SEASON ONE,
CHAPTER 4:
DEAD BODY
"It's bad karma to be implicated in a felony too."
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THE FIVE FRIENDS currently find themselves relaxing on top of some wooden crates located beside the docks. Many other people their age can be seen around them as they too are intrigued about the scene going on ahead of them in this moment of time. With teenagers being nosy and wanted to know the gossip, especially with everyone knowing each other on such a small island, word spreads fast like a wildfire. Hence why they all find themselves wanting to visit the crime scene itself in order to witness it.
Ahead of the unusual crowd, Delilah catches sight of an extremely pale man strapped down onto a stretcher, his body looking cold and lifeless. The paramedics are trying their best to wheel him down the docks in order to get him away from the public eye as fast as possible. However, they stop in their tracks as a woman comes sprinting over towards the dead body. The mans name repeatedly leaves her mouth, followed by the loud wailing sounds of sobs as she holds his head in her hands.
The teenager's heart breaks at the sight of Lana Grubbs sobbing over the sight of dead body in front of her, making it known to everyone that she knew the man that lays lifelessly lays there. The poor woman is clearly trying her best to calm herself down but unable to do so. Delilah can't even imagine losing one of her friends, she'd be one hell of a wreck too.
"Who's that?" John B asks, intrigued.
"Scooter Grubbs." Delilah replies.
"How do you know?" Kie asks, turning around to face the girl with furrowed brows.
"Well, I just heard Lana say that name, so I'm assuming that's him." Delilah replies. "That, and I don't think she would cry over a random man if it wasn't her husband."
"Yeah, she's right." A girl from beside them speaks up. "It's Scooter Grubbs."
"Do you know what happened?" John B asks, trying to gather as much information as he can.
"He was out during the storm. Look, check out this pic I got." The girl replies, showing them her phone. "Dead body."
Delilah peaks over the blonde's shoulder to take a peak at the image. Though, she instantly regrets curiosity getting the best of her as a grimace falls over her face at the bloodied horror sight. She turns her head away from the screen, trying to avoid looking at it for any longer. JJ notices this and shifts closer to the redhead, placing a supporting hand on her shoulder since he's still standing up. Ly only looks up and meets his gaze, giving him a small smile as she leans into his body slightly.
"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ asks, curious.
"Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand new Grady-White." The same girl replies, sighing. "Everyone's out looking for it right now."
The group of friends pause at the information being given to them. Knowing looks of slight fear are exchanged between the five as they realise that they are the people that have found that specific sunken boat. It's not like they haven't tried to report it to the coast guards, because they have but they just got pushed away and weren't given the chance to speak.
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After finding out the news about Scooter Grubbs being announced as dead and that people are trying to search for the Grady-White, the five were quick to make excuses and disappear from the scene. They are all located at John B's house like they usually hang out. However, this time, some of them appear to be more panicked than others (a.k.a Pope) as they all lounge around on the porch to the house.
Delilah is currently sitting down on a chair beside JJ as he proceeds to smoke one of the joints of weed that he's previously rolled himself. The girls legs are stretched out and draped over the top of his lap as he too sits down, which only allows one of his hands to rest upon her leg. She fiddles with the ends of her ginger hair while listening to what her friends have to say about the situation they find themselves stuck in — purely because they're teenagers with intrigued minds and reckless choices.
"Okay." Pope begins, grabbing everyone's attention as he speaks up. "We didn't see anything. We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia."
"Actually, Pope's right for once." JJ admits while shooting the boy a look. "See? I agree with you sometimes."
"Deny, deny, deny." Delilah says, finally looking up from her hair.
"You got that right, Ly." JJ states, lightly tapping her leg to show that he agrees.
"Guys, we can't keep that money." Kie tells them.
"Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." JJ fires back as he blow out a puff of smoke.
Feeling the gentle nudge on the arm resting on top of Delilah's leg, JJ's eyes shift over to the girl to see her shake her head 'no' at him. It's one of the ways she can silently get him to stop doing something that can cause trouble, or even an argument amongst the friends. He just lets out a loud sigh in response before leaning back in his seat, continuing to smoke the joint. The two then turn back around to face at the rest of their friends once again.
"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs, otherwise it's bad karma." Kie insists.
"It's bad karma to be implicated in a felony too." Pope informs. "We just need to go dark."
"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree." JJ tells them.
"Same here." Delilah says as she gives the blond boy a high-five.
John B shakes his head. "No, I don't agree."
"Okay, lets hear your view on it then." Delilah encourages, motioning for him to start talking.
"Just think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden, he's got a Grady-White? Just saying." John B explains.
"I don't understand how you're disagreeing." Pope admits, trying to gain a better understanding but just feeling confused.
"Think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?" John B asks.
"Prostitution." Pope confidently replies.
"Oh, okay, Pope. So now you wanna talk about prostitutes?" Delilah comments, receiving a hard look from him in response.
"Square groupers, bro." John B corrects. "They fly under the radar with no aerial surveillance. But they don't do that stuff during a hurricane. What does that mean? JJ? Red?"
"They were straight smuggling." JJ states, earning nods of agreements from JB and Ly.
"And I guarantee there's a serious amount of contraband in that wreck." John B states.
"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it, it probably belongs to someone else." Pope informs.
"Minor details." Delilah comments.
"They could come looking for it, so taking it would be catastrophically stupid." Pope continues.
"Right, well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time." JJ argues.
As the boy says this, he pulls the stack money out of his pocket before slapping it down onto the table in front of them all. He proceeds to spread the cash out across the surface to show them all just how much money he stole from the motel room and how it's still on his person. Pope sighs at the mere sight of this, peeling his gaze away from the money as he begins to pick at the bark from a twig.
"All we need to do right now is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we lay low. Just act normal." JJ tells them all.
"Right." Pope says, pursing his lips. "And how exactly do you propose we do that?"
"You said it yourself earlier; we just need to have total and complete amnesia." Delilah reminds. "Just act the same way we did before we knew anything about this wreck, or the money, or the gun."
Silence falls over them all as they exchange looks with one another, trying to decipher whether this is the best approach to take with the situation. They've never had to deal with this before so of course there's going to be some panic and fear, but Delilah isn't lying when she says that the rush of adrenaline is exciting — it's something different, something new that's making their life more adventurous.
"Kegger?" Kie suggests as she looks up from the ukulele she's strumming the strings of.
Nods of agreement are immediately seen in response to the curly haired girl. Maybe this is the best distraction they could possibly have in this current moment, especially since they'd be drinking alcohol and can loosen up from the nerves a little. It's not like it's a random occasion either since their days are known to end with a party sometimes considering they're the ones to host it. The parties are something that both Kooks and Pogues can agree are fun to attend, almost uniting for a night.