, “So are we going to the Bahamas or what?”
“Dude, there’s no way we're getting to the Bahamas.” Pope reminded him, stating the obvious truth.
“John B is gonna get nabbed sooner or later so if we're gonna clear his name, we need to have had it done by yesterday.”
Red sighed, instantly reminded of her and Sarah’s conversation only weeks earlier. “Sarah’s in pretty deep too. If they find them, not only is John B gonna be in jail, but Sarah’s gonna have to go home with her psychopath murderous brother. So we need the plan to save both of them from a life of hell.”
“I’ll tell you how we do it,” JJ stated confidently, Pope giving him an unsure look.
“So you have it all planned out?”
“I do,” JJ told him, putting his knee up on the bench in front of him. “We kidnap Rafe.”
“I’m sorry. What?” Red asked, just as unsure as Pope was, and likely Kie.
“We kidnap Rafe,” JJ told them, listing out his plan.
“That’s a felony.” Red pointed out as JJ continued.
“Tie him up.”
“Also a felony.”
“And stitch a gun in his mouth, and just wait till he starts squawking.”
“And assault.” Red finished. “Yeah, all of those things are illegal.”
“Yeah.” Pope agreed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, so how exactly do you plan on clearing John B’s name from a prison cell?”
“Alright, Well, what do you got, Pope?” JJ sat down. “I was just trying to keep it simple. You know, one- and we’re done.”
“Guys, all we need is a material witness,” Pope explained, Red snapped her fingers, an idea popping into her brain. “We saw Ward’s plane fly right over our heads. We need it, with gold inside. He didn’t fly. Somebody else was there on the tarmac, They saw Peterkin get murdered.”
“Bennie was there too, but she’s made it pretty clear that she’s not going to testify against Rafe, even if it means helping John B, she’s too loyal.” Red sighed. “So you mean… the pilot?”
“Yes! We just need to find whoever that was, and get them to confess! On record.”
“How do we do that?” Kie asked.
“I don’t know…”
“I do,” Red smirked. “I happen to know someone whose dad works for the same airline flying out. But… he’s pretty new. He didn’t get the job until after Peterkin was murdered.”
“Pray tell?”
“Max Fischer.” Red blurted, the entire group going silent. “Look, I know it sounds weird, but he can help! He can get us into the records of who was flying that day. We can trust him, He already knows about the gold.”
“You told someone about the gold?!” Asked JJ, sounding genuinely surprised that she told someone.
Red rolled her eyes. “Yes, I told someone, JJ. But to be fair, I thought we were kinda donezo and that we had lost the gold for good. Plus, he doesn’t need to get any of it, he’s just gonna… run an errand.”
“Fine… but this better work.”
Red nodded confidently. “It will. C’mon, I’ll text him to cut class, and he’ll help us. It’ll take like 2 hours… Maximum.”
“Okay. JJ, you go with Red to go find Max, and We'll figure something out once we catch our guy.” Kie agreed.
Red jumped down from the ledge, Pope tossed her the keys to his dad’s car, and she began walking in front of JJ down the dock, through The Wreck, and into the parking lot.
The pair hopped into the car, JJ in the passenger seat, and Red in the driver's seat, twisting the key into the hole.
At first, the car started in an awkward silence between the two who didn’t know the right thing to say. ‘Hey! Sorry I slept with half the island while you still loved me.’ or ‘Hi! Yeah, sorry for distancing myself from you because I didn’t want to lose you again.’
“So…” JJ finally spoke up, his head facing his hands which lie in his lap. “How are… you.”
Red sighed sarcastically. “Wonderful.”
JJ rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so stubborn. I’m just trying to talk to you.”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve been avoiding me for the last two weeks.” Red snapped her fingers, facing his slightly. “Oh wait, that’s exactly what happened.”
“Okay- Me? I didn’t avoid you at all. You were the one walking around teh school barely talking to us.” JJ defended, facing out the window.
“Yeah, JJ, What do you want me to say? Sorry for distancing myself, you happy?”
JJ sighed. “No. You could’ve at least said ‘hi’ or something. It didn’t matter.”
“It wasn’t about me not wanting to speak to you! It was about you and I didn’t want to push you into talking to me. You needed to heal, and so did I.”
“So you just… left? Ran away and never looked back?”
“Yes because that’s what friends do!” Red raised her voice, gripping the wheel tighter. “I was trying to keep everyone safe.”
“Friends? Friends?” JJ scoffed. “Is that what you thought we were? Because I was under the impression we were more than that.”
“We were, JJ! We were. But you left before I did. It was your idea to call it quits, and you promised you weren’t going anywhere. Then you left. You left when you promised you’d stay. Weren’t you the one who said that I was worth staying for?” Red’s eyes glassed over with tears threatening to spill, JJ went silent, glaring at the girl.
JJ looked over at her. “You said it yourself. Maybe I needed to heal too.”
Red scoffed coldly. “Yet you had no problem sleeping with half the islands to what, cope?”
JJ looked down once again, feeling guilty that she knew. Yet it only hit him hard when she told him what he had been doing.
Red whisked her hair in front of her face, trying to hide if she did indeed end up shedding a tear or two. But she never did. She just kept driving until she reached Max’s house where she had agreed to meet him.
Max rushed outside of the house, almost sitting in the front, but instead moved to the back when he saw JJ in the seat. He was confused, but he didn’t ask questions considering JJ was silent anyways. What a rare occasion.
Max moved his head rapidly, in question. “Yeah? I cut like… 4 classes for this so… it better be good.”
“I need your help.” Red slightly bit her bottom lip, butting the car into park.
“Oh God, which hand is it this week, pal?”
Red chuckled at his stupidity. “You think you can help get us into the history of flights at your dad’s airline?”
“I’m sorry… that what?”
“The History of Flight. There should be like recorded times planes took off, and who flew them somewhere in the airline records, right?”
Max shrugged. “UH- I don’t know. I’m not a pilot.”
“I know you're not a pilot, Max.” Red face-palmed, laughing lightly. “I just need you to help get us into the office where they store that type of information. Do you think your dad would have it?”
“I mean, I’m guessing. But I don’t know where the key is.”
Red hopped out of the car. “Then I guess we’re about to find out.”
Max and JJ soon jumped out of the car behind the girl, following her into the house, guessing which door the office was, and opening it. Inside was a file cabinet, locked shut.
“I’ll go try to find the key,” Max told him before Red pulled him back into the room.
“It’s a combination, dipshit.” She laughed, earning an ‘oh’ from he friend. “Got any ideas on what the combo is?”
“Try my birthday. March 14, 2007.”
Red did so, entering incorrect digits into the lock. “Nope. Anything else.”
“October 9, 1998.”
Red entered the code, the lock coming undone. “What date is that?”
“Wedding day.”
JJ assisted Red in looking through the files before coming across one reading ‘dates/history’ in messy letters. Red silently celebrated before pulling the file out and looking for the exact date when the plane took off. She skimmed her finger along the page, coming to a final name. ‘Gavin Barnstead’
“Gottcha,” Red muttered, pulling out her phone and sending Pope a picture of the name before putting the file back in the drawer. “Thanks, Max. We appreciate it.”
“Wait, wait, wait! You never told me what this was for.” Max stopped the two from walking out of the door.
Red shook her head. “Look, It’s top secret. If I tell you… I’m afraid I’d have to kill you.”
Max smiled. “Sure. Now, what’s it really for?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Does it have anything to do with… uh.” Max rubbed his fingers on one hand together, resembling money. “Gold?”
“Sorry Max, A lady never tells,” Red smirked, peeking her head through the door at him. “Catch you later, and thanks.”
Red got back into the car, surprised at how fast of a trip it was, but was instantly reminded of the conversation Red and JJ had had minutes previous and brushed the silence off on the way to pick Kie and Pope up.
“Nice work, Red. You are officially the second-place genius of the pogues now.” Pope half-complemented, fist-bumping Red from the front seat as she climbed into the back beside JJ.
“Second place? But that’s the first loser!” Red playfully complained.
“You’re just not first place yet, Red. Sorry.” Pope told her, breathing in through his teeth.
“Wah, wah, wah.”
Kie put the car out of the park and began driving towards Gavin’s house.
“Red, pass me the pods.” Pope requested, putting his head back to where Red sat, who passed him the AirPods.
“That was a weird sentence, Pope.” Red slightly chuckled. “Steer clear of that word next time.”
“Now, if this guy was flying planes for Ward, he’s gotta be pretty tight-lipped.” Pope reasoned, bringing the matter back into account.
“So then direct approach gets my vote,” JJ announced, cocking the gun confidently.
“JJ, no.”
“No! What?”
“Put the gun down, man.”
“We gotta keep this simple, guys, or else we're never gonna get John B off!” JJ defended, tucking the gin back away.
“Or… we just tickle the wire,” Pope told them, holding up Red’s AirPods in one hand. “I plant my phone in his car. And we listen on Red’s AirPods.” Pope put teh phone in front of Kie. “Say something.”
“Something.”
“Okay, we have audio,” Pope reported, taking the AirPods back out of his ears. And pulling in front of Gavin’s house. “Okay, I think that's his house over there. Alright, honk or… yell or something if you see anything suspicious.”
“Don’t do anything dangerous,” Kie told him.
“C’mon. I’m not JJ!” With that, Pope exited the car, stopping in front of Red who also got out of the car. “Woah, what do you think you’re doing.”
“What? You can’t fly this one solo. I’ll be your wingman.” Red smiled happily, Pope nodding.
“Hey. Careful.” JJ told both of them, more specifically Red from inside the car.
“Yup,” Red replied shortly, walking away with Pope.
The duo snuck into the bushes, following closely behind one another. Pope and Red-backed up against a wall, Pope peeking his head out and whipping it back.
“What?” Red whisper-yelled, almost looking at herself, but Pope pushed her head back.
“He’s on the porch,” Pope reported, earning a nod from teh blonde beside him.
Pope looked again, then gave Red the ‘clear’ signal and sneakily walked out into the driveway where Gavin’s car sit.
He slowly opened the door, before Red pulled him back behind the car after seeing Gavin the window in front of the car and the pair.
Once Gavin was gone, Pope leaned into the car, Red staying on the lookout and making sure Gavin didn’t turn around.
Eventually, Pope climbed back out of the car, quietly closing the door behind him before running out to where JJ and Kie were in the car and climbing in.
“Okay, phase one is complete,” Pope reported looking back to Kie and JJ who seemed quiet, and Red who made sure to keep a good distance from JJ. “Everything– We all good?”
“Never better, Pope,” Red replied sarcastically smiling at him but playing it off with a laugh. “But, Bennie’s school lets out at 2:30, it’s 3:00, we shouldn’t leave her out of this.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point.” Kie agreed, nodding her head and beginning to drive again. “We can go pick her up from her house?”
Red nodded, handing Kie her phone which had Bennie’s address on it. “Yup, I’m pretty sure.”
Kie glanced at Red’s phone screen and nodded, handing it back to her and driving to Bennie’s house, parking in front of it.
“Here, I’ll go in.” Red volunteered, opening the car door and exiting. Red approached the house, knocking lightly on the door. Soon, Bennie appeared in front of her, looking confused. “Hey! Have you checked your phone?”
Bennie pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Um… no? Why?”
Red chuckled lightly. “See for yourself.”
Bennie’s eyes and face lit up with just a couple of taps on her phone. She covered her mouth, looking up at Red as if asking ‘Are you serious?’ to which Red just nodded with a wide grin.
“Oh, My God! He’s alive. I knew it!” Bennie jumped up and down, trying to hold back tears. “I knew it, Red. I was right!”
Red was well aware that Bennie had been concocting theories about how John B and Sarah could have gotten out of the storm. She had a diagram set up in her garage somewhere. She never gave up hope on trying to look for them, and she was right.
“Yeah, Yeah you were,” Red repeated, Bennie yucked her phone back away, whipping it off her face. “Now, We know how we can serve justice without snitching on Rafe. We need to clear John B’s name, but you might not like the outcome.”
Bennie’s smile immediately dropped. “Wait, wait, wait, you’re not going to lock Rafe up? Are you?”
Red sighed, “Well… we don’t know. But we found someone who knows and saw Peterkin get shot, Pope connected my AirPods to Gavin, the pilot’s, phone. We can do the right thing, Bennie. We can bring John B back!”
Bennie shook her head, facing down. “No! You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Red had always been confused about how much Bennie and Rafe cared for eachother, Bennie still loved Rafe even after he tried to shoot her. Talk about loyalty.
“Because It’s not his fault!”
“But he still killed the sheriff!”
“I know! And that’s not right. But I can’t be a part of locking him up even if it means getting my brother back. There has to be another way.” Bennie sighed, gripping the door handle. “And if you don’t find another way, then I’m out.”
“Bennie, there is no other way. You’re going to have to choose between your brother, the one who truly cares about you, and Rafe, all her does is manipulate you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Just please, find another way.” Bennie pleaded, closing the door in front of Red.
Red sighed, walking back to the car where her friends patiently waited. She opened the door and shut it rather loudly with a grunt.
“She’s not coming?” Pope asked, turning around and realizing the seat in between Red and JJ was still empty, Bennie not sitting in it.
Red shook her head, looking down at her hands. “Nope. She made it pretty clear that she’s not going to help us unless we find a way to protect Rafe and John B. So that’s that.”
“Really? She’s not willing to go against Rafe- who tried to shoot her, but the way for her brother?” Kie asked, slightly annoyed by Bennie’s undying loyalty to Rafe even after he killed someone. “That’s horrible.”
“I know. But I’m not sure she’s going to change her mind anytime soon. So, let’s just get on with it, shall we?”
Pope nodded, starting the car up again. “Hi, ho silver.”
By the time it was dark, the four teens gradually arrived near Gavin’s house, sitting in the car.
“C’mon why does she get to tickle?” JJ whined, wondering why Kie was the one who got to speak to Gavin.
“She’s the best tickler,” Pope responded with a slight grin.
“Should I do an accent?” Asked Kie before punching in Gavin’s number that was connected to Red’s AirPods.
“Definitely disguise your voice,” Pope replied playfully.
“Disguise my voice how? Like how would you like me to talk?” Kie mimicked a solid British accent, Red covered her mouth in laughter.
“Not like that.” JJ shook his head.
“Not like that, no,” Pope added.
“I thought it was perfect.” Red teased, twirling her finger in front of Kie’s face who muttered ‘Shut up’ and slapped her finger away.
“Do Batman.” Pope requested, kie looking at him seriously and changing her tone.
“Batman,” Kie repeated in a deep voice. Red personally preferred her British one, but something was better than nothing.
“There you go.”
“Spot on.”
Pope handed Kie the phone, who gently took it from his hands and pressed the green call button.
“Hello?” Gavin’s voice rang through the phone, and Red perked up.
“Hello,” Kie replied in her Batman tone, shaking her head rapidly. “I can’t.” She whispered.
“Hello?” Gavin repeated, he must have thought Kie was spam.
Kie cleared her throat, returning to her natural voice. “Is Gavin there?”
“This is Gavin, who’s this? Hello?”
“I know what happened on the tarmac.”
Gavin chuckled nervously, “Um… who’s this?”
“It was Rafe Cameron,” Kie said firmly. “But you already knew that. And you lied about it.”
“Okay- who is this?”
“We’re gonna prove it-”
“You’re gonna tell me who this is right now.”
“You could have saved her, Gavin, and you didn’t.”, Kie told him, sounding quite intimidating. “And you’re not getting away with this.”
“Listen to me!” Gavin yelled, clearly frustrated with the entire situation, but nobody felt bad for him because of what he had done just two weeks ago. “Who is this?”
Kie hung up the phone, facing JJ and Red. “How was that?”
“That was good, I was scared,” JJ reported, Kie looked over at Red, who held up sarcastic thumbs up’s at her.
“Alright, tickle the wire. Phase two complete.” Pope smiled, moving on to phase three. “Now we wait and listen.”
Red dug into her pockets, but before she could hand Pope the AirPods, Kie was moving the car behind the house where Gavin wouldn’t find them.
“Here he comes! Here he comes!” Pope whisper and yelled, ducking beneath where you could see them through the windows, as did JJ, getting dangerously close to Red in the process.
“He didn’t see us. He didn’t see us. Hit it.” JJ told Kie, who began following Gavin in the car.
“Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!” Pope told Kie. “Oh- My seatbelt.” Pope fumbled to get his seatbelt.
“Are you seriously buckling up right now, Pope!?” Red rushed, tapping him rapidly on the shoulder. “He’s moving!”
“Yes, I’m buckling up, Red!”
“You don’t need it right now!” Kie reminded him, finally moving the car subtly behind Gavin’s.
Pope put the earphones in his ears, the rest of the group couldn’t hear, so they counted on Pope to tell them what they were saying. “It’s Ward, he’s talking to Ward.”
“Are you serious?” Kie asked hopefully.
“Yeah,” Pope told them. “Get clo- get closer I can’t hear.” He told Kie, who moved closer to the back of Gavin’s car.
Pope shook his head. “He’s talking about negotiating something- Re negotiating,” Pope reported, listening closely. “Gavin’s got the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin, he’s got it.”
“Holy crap.” Red ran her fingers through her hair, getting nervous about what was going to go down tonight.
“I think he’s trying to use it as extortion- as leverage.” Pope theorized, looking out the window of the car.
“Wait, he’s pulling over,” Kie told them, watching as Gavin pulled over on the side of the road.
“He’s panicking,” Pope added.
“I can’t blame him though.” Red grinned, feeling powerful now that they had information. “He’s about to be put away for the rest of his life.”
“Do I pull behind him? What do I do?”
“Just- go around the block!” Pope told her, spinning his finger around in a circle in front of him. “Go, Go, go!”
Kie continued driving past Gavin. “I’m going! I’m going!”
“I can’t hear anything! We’re losing the signal, I can’t, I can’t hear him!”
“What the hell is this?” JJ questioned, the car being blocked off by barriers and road work signs.
After chaotic yelling, JJ and Pope needed to get out of the car as someone pulled in front of where they were about to drive in reverse.
“We’re going after them, right?” Asked JJ, opening both Red and Kie’s doors at once, leaving the car there.
“Yep, Go!” Kie agreed, grabbing a hold of Red’s hand as the pair began running behind Pope and JJ, through yards.
Pope had been yards in front of them, but once the group caught up, Pope was on his knees, s he probably fell.
“Sean? OH, this is where you live? You kook.” JJ commented teh three teens came into the backyard after climbing the fence.
Pope turned around from behind a bush, a terrified expression on his face.
“What? What’s happened?” Asked Red, shaking Pope’s shoulders.
“Did you hear something?” Asked JJ after her.
“He’s meeting Ward.. right now! We gotta go.” Pope told them.
chapter 2...
this took so long (not the chapter
itself) but I'm transferring all of this
from my After Hours Book because
I'm combining them, and I decided
it was sUcH a gOoD iDeA to delete
the fix and do it through my email
since its on a doc, little did I know
it would take an hour.
Alright, bye.