So, after a small amount of research, they'd managed to figure out the address of the man who'd flown the Cameron's plane that day.

They were on their way to him right now. Elora, Tyler and JJ were all in the backseat, Kie and Pope in the front.

"Alright, so if this guy was flying planes for Ward, he's gotta be pretty tight lipped," Pope announced.

JJ nodded, clicking bullets into the gun barrel. "So then the direct approach gets my vote-"

"JJ, no!"

"JJ-"

"Dude, what?!"

"What?"

"Put the gun down!" Pope ordered him.

"We gotta keep this simple, guys, or we're never gonna get John B off!" JJ protested.

"Or, we just tickle the wire," Pope voiced, holding up Kie's airpods.

"The hell does that mean?" Elora leaned forward.

"We tickle the wire," Pope shrugged. "I plant my phone in his car, and then we listen in on Kie's airpods."

He held his phone up behind him, into Elora's face. "Say something."

"Fuck off, Pope."

In Pope's ears, a recorded version of Elora's voice said. "Fuck off, Pope."

"Okay, we've got audio," Pope smiled as they rolled up to the address. "I think that's his house over there."

The house was quite a nice Figure Eight one. Elora supposed the Camerons' pilot would be quote well off.

"Alright, honk or, uh... yell, or something if you see anything suspicious," Pope said.

Kie nodded, looking at Pope. "Don't do anything dangerous."

"Don't worry," he smirked almost flirtatiously back at her. "I'm not JJ."

"Nice one, Pope," JJ clicked his teeth as the boy got out the car. "We just love third, fourth and fifth wheeling back here!"

Elora scoffed as the door was slammed shut, nudging her blonde friend. "Don't be an idiot, JJ, Kie and Pope would never- wait, what?"

Because she had thought Kie and Pope would never happen. Until she saw the look her friend was giving her.

"What? You and Pope?!" Elora almost screamed. "How the hell didn't I know about this?"

"I caught them macking on the dock right after John B left," JJ voiced, but Elora hit him on the arm to keep him quiet.

"So, are you two dating or something?" Elora asked.

"Nah," Kie shrugged. "It's going well, though."

"Oh, right," JJ spoke this time. "In the bedroom, is he, like, kinda freaky, cause it's Pope, y'kn- ow!" He squealed as Elora pinched him hard on the arm.

However, the silence they were plunged into after this statement was very awkward.

But then JJ shrugged, nudging Tyler. "What bout you and-"

"Er- it's fine," Tyler's voice went up at least five octaves. "Not, er... not going anywhere at the moment, though."

Elora looked at Kie, frowning heavily at this whole statement. The girl in front of her didn't look anymore clued in than her, however.

"Oh, oh right," JJ nodded.

Elora sat back in her seat, looking down slightly.

Tyler liked someone else.

She wasn't prepared for the raw, burning jealousy firing through her as she thought about this statement. She wasn't prepared for the way she wanted to find the girl and tear her apart because she liked Tyler, and Tyler could never like her.

It wasn't as though she didn't know this was going to happen, however. Because Tyler was too good for and she didn't deserve him one bit and she was never ever going to deserve him.

She just hadn't expected it to happen so-

"So, in terms of rankings, Kie, I was just wondering-"

"Oh, you're still asking," Kie bit her lip, looking at JJ.

"Yeah, just- is John B better?"

"What-?!"

"Okay," Pope said, opening the car door onto the very awkward situation and jumping in without a clue. "So, phase one is complete."

He looked at Kie, who was wincing, at JJ, who was staring out the window, at Elora, who was playing with her hands and at Tyler, who had a very red face, and asked. "Everything- are we all good?"

None of them replied, instead all looking anywhere else but at him, a silent mantra in all of their heads.

We will never speak of this again.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

The sky was dark as they readied themselves to 'tickle the wire', as Pope put it. Basically, Elora was going to phone the man, who Pope had learned was called Gavin and got the number of from online, and threaten him by saying they knew what happened, making him (hopefully) admit what he had done through Kie's airpods.

"Right, you ready for this?" Tyler asked, a tiny bit jittery as he turned to Elle, who was holding the phone tightly.

"Yeah, should I disguise my voice?" Elora asked.

"Nah, you're fine," JJ shrugged.

"Alright," Elora bit her lip, finger hovering over the green call button before finally, decidedly, pressing it.

She put the phone on speaker, but only after putting a finger to her lips to tell the others to be quiet as fuck.

The phone only rang twice before Gavin picked it up.

"Hello?"

Shit.

The call had connected a lot quicker than she expected. She sat there for a second, palms sweating and heart rate picking up.

"Elle, say something!" Kie mouthed furiously.

She must've been waiting longer than she thought, because Gavin said again through the phone. "Hello?"

And Elora just went straight for the jugular. "Is Gavin there?"

"This is Gavin, who's this? Hello?"

"I know what happened on the tarmac."

That shut him up.

Elora looked round at her friends, locking eyes with each of them for a second but getting the same message from all. You've got him right where you want him, just push further.

Gavin gave a small, nervous chuckle. "Uh... who's this?"

"It was Rafe Cameron," Elora continued, speaking right into the phone's receiver. "But you already knew that, because you got paid to lie about it."

"O-okay, who is this?" He was beginning to sound nervous, they had him on the ropes-

"We're gonna prove it," Elora continued, voice raising. "You're guilt-"

"Alright, you're gonna tell me who this is, right now-"

"You could have saved her, Gavin! And you could've brought the truth to the cops," Elora snapped. "But you did neither, and you're not getting away with it."

"Listen to me!" Gavin shouted, clearly panicked now. "Who is thi-?!"

Elora cut him off before he could say anymore.

"How was that?" She asked, looking up at the four faces surrounding her.

"Yeah, I was scared," JJ shrugged. "Good job."

"Alright, we tickled the wire," Pope announced. "Phase two complete. Now we wait and listen."

Elora nodded, sitting back in her seat and exchanging glances with Tyler. She raised her eyebrows suggestively, only just being able to make out his face in the dark, starting from those gorgeous sparkling eye-

Stop it, Elle. He likes someone else.

She looked away from him immediately after thinking this, out the window and into the starry night.

Now, obviously Elora wasn't a mind reader, however neither was Tyler. Which is why, as he watched the breathtaking redhead in front of him turn her back on him and begin to look out the window, he was confused.

It had been about four days ago that he'd told JJ about his feelings for her, before they found out John B was still alive. He still remembered their conversation, almost word for word.

"-and I know it's crazy and it's stupid to ever think she'd like me after what an asshole I was to her, but I do. Or I hope. Because I like her more than ever now I'm a Pogue."

"Well, dude, I can't say I'm surprised. Y'all pretty much eye-fuck everytime you're togethe-"

"Shut up, man!"

"What? It's true!"

"So... what? You think there's a chance she could-"

"Like you back? Man, there's not just a chance, I'm fuckin certain of it."

And Tyler had begged that to be true, because his feelings for Elle were strong and they weren't going away, and he just hoped she could forget his past mistakes and see him for who he was now.

He had been so worried earlier, when JJ had almost slipped up in front of her, yet relieved when he realised she didn't catch on.

Yet, as he looked at her right now, staring out the window and fiddling with her hands, he wondered if that wasn't so true at all.

"Guys! Guys!"

A loud voice cut through his thoughts and snapped Elora to life, the both of them looking round to see Gavin storming out the house and getting into his car.

"Alright, here he comes, stay down!" Pope hissed, all five of them ducking in their seats to avoid being seen by the man they were trying to force a confession out of.

As his car drove off the drive and away, JJ murmured. "He didn't see us."

The five of them snapped back into action, Kie at the wheel, Pope with the airpods, the other three all leaning forward as far as they could go to get in on the conversation.

They drove about fifteen metres behind Gavin's car; enough to not be spotted yet enough to hear what the man was saying.

"Pope, what's going on?" Elora asked after a second, holding onto his headrest.

"It's Ward, he's talking to Ward," Pope said, face heavily concentrated as he listened through the earphones.

"Are you being serious?" Kie asked, as JJ covered his mouth in shock.

"Yeah," Pope nodded, eyes focused on the car in front of them as Kie drove slowly behind.

"Get clo- get closer, I can't hear," Pope instructed her.

"Okay..." she said warily, approaching them hesitantly.

As they got back into range, Pope said. "He's talking about negotiating something. Renegotiating."

"His fucking payoff, probably," Elora muttered drily, rolling her eyes.

It was a few more seconds of silence. A few more seconds of waiting in agitated silence, all of them buzzing with anticipation.

Then Pope rattled off. "Gavin's got the gun that Rafe used to kill Peterkin, he's got it."

Elora gasped slightly, eyes going wide. If he had that gun, then... oh my god...

"Holy shit," Kie gaped.

Pope nodded. "I think he's trying to use it as extortion, as leverage."

"Wait, he's pulling over!" Kie exclaimed, and all of them turned their attention to the car in front of them, which was in fact pulling over onto the roadside.

"Shit, he's panicking," Pope said, still concentrating on the voice in his ears.

Kie was panicking, too. "Do I pull behind him? What do I do?"

"Just go round the block!"

She followed the shouted order from JJ and Tyler, still breathing heavily.

"Guys, we're gonna lose him!" Elora said warily as they passed Gavin's car and she saw a breif glimpse of him in there, speaking hurriedly.

"Go! Go! Go!"

"I'm going, I'm going..."

"I can't hear anything, shit!" Pope cursed. "I'm losing signal, I can't hear him!"

"What the hell is this?" JJ demanded as they rounded a corner and saw a roadblock stopping their way, a sign with ROAD CLOSED right in the middle.

"Stop! Just stop and turn around now!" Pope said urgently.

"Pull in here and back up!" Tyler posed a different view.

"Kie, we need to get out of here-" Elora hissed.

"Shit, shit, shit-"

Because a massive vehicle had just blocked their way, stopping them from reversing.

"HEY!" JJ opened the door and leaned out of it. "We were about to back up-!"

"What are you doing?!" Kie yelled.

"You literally had to do that now-? Wait, Pope!"

Pope had just opened the door and ran out the car, yelling behind him. "We've got to know where they're meeting!"

JJ looked around at Elora, Tyler and Kie. "We're going after him, right?"

"Hell yeah we are!" Elora shouted, getting out without a second thought, JJ, Kie and Tyler following her.

"Go!"

They ran in the direction Pope had gone, back towards where Gavin had pulled in. Elora led the way, ducking past bushes and round hedges, bellowing. "POPE!"

She saw him up ahead, vaulting the fence, and sprinted faster, the wood chafing her hands as she approached it, pushing her body upwards and jumping straight over.

They were in a Kook's backyard, where two boys and three girls were in a pool.

"Yo, Pope!" One of the girls yelled, as the boy ran past, tripping over a swing set and falling to the ground.

"Sean?!" JJ shouted to one of the boys as the three of them rounded the corner. "Oh this is where you live, you Kook!"

Elora snorted, but quickly became solemn as they approached Pope, still with both of the airpods in his ears, peeking over the hedge at Gavin's car.

"Pope?" Elora demanded, panting slightly as they approached him. "Pope, you alright?"

He had wide eyes and shaky hands as he turned, but a smile was growing on his face.

"What? What does that mean?" Kie asked warily.

"Did you find out anything else?" Tyler posed.

"He- he's meeting Ward right now!" Pope burst out. "We gotta go! Come on! Come on!"

And, no questions asked, they followed him.

Because that's what the Pogues did.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

It was raining heavily by the time Elora, Tyler, Kie, JJ and Pope got to the meeting point; a construction site near a surf shop.

They were crouched behind a fence, all five of them squished in, Pope in the middle with a weird camera thing.

"Nice camera," JJ commented to him as they waited. "Where'd you dig up that relic?"

"Why don't you just use your phone?" Tyler joined in.

"Well first of all, I like my antique electronics," Pope reasoned. "Second of all, this is a telephoto. It allows me to get a close image from far away."

"Lord of the dorks," Kie commented with a roll of the eyes.

"For definitive proof of witness payoff, we're gonna need quality glass," Pope shot back.

"Shut up with your big words, there he is!" Elora said, nudging Pope in the side and turning everyone's attention back to the street.

Where Ward was running, also drenched, face scrunched up in a mixture of fury and fear and a huge duffel bag of what Elora presumed was money inside.

"Yo, get down!" JJ said as he passed, all five of them ducking down below the fence.

Once he was past them, they popped up again, and saw Gavin, looking equally as worried as he met up with Ward, who said nothing as he beckoned him forward and into some scaffolding.

"Where are you going, you son of a bitch?" Pope muttered, as both of them disappeared inside the scaffolding. Pope growled slightly, cursing. "Shit! Shit, I've lost him!"

"Fuck," Tyler clenched his fists. "Where's he going?"

JJ, meanwhile, was looking about, running back the way they came to get to the fence and whistling to grab their attention. "Yo! I think I found something! Come here!"

They followed him without question, running out behind the building and around to where a brick wall and a ladder were.

"Gotta go up top!" JJ said, leading the way as he hopped up the ladder. Elora was quick to follow him, and the others behind her.

Soon enough, they were up on the roof of the building, crouched low against the rain turning to hail, Pope raising the telephoto to his eye.

"You rolling, Pope?" JJ asked as Elora looked directly in front of them.

To where Ward and Gavin were standing, opposite each other, a considerable distance between them, each man looking guarded.

"Yeah, I got em," Pope nodded.

They couldn't hear what Gavin and Ward were saying anymore, due to the fact that the airpods were gone, but Pope could see pretty clearly through his device.

"Ward just handed Gavin something, I think it's a duffel bag," he narrated to them whilst filming.

"It's his fucking money," Elora snarled, narrowing her eyes to try and see what was happening better. "This is totally a payoff."

She shivered slightly, only in a tank top and shorts on the roof in the rain, hair coiling in wet red strands around her head.

"Gavin doesn't look happy about something," Pope announced. "It looks like he's yelling at Ward."

"Why?" Kie sighed.

"I don't know, but he sure looks mad."

It was another second of crouching on the stupid rooftop in the freezing cold hail before the men launched themselves at each other, none of the Pogues needing Pope to narrate that to them.

"Shit!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"What's going on?"

"I dunno, they're fighting over something," Pope said hurriedly.

"They're really going at it," JJ added, as they saw punches being thrown and wrestles taking place.

"Ward's kicking the shit outta Gavin!" Pope said loudly.

"What are they fighting over?" Tyler demanded.

"I don't know! I'm trying to see!"

But none of them needed a telephoto to see one of the figures (Ward) throwing the other (Gavin) backwards and him hitting his head on one of the wooden barriers.

However, it was helpful when Pope told them. "Holy shit, Ward's got a gun."

"I bet that's the murder weapon," Kie snarled.

Elora watched as Ward pulled Gavin up, leaning low and presumably saying something to him before making to walk away.

He didn't make it two seconds before stopping.

And then he turned round and shot the man twice.

Elora wasn't sure who gasped louder. Her, Pope or Kie. All three of them went tense with wide eyes, and JJ and Tyler just stared. Then all five slid further down the rooftop, knowing Ward would be looking around for witnesses.

"What the fuck...?" Elora murmured, head in her hands.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Pope was breathing heavily.

"What the hell?" JJ muttered.

"No, no, no, that did not just happen!" Kie cried. "What is going on-?"

"Pope, please tell me you just got that bastard on camera," Elora looked at the boy.

Pope nodded, sneaking up to film again. "Enough to put this asshole away for life."

(However, just because Ward was going down for this, didn't mean Rafe was going down for killing Peterkin).

Elora chose to ignore that fact as she tuned back in on what was going on opposite them, seeing Ward still standing with the gun outstretched. Gavin staring at him, shot but still standing.

Then he launched at him, and the gun fired again. However, it clearly managed to get knocked out Ward's hands because next thing they all knew it was being thrown from the scaffolding, down to the ground.

"This is freaking crazy," Pope said, leaning up higher to get better footage.

Gavin was lying still now, and Ward was looking all around him.

"Get down! Get down, get down!"

"I think we should go right now," JJ said in a rare moment of wiseness. "Pope, you have enough, right?"

"Yeah."

The gun was getting washed futher and further towards the drain in the shower of rain, but Elora chose to ignore that fact as Pope shouted. "Hold on, he's coming out! I think he's looking for the gun!"

They all turned, watching Ward, duffel bag still in hand, running down from the scaffolding and towards the drain the gun was about to-

"I think the gun just went down the drain! He's looking for it!"

Ward was in fact now down on the ground, hand deep inside the drain, searching for it. The Pogues knew that it was long gone, though, and that he wasn't going to find it.

Then Kie handed Elora her backpack. "Hold this."

"Where are you going, Kie?" JJ demanded. "Kie-"

"What is wrong with you?!" Kie screamed, standing up. "MURDERER-"

"Kie, get down!"

JJ launched upwards, grabbing the shrieking brunette and clamping a hand down on her mouth before dragging her down.

"Kiara, are you crazy?" Pope demanded as Ward looked upwards, suddenly getting up because he clearly heard Kie.

"Why did you do that?" Tyler demanded.

"I don't care if he heard me! He's a murderer!" Kie shouted, tears in her eyes.

"Yeah, and he's gonna murder us if he sees us, Kie!" Elora hissed.

"Guys," Pope said urgently. "He sees us!"

"Are you serious?"

"Come on, we gotta go!"

"We gotta get the hell outta here! He's coming!"

"Go! Go, GO!"

Elora didn't know what happened climbing down that ladder, she really didn't.

She was freezing, yet sweating, her body shaking as she climbed down in a hurry not looking at where JJ, below her, was putting his h-

"ELLE, MY HAND-"

"URGH!"

Elora, JJ and Pope all yelled in horror as they watched JJ go hurtling off the ladder, pulling Pope down with him. It was as if they fell in slow motion to the other three, Tyler and Kie still up on the roof, until they hit the ground.

And the telephoto hit the ground with them.

"No!" Pope shouted, scrambling over to it. "No, no, no, no, no, no-"

"You're kidding me, you fumbled it?!" JJ demanded loudly.

"You kicked me in the face!" Pope yelled back.

"She stepped on my hand!" JJ pointed at Elle.

"I was trying to get down fast-"

"Guys! GUYS!" Tyler yelled, as both he and Kie got down the ladder. "We need to go!"

They all vaulted the fence they'd had to get over to get into their spot, tired and soaked to the skin and absolutely defeated.

But at least they didn't get caught.

And as they sat in the car, all panting and crying and wet, they just needed a moment.

"Could someone please fill me in on what the frick just happened?" JJ growled.

"AAARRGHH!" Pope yelled angrily, slamming his hands down on the steering wheel.

"Shit, shit, shit," Elora shook her head. "He just- he fucking shot him!"

"Wait, what were they fighting over?" Tyler brought up.

"Uh, uh, it was the gun, the one Rafe used to kill Peterkin," Pope explained.

"Of course! Of course, the murder weapon!" JJ nodded.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," Kie was begging, holding her phone.

"Wait, who are you calling?" Elora asked warily.

"Who do you think?"

"The cops?!" Elora screamed. "You're calling the cops right now-?!"

"Who else am I supposed to call-?"

"Why would you call the police? That's WARD!" JJ roared.

"Guys, guys, shut up!" Kie shrieked as the call connected. "Hello, er- someone's just been shot at the- at the Grand Street construction site! You guys need to hurry because he's dying! I don't know if her's already dead or not! You guys need to hurry!"

"We gotta get outta here, we're sitting ducks!" JJ announced as Kie hung up the phone.

"Yeah, we can't stay here-"

"So you want me to drive-?"

"Yeah drive, Kie! Just drive!"

But driving away didn't undo what they'd just seen.

Or what had just happened.