𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

010. Redfield.

     

     THE NEXT day, Josie and Kie show up at John B's together because JJ and John B sent them a message asking them to meet the others there where JJ tells them about seeing Ms. Lana about Scooter having John B's dad's compass. Pope sat on the couch with Josie as Kie sat on a chair across from them.

"We were outside like this," JJ explained as he leans against the brick wall, "and all we hear is just, bam! Bam! Bam! Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside. Alright? And I'm just looking at him, like-- wait, first off, look at this shit." JJ said as he walks to them, ruffling his hair. "Look at it." He says.

"Dandruff? That's disgusting, JJ." Josie says with a scrunched up face. "Okay, thank you," Pope says as he pushed JJ's arm so he can stop ruffling dandruff all over him and Josie. "Look at all that. Alright? That's paint." He corrected Josie who he now looked at. "At that point, I was just, like... I'm waiting for death." He says and Josie sighed, looking over at the others.

"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?" Pope asked, his hands to his forehead. "Yeah." JJ answered pretty quickly. "Um... Did you get a good description of them? What did they look like?" Pope asked as he looked up at the blond. "Yeah. Anything's helpful." Kie said as she pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Anything we can bring to a police report?" Josie said as she looked over at John B then JJ. "Burly." Is all JJ said as he looked at Pope and Josie. "Burly?" Pope says. "Yeah. You know, like--" "That's not very helpful." Kie cuts off JJ. "Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage." JJ said as he looks at them. "I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers." He added afterwards.

"Yeah. Yes. No, we know."

"Alright. So then I can tell you with full confidence, guys, these boys, these killers..." He leans against the brick wall again, panting as he now takes a drag from a cigarette he had lit up. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers, like narco square groupers? like Pablo Escobar square grouper?" Pope asked as JJ blows out smoke, "yeah, man." He answered right away. "You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie." Kie said, glancing from Pope to JJ then back to Pope. "Okay, so what does this square grouper look like?" Josie asked as she looked up at JJ.

"And don't say burly again," she added afterwards. "Yeah, specifically," Pope says, "you weren't there, bro!" JJ exclaimed as Pope continued, "because apparently, you don't know what to look for!" JJ looks at him. "Dude! I wasn't taking mental Polaroids the entire time, man. I was under duress, okay?" He said and Pope crossed his arms.

Josie sighs, glancing at Kie then Pope. "But I can tell you..." JJ takes a breath, a moment to calm down as Josie looked over at him again. "I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys, they're serious, serious hombres, man." It's quiet now, John B opening up the compass in his hands as JJ glanced around the porch.

"It's a heavy vibe right now. I'm not liking this very much." He said and Josie looked up at him. "Okay, why would they want the compass?" Kie asked them, looking at JJ. "That thing's a piece of shit. You couldn't even pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to." Pope said before looking up at John B. "No offense, John B. I know it's, like, in your family--" He said but John B turns to them, cutting him off, "the office." He said. "What?"

"My dad. My dad's office. He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research." John B said as he headed to the door so they all got up to follow him. "We use to laught at him all the time like he was actually gonna find it. But now that he's gone, I've just kinda... I just left it as he kept it." He said as he walked up to the door and stopped.