The Boy Who Loved The Girl Next Door | Betty Cooper

26. The Tell-Tale Heart

"The investigation's ongoing but apparently, it was a gruesome, gangland-style execution at the motel, with blood and brains splattered all over the duvet..." Kevin continued.

"Okay, Kev, we get it," Archie cut in quickly.

"I gotta go," Betty mumbled, getting up quickly.

"Gross, Kevin, now I'm not hungry anymore," Ricky mumbled sitting back.

***

Ricky sat in his room, Vegas laying on his bed next to him while he strummed his guitar quietly. His dad was downstairs talking to some agent which made him concerned and uneasy but his dad knew when he was eavesdropping so he made Ricky go upstairs.

Archie knocked lightly on his door as he came in. "Hey, can we talk?"

"Sure, what's up?" Ricky asked, writing a lyric down on his notebook.

Archie sat in Ricky's desk chair. "Okay, so you know that guy downstairs, Agent Adams?"

"I met him for like 2 seconds but yeah, why?" Ricky asked.

"Do you know why he's talking to dad?"

"I don't know, just said that he needed to ask dad a few questions, why do you look so stressed?" Archie only looked at him to which Ricky put down his guitar. "What did you do now?"

"Nothing, I..." he trailed before sighing, "You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, okay?"

"Okay, I won't," Ricky agreed softly.

"That guy downstairs, Agent Adams, he works with the FBI and he asked me a while ago to help bring down Hiram Lodge because Mr. Lodge has been doing shady business activities."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "You're a child, a teenager, why the hell would the big bad FBI ask you of all people to dig up Hiram's bullshit?"

"I don't know," he mumbled. "Probably because I'm with Ronnie."

"And you brought dad into this?"

"No, this is the one thing I asked for him, protection for dad and you in case things went bad."

Ricky looked at him completely. "Archie, have you done everything this guy has said?"

"...Almost."

"Almost? What does that mean?"

"He wanted me to dig up more things in case Mr. Lodge anything to do with a murder and I didn't follow through all the way."

"Jesus, Archie," he mumbled.

"I didn't think he'd come here, that's the one thing I asked him not to do."

He got up, trying to think. "Arch...this one of two things, this is a cracked out, insane FBI agent who won't stop at nothing to bring Hiram Lodge down, including hurting anyone you care about to get you to work on his level."

"What about the second one?"

"Or...he's not an FBI agent at all. He's probably one of Hiram's dogs trying to test your loyalty to him which sounds about right because you defending Hiram sounds like-"

"I'm not defending him," he quickly interrupted.

"Really? Cuz since Pickens day, I told you I had an ick, a bad feeling when it came to that man and to not get too close but it seems like at this point, you're head's stuck all the way up his ass."

"You don't even know him."

"I know he's the one that made a Serpent decapitate a statue which was pretty dumb but still, he's the one who's more than likely building on the properties that have been shut down in the past year. You don't know this guy either, he smart about this."