FIFTY-FIVE

❝ Arguments ❞

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IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR SHOUPE and his squad to arrive at the scene. The four teenagers led them to the construction site and up into the half built building. JJ stayed close by Ava's side the entire time, while Pope cradled his broken camera and Kiara manically explained the events they had just witnessed.

"Look, it was right here, and this is where that maniac claimed his next victim," Kiara rushes, waving her hand towards the floor where Gavin's body was laid only half an hour previous.

"His next victim?" Shoupe raises a brow and chuckles while tapping his pen against his notepad, "Right. And how long ago did you say it happened?"

JJ drops from his girlfriend's side to crouch down and press his hands against the soaked floor, expected to see blood coating his fingers, but instead it's just water from the storm above them. With his brows furrowed, JJ stands up again, "About forty-five minutes ago, Shoupe."

He scribbles in the information down quickly, before raising his head to look over at the group of teenagers opposite him, "And so, Ward Cameron just popped one off and shot him."

"Yes," Kiara gasps, her cheeks still wet with tears.

"Execution style? And then cleaned it all up in forty five minutes?" He tilts his head in questioning.

"Obviously," Pope states.

Kiara bites her lip, raising her hand to motion towards the short haired boy next to her, "We filmed the entire thing."

"You filmed it?" The officer asks in disbelief.

"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 and because it's a piece of shit, it broke," She explains quickly, her fingers fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"This is a telephoto," Pope argues, "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 we were there, and we wit—"

Shoupe's eyebrows raise, "So the dog ate your homework?"

"No, Shoupe," Kiara sighs, "I know it sounds—"

"Look," Shoupe raises his voice slightly, cutting the girl short, "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."

"No," Kiara steps forward, "It's not nothing. It's not—"

"Expect for some crazy stories about how Ward Cameron's out on a random killing spree," He continues with a snarl.

"We're not making this up!" JJ shouts, his hat curled in his hands.

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

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

"And he called him here and tried to spy him off but it wasn't enough so he shot him with the murder weapon," JJ adds to the story, drawing Shoupe's attention to the silent girl at the blonde boy's side.

"How do you kids know that?" Shoupe asks quietly and he steps forward slightly, motioning towards Ava, "You got something to say, huh, Routledge? This got anything to do with you? Why you being so silent?"

JJ's eyes widen and he steps closer to his girl, his shoulder hiding her form slightly, "Shoupe. Leave her the hell alone."

"No, Shoupe, it hasn't got anything to do with me," She snaps, gently moving her boyfriend away from her, "And I'm being silent to avoid you blaming me for all this shit. 'Cause that's what you cops do."

"You assaulted Rafe Cameron, Ava, that gives me every reason to question your involvement," He replies harshly.

"Shoupe, Ava didn't do anything to Ward or— or Gavin, okay? She's here for the same reasons for all of us!" Kiara steps in, raising her voice to get the man's attention once more, "Look, the reason we know about him using the murder weapon is because Pope did this thing with his phone. He, like, put it in his car and—"

Pope cuts her short, "I heard their whole conversation."

Shoupe's eyes widen, "You wiretapped him?"

"Is— Is that bad?" Kiara gasps, causing the other girl beside her to squeeze her eyes shut in frustration.

"No. Stop. Just stop." Shoupe directs, wagging a finger at the four teenagers, "I've had enough."

"What are you talking about, Shoupe?" JJ yells, when the officer turns on his heel and heads towards the stairs, "Are you just gonna look the other way again?"

"Y'all ever heard about the boy who cried wolf?" Shoupe calls back to them as his hand wraps around the banister and he steps down.

"Why would we make this up?" Kiara screams, following after the man, causing the rest of the group to follow after them, Ava grinding her jaw.

"Waste of my goddamn time," Shoupe snarls to himself under his breath.

"Why would we lie?" Kiara screeches as they steps back out onto the street, "I know it's sounds crazy. I know that!"

"Alright, there's nothing up there!" Shoupe calls to his team loudly, waving them all away, "False alarm. Let's all go home!"

"No, no. Please don't go home!" Kiara begs the surrounding men, still close on Shoupe's tail, "Why would we make this up? Can you just do you job for twenty minutes?"

Shoupe finally turns once he reaches his car, "Hey. I know. . . I know. . . I know you're upset. And I know you think your friend was innocent."

"He is!" Kiara yells, her arms hold out wide in disbelief.

"But you weren't there." The man states simply, holding up a single finger to silence her, "The only witnesses who are above ground say the exact opposite. Alright?"

Ava steps around Kiara, standing a metre away from the new Sheriff, "I was there. I watched as Rafe Cameron shot Peterkin. I saw him do that shit with my own eyes! What you gonna say now, huh, Shoupe?"

He shakes his head, "And then you beat Rafe to a pulp. I have no reason to believe you when you too are a criminal. And the other witnesses have a hell of a lot more credibility than any of you right now."

Ava squeezes her eyes shut, raising her hands to run them through her hair while Shoupe steps aside slightly so he's able to look at Kiara once more.

"I saw your little art project on Ward's wall," He says to her, "Do not do that again. Alright? Gonna make things a lot harder for the both of us."

He pulls open his car down, and waves towards the rest of his officers to leave, causing Ava to step closer again, her brows cinched.

"Shoupe, for christ's sake, just listen—"

He slips down into the driver's seat, glaring up at her through the open window, "No, Ava, no. Just stop now, okay? If you keep going with this then your gonna end up behind bars for a long time."

Her eyes widen, "What? I haven't done anything but tell the truth. Shoupe, how is this fair? Ward should be the one behind bars, not me!"

"Step away from the car, Ava," He waves her away harshly, and she does as told, fingers tapping against her bare legs anxiously, "I'll be seeing you soon."

And then he drives off, leaving the four teenagers in a stunned silence. Pope is the first to turn and head back towards the car, his eyes trained on the road below him. Ava pushes between Kiara and JJ to walk beside Pope's side, both of them listening to their friends argue.

"I told you this would happen," JJ snaps, motioning harshly towards the back of Pope, "Like, you're the one that had to drop the camera."

"It was your fault!" Kiara snarls.

"Oh, that was my fault?"

"Yeah, it was your fault!"

"Why do you always take his side?" JJ yells, "Why do you never take mine?"

"The same reason you always take Ava's side, and never ours!" Kiara retorts loudly.

Pope comes to a stop, and turns to look back at them, but Ava rolls her shoulders and continues the journey back towards the car, leaving the arguing behind her.

"Guys!" Pope shouts, "Hey! Hey! We're not out of this yet. We can still go get the gun. And neither of you are thinking about her," He points behind him at the walking girl, causing JJ to swallow thickly and drop his chin to his chest, "Can you not tell somethings off with her? And your useless arguing is making her worse! She's just found out her brother is alive, then she just watched someone else get shot by a Cameron and then Shoupe tried to blame her for it!" His gaze flows over to the blonde's guilty face, "I mean, come on, JJ, you're supposed to be her boyfriend."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Pope," He mutters, nudging his shoulder against his friend's as he passes before breaking off into a jog after his girlfriend.

"Pope?" Kiara calls, when the boy turns on his heel to follow after their friends and back towards the car, "Pope, will you talk to me?"

"Let's just go home, Kie," He mumbles quietly, eyes staying trained on the storm drain as he passes it, "I'm sick of the arguing."

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authors note
right so i started a rewrite of this book as a separate draft it's already so much better.
the main plot is the same, just with less plot holes and more cute as shit moments between jj and ava
if you lot ever wanna re-read the book, i suggest you go read the rewrite instead of this god awful book
👍👍