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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗦𝗜𝗫
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"Look, it was right here, and this is where the maniac claimed his next victim. Right there," Kiara told Shoupe as she pointed at the floor in the construction site building where they had watched Ward and Gavin. But, there was no evidence of Ward shooting Gavin anywhere.

"Uh-huh. His next victim?" Shoupe asked, not believing her.

"Yeah," Kyla confirmed with a nod. When Shoupe had pulled up and saw the older Carrera girl there with the others, saying that he was surprised was an understatement. Kyla never had to deal with the cops since she was always the "goody two shoes", but now that she was a "Pogue", the police would just have to get used to her presence.

And she would have to get used to theirs.

"Right. How long ago did you say it happened?" Shoupe asked as JJ bent down, looking for any blood on the floor.

"45 minutes ago, Shoupe," JJ told him as he stood back up from his crouch.

"Okay," Shoupe said as he wrote the details down in his notepad.

"There's no blood here at all," JJ whispered to Kyla under his breath.

"Damn it," she muttered, shaking her head as she looked down at the ground.

"And so, Ward Cameron just popped one off and shot him," Shoupe recounted from what the teens had told him before.

"Yes," Kiara told him breathlessly.

"Execution style? And then cleaned it all up in 45 minutes?" he continued, not seeming to believe the teenagers.

"Yeah," Kiara said with a sad look.

"Obviously," Pope added, and Shoupe began to write something else down.

"We filmed the entire thing," Kiara brought up.

Shoupe's eyes widened as he looked up from his notepad. "You filmed it?"

"Yes, but we can't show it to you because I stepped on JJ's hand, and then he kicked Pope, and then Pope dropped the camera 'cause it's a piece of shit, and it broke," Kiara explained as she looked up in the air in annoyance.

"This is a telephoto, and we needed to get a long-distance image, and...and...and I fell, and it broke, so the video is basically unusable. But — but — but we were there, and we're wit—"

"So the dog ate your homework?" Shoupe cut Pope off, making Kyla sigh to herself since that's what it did sound like from another person's perspective.

"No, Shoupe. I know it sounds like—"

"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," Shoupe said with an exasperated tone.

"No, it's not nothing, Shoupe!" Kyla exclaimed, stepping forward with a pleading look. JJ quickly grabbed her wrist, stopping her from going anymore forward so that Shoupe wouldn't have another reason to arrest her.

"Except for some crazy stories about how Ward Cameron's out on a random killing spree," Shoupe finished, and that's when everyone started to get angry.

"We're not making this up!" JJ yelled, letting go of Kyla's wrist as he threw his hands up angrily.

"It's not a random killing spree!" Pope shouted, making everyone look at him. "Gavin was his pilot! Okay, he was paying him hush money because he was there on the tarmac that day."

"Gavin was blackmailing Ward because he had the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin," Kiara added.

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

"Exactly."

"With the murder weapon!" JJ quickly added.

"And then he covered it up, which is why nothing is here right now," Kyla finished, and all the teens nodded at Shoupe.

"How do you know that?" Shoupe asked.

Kiara gestured towards Pope. "Pope did this thing with his phone. He, like, put it in his car and—"

"I heard their whole conversation," Pope cut off Kiara, getting to the point.

"You wiretapped him?" Shoupe asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, I guess!" Kyla said with a shrug, her mouth parted since she didn't know what else to say.

"Is that bad?" Kiara questioned in a high voice.

"Stop. Just stop. I've had enough," Shoupe said with a raised finger before he started to walk away from the four teens. Kyla stomped the ground angrily, spinning around to the side as she shook her head.

"What are you talking about, Shoupe? Are you just gonna look the other way again?" JJ called out behind him.

"You ever heard about the boy who cried wolf?" Shoupe yelled, not bothering to look back at them.

"Shoupe, how many times—"

"Why would we make this up?" Kiara asked as she followed Shoupe.

"—Why can't you believe us for once?" JJ yelled furiously as he followed Kiara. Kyla quickly followed suit and Pope did the same, wanting to try and reason with the officer.

"Waste of my goddamn time," Shoupe muttered as he walked down the steps.

"Why would we lie? I know it sounds crazy. I know that!" Kiara said from behind him.

"All right, there's nothing up there. False alarm. Let's all go home," Shoupe told the officers, gesturing around to their cars.

"No, no, please don't go home! No, why would we make this up?" Kiara questioned as she held her hands up. The teens continued to follow Shoupe to his car since he didn't bother to even glance back at them. "Can you just do your job for, like, 20 minutes?"

Shoupe finally turned around. "Hey. I-I know..."

"Just listen! It makes sense!"

"...I know you're upset. And I know you think your friend was innocent," Shoupe continued, holding up a finger.

"He is!" Kiara cried.

"But you weren't there."

"I was there," Kyla spoke up, making Shoupe look at her. The combination of his stare and the thought about what happened a few days ago made her nervous. "I-I saw Rafe shoot her — shoot Peterkin. With my own eyes. And then — and then I took off and — Tara was there, too and she tried to—"

"Tara?" Shoupe asked in confusion.

"Tara Thornton. Just — just plea—"

"Tara Thornton was at the hospital getting treated because she fell back and hit her head before I arrived with Sheriff Peterkin," Shoupe cut her off.

"What? No, no, that's not — that can't be possible!" Kyla exclaimed, her eyes wide. She had finally told the truth, but he didn't even believe her.

"Well, it is," Shoupe said and Kyla looked at her friends for help, but it was no use. "Look, the only actual witnesses, who are above ground, say the exact opposite. All right? And both of them have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you right now," Shoupe continued, pointing at them. "I saw your little art project on Ward's wall. Do not do that again!"

"Oh, come on!" Kiara said.

"All right? Gonna make things a lot harder for the both of us," Shoupe said before he pulled open his car door. "Go home."

"At least look into it!" Kyla called out to him as he started his car.

"Someone died tonight!" Kiara added, her voice stained from all the yelling.

"Get on home to your parents now," Shoupe said before he drove off.

Kyla rubbed her face, letting out a sigh of defeat as she turned around and began to walk back to her car with the others. "I told you this would happen," JJ said. "Like, you're the one that had to drop the camera!" he said to Pope.

"It was your fault!" Kiara argued.

"Oh, that was my fault?" JJ questioned.

"Yeah, it was your fault!"

"Guys, can we not argue, please?" Kyla said breathlessly, but Kiara nor JJ seemed to be paying attention to her.

"Why do you always take his side?" JJ asked, pointing at Pope. "Why do you never take mine?"

"Guys," Pope tried to speak up.

"Shut up!" Kiara shouted.

"Hey! Hey!" Pope said, and the two finally stopped arguing, and they looked over at him. "We're not out of this yet," he told them before he turned back around. "We can still go get the gun."

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"This is the north drain. It should have gotten washed into the gully. So, if it flushed out from this drain, it would've been pushed out to, like..." JJ trailed off, gesturing to the drains and trash that they were standing at.

"Somewhere in this trash," Pope finished for him.

"Correct," JJ confirmed.

"How do you even know this?" Kyla asked, arching a brow at the blonde. JJ looked over at her, giving her a little smile that could have meant anything. "You know what? Never mind, I don't wanna know," Kyla said, raising her hands up in defeat as JJ let out a small chuckle.

Kiara sighed. "Oh, my God. People who use plastic should be shot," the girl said as she looked down at the trash.

"Okay, personally, I love plastic. Use it every day. Love the stuff," JJ said as he started picking up the plastic bags to try and find the gun.

"Okay, well, hopefully, you recycle it and don't just let it flush into the ocean," Kiara bit back, tilting her head at the blonde.

"Do you really think that he cares where he puts his trash unless it's in a place that resembles a trash can?" Kyla asked her sister, and Kiara just rolled her eyes at the boy, who just shrugged.

"I thought one of you'd say something like that, so...trash bags," Pope said, holding up a rolled up trash bag.

"Did you just proactively protect the environment?" Kiara asked, looking down at Pope.

The boy hesitated for a moment before he replied, "Maybe." Kiara gave him a grin as they just looked at each other, making Kyla clear her throat softly at the awkwardness.

"You want me to you two alone, or what's going on?" JJ asked, looking between them.

"I was wondering the same thing," Kyla said slowly, jokingly raising her hand.

Pope threw the trash bag at JJ in annoyance, making JJ stumble to try and catch it so it didn't fall into the water. "Just pick up the trash," Pope told him with an unamused tone.

"I guess that's a no," Kyla whispered to JJ and he let out a laugh.

At the same time, though, Tara, Rafe, and Barry rode up to the sewer drain where Ward had dropped the gun in...

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"Well, that was fun," JJ commented sarcastically as he threw his last trash bag on land. They had sorted through all the trash that was in the water, but they couldn't find the gun.

"If it's not in the trash, then it's gotta be somewhere in the storm drain," Pope pointed out.

"It's in...it's in the drain," JJ said slowly with the nod of his head.

"Damn it," Pope whispered.

"Of course it is," Kiara said with an annoyed look.

"Yeah, 'cause when is anything ever easy for us?" Kyla asked, and Kiara just shook her head to tell her sister the answer.

"Good thing I brought the crow," JJ said as he began to look for the crowbar he packed.

"So, are we gonna do, like, rock, paper, scissors?" Kiara asked.

"No," JJ said almost immediately.

"Or alphabetically?"

"Nah." JJ then grabbed the crow bar and placed it on the bars of the drain. "On three, Pope. One, two, three," JJ counted down before the two boys began to pull.

"Or, like, the oldest goes?" Kiara continued, looking at her sister, who looked very unamused.

"In the sewer, there's this worm that you get when you're down there. It gets into your blood, and then it...has to come out your pecker," JJ explained after he and Pope opened the drain, and both of the sisters gave him a disgusted look. "So, uh...that would be a hard pass for me."

"Yeah, that's gonna be a no for me," Pope agreed with a nod.

The girls glanced at each other, a mischievous look forming on their faces. Kiara then looked back at the boys and said, "No, I get it. I get it. You guys are scared."

"No. No, I'm not scared," JJ argued.

"It's fine, guys. It's actually kind of cute," Kyla said as she tilted her head with a grin on her face. In all honesty, though, she did not want to go down that drain.

"It's just the pecker thingy," Pope brought up, shaking his head as the girls made their way over to them.

"I'm not scared," JJ repeated, fixing his cap slightly.

"You should've just led with that. You don't have to be scared. We'll do it," Kiara told them.

Kyla nodded. "Yep. Talk about sister strength, am I right?" Kyla joked, looking at her sister, who covered a small laugh at the boys' scared looks.

"Okay, just, you know...be careful," Pope said to mostly Kiara.

"I'll be so careful," Kiara replied sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm going in there, too," Kyla pointed out, her eyebrows raised.

"Hey, hey," JJ said in a joking tone, walking over towards Kyla. "Be careful, princess," he said mockingly as he held a hand up to Kyla's cheek, making Pope roll his eyes at him. Kyla also rolled her eyes and she pushed his arm away, going down to the ground as she followed Kiara into the drain. "Just, uh, holler if you need anything, okay? We'll, uh...We'll holler back."

"Very helpful. Thank you," Kiara responded sarcastically as the girls continued to crawl further into the drain.

At the same time, Tara, Rafe, and Barry discussed the gun that fell into the drain. Rafe couldn't keep it a secret from Tara, so she suggested that Barry could somehow help them. "Ain't good, big dog. If that piece went down in here...it's either six inches deep in the catch basin in some toxic shit you definitely don't wanna be wading through, or it's way out there by that outlet. Now, the easiest thing to do is going to be to flush it. 'Cause imma tell you right now, my ass ain't getting down there in that shit."

"Yeah, not my ass, either," Tara agreed as she looked up at Rafe, who had stood up.

Back with the Pogues, the sisters climbed deeper and deeper into the muddy and gross drain. "This is disgusting," Kyla whispered to herself, reminding herself to take a hundred million showers when she got home.

"Kiara, Kyla, you guys find anything yet?" Pope questioned, his voice echoing in the drain.

"Yeah, do you guys see the gun?" JJ asked, his voice also echoing.

"Nothing!" the sisters exclaimed at the same time.

"It's probably at the bottom of the catch basin," Pope told them before they crawled out into a more wider area that led up to the outside world via ladder.

"Ew," Kyla said because of the smell, her nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Just help me look for the gun so we can get out of here faster," Kiara told and Kyla nodded, moving her hands around in the water to see if she could find it. "People are so shitty," Kiara commented once she saw all the plastic.

"You're just now figuring that out? I thought it would be obvious after Rafe killed the sheriff and Tara almost killed me," Kyla said, finally joking about it.

"Oh, so now you're joking about it?" Kiara asked, letting out a short laugh. Kyla shrugged before they continued looking for the gun.

In the outside of world, Tara, Rafe, and Barry walked over to the area that controlled the water that was in the sewer. "Only one way to find out now, Country Club," Barry said before he reached the controls, taking the chains off.

"Why does he get a nickname and I don't?" Tara asked, crossing her arms as she watched Barry work his magic.

"'Cause I actually like you," Barry replied, not bothering to look over them. "Unless you want me to call you Blondie, 'cause then I will."

"I actually like that."

Back in the drain, Kiara touched something with her hand. "Guys, I think I found something!" she yelled, making Kyla look over at her.

"Is it the gun?" Pope asked from outside.

"Pope! Pope! Oh, my God!" Kiara shrieked, making Kyla's eyes widen as she hopped backwards. "You guys, there's something dead in here!"

"Like a person?" Pope asked, but Kiara continued to scream.

"What is it? I didn't see it!" Kyla yelled, holding her hands up so she didn't accidentally touch whatever it was. Near the controls, Tara, Rafe, and Barry all glanced at each other with a confused, yet amused looks on their faces.

"I don't know what it was!" Kiara shouted, waving her hands around crazily. "Oh, my God! There's something dead! I repeat, there's something dead in here!" Kiara continued to let Pope and JJ know.

"Like a person?" Pope asked again, but louder.

"I have no idea, but apparently, there's something dead!" Kyla yelled out, standing in one place as she looked down at the water with a scared look. Tara let out a breathless laugh, realizing that it was Kyla.

"Kie, Ky, don't touch it! That's how you get worms!" JJ told them as Rafe and Tara began to make their way over to the manhole cover, listening in better.

"Did you find the gun? Is it Gavin?" Pope asked as both of sister's looked around the water crazily.

"What is it? Is it Gavin?" JJ also asked.

"Don't touch it!"

"How do they know about Gavin?" Tara whispered to Rafe, but he just shook his head.

"Kie, is it a gun? Ky, do you see the gun?" JJ questioned.

"Well, they're in the sewer," Rafe pointed out with wide, crazy eyes before the couple began to back up.

"Do you see anything?" JJ continued to question.

"We should flush them out," Tara said with a devilish smirk before she licked her lips.

"But, Kyla—"

"'But, Kyla', what? She's a backstabbing Pogue bitch and she already knows too much. And besides, we'll just kill two birds with one stone," Tara told him, tilting her head.

Rafe seemed to consider it for a moment before he looked at Barry. "Flush them out," he told him.

Barry glanced at the two of them before he let out a laugh. "Hey, you flush that pipe, you gonna kill the rats."

"Yeah," Rafe replied with a blank expression.

"That's what we want," Tara told Barry with a smile.

Barry took a step closer to the both of them. "The last thing you both need is more dead bodies showing up around this bitch. You realize what you're both doing if you guys do that?"

"I mean, if you wanna be a pussy, then you can leave," Rafe said before he tried to push past him.

But, Barry stopped him. "Do you not realize what you are doing, bruh?" he asked slowly and to Rafe only. While it seemed like Tara was normal but evil, it seemed like Rafe was actually going through a crisis.

"Get the hell out of my way," Rafe said, staring Barry in the eyes.

Barry looked at him before he looked down at the blonde. "You heard him," Tara said, crossing her arms.

Barry then looked back to Rafe and said, "All right, then." He moved out of Rafe's way. "All right, then, tough guy."

"You don't wanna be here for this, all right? Go find the truck, okay?" Rafe said before he tossed the keys to Barry. Barry sent the couple one last look before he walked off.

"Let's do this," Tara whispered to Rafe before she planted a kiss on his cheek. Rafe smiled lightly before he started to twist the wheel that would make the water rise.

"You guys owe us for life!" Kiara yelled since the girls were still in the disgusting water looking for the gun.

"Literally!" Kyla added unnecessarily, waving her hands around with a look of disgust on her face. The water then began to move very fast, making it rise up in the sewer. "Uh, what's happening?" Kyla asked her sister in a high voice.

"Oh, shit!" Kiara yelled. "Guys! Guys, the water!" Kiara called out to the boys.

"Kiara! Kyla! Get out of there now!" Pope yelled out to them in a panic.

"Go up the ladder! Go, go, go!" Kyla shouted at her sister, making her go first. "Come on! Come on!" she continued, but the water was rising too fast. Tara smirked to herself from the outside as she heard both girls screaming.

"We don't have time! Guys!" Kiara yelled before the water started splashing up on them.

"Just — just climb!" Kyla told her sister before the disgusting water splashed up in her face, making her cough, but she still held on to the ladder.

Kiara climbed up to the ladder, reaching the manhole cover. Kyla was right below her, the water level continuing to rise. "Please! Pope! Guys!" Kiara called out, but the two girls couldn't hear the boys yelling because of how loud the water was.

"JJ! Please! Help!" Kyla yelled, almost slipping, but she was able to hang on.

"We're over here!"

"Ky! Kie! We're coming!" the girls were able to hear JJ yell since it sounded like he was closer.

"Guys, we're over here!" Kyla yelled out.

"The water is coming up!" Kiara told her them, her fingers sticking out of the manhole cover. The boys quickly came over and bent down, grabbing the sides of the manhole cover. "Pull it! Pull it!"

"Pull! Pull!" JJ told Pope before the two boys started to pull as hard as they could.

Kyla quickly looked down to see that the right was just about to go over her head, so she took a deep breath in before the water engulfed her. "Hurry! Hurry! Ky's under!" Kyla heard Kiara scream from under the water. "Pope! Pope! Please! Please!"

Kyla wasn't able to hear anything anymore since the water was muffling all the noise. She looked up, not being able to see anything through the murky water. She felt her chest starting to her and she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold her breath for.

But, then, once the water had risen over Kiara, the boys were able to push the manhole cover up, letting Kiara out. Kiara quickly fell out and JJ quickly went over to the hole in the ground, pulling Kyla out from underneath the water. She fell on top of him and started to cough up water, trying to be able to breath quickly as her eyes burned.

"Hey, Ky, you good?" JJ asked quickly, his eyes wide since he was obviously panicked that the girls wouldn't be able to make it out.

Kyla nodded slowly as she continued to cough before JJ started to help her up from the ground. "Thank you," she said breathlessly to the blonde before she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him. JJ brought his hands up, pulling Kyla closer to him to reciprocate the hug.

"Kiara, are you okay? I thought we lost you," Pope said behind Kyla as he also went in for a hug.

"Pope, get off me. Pope, get off me!" Kiara shouted, pushing Pope off of her as she started to cough even more.

Kyla let her arms fall off JJ as she looked over at her sister. "Kie, you good?" JJ asked, one of his arms still wrapped around Kyla's waist.

Kiara held up her thumb. "Never better," she joked, making JJ laugh. He then realized that his arm was still around Kyla, so he quickly took it away. She noticed and looked over at him, but he seemed to be avoiding her gaze as he looked down at Kiara. The younger Carrera girl then took the gun out of her back pocket, making all of their eyes widen. "This wasn't what we were looking for, right?" she asked jokingly, making them all let out laughs of relief.

"Oh, my God!" JJ said as he walked past Kiara to get a better look at the gun.

"Holy shit," Pope said breathlessly.

"We're gonna get this son of a bitch, man!" JJ shouted happily.

"I didn't even see you grab it," Kyla said as she walked over to her sister, her eyes still wide as she wiped at her face.

"It rose up in the water with us and I grabbed it right before you went under," Kiara told her and Kyla let out a shocked laugh.

"You did it, guys. You did it," JJ said before he wrapped his arms around both of the girls, enveloping them in a hug before Pope joined.

"Let's get this to Shoupe," Pope then said before they all pulled away.

"Let's get it to Shoupe, let's get it to Shoupe."

Ahhh sorry that this chapter is super long like I said it was gonna be last chapter. And also sorry if it's kind of confusing...I wanted to add Tara's perspective into the mix as well.