CALAMITY ━ riverdale

xi

"Delilah...he admitted it."

"What?" She paused in the middle of tying the laces of her trainers.

"Last night. He confessed."

She didn't hear any words after that.

Jughead.

That's all Delilah was thinking as she ran out of the room, out of the house and down the streets - all the way to the station.

"I need to speak to FP Jones," she declared, out of breath, to the secretary at the desk.

The woman looked her up and down with distaste. "I'm not sure that-"

"Please," Delilah begged. "It's important."

"Delilah Evans?" She whipped round to see Sheriff Keller.

"Sheriff, I'd like to see Mr Jones - if I may. I'm a-a friend of Jughead's." she stumbled over the word friend. Not anymore. She had kind of put a stop to their 'friendship' at homecoming, hadn't she? "I won't be long, I just need to talk to him - please."

"Five minutes," Sheriff Keller relented, and Delilah nearly hugged the man. "Cell 14."

"Thank you!" She practically ran to the holding cell, itching with questions that needed to be answered. When she got to the cell, she immediately saw him; his head clutched in his hands, eyes focused on the floor. He looked up as she approached, and she forced herself to keep walking until she was three steps away from the white bars. "We need to talk."

ミ☆ミ

"Well if there's one person I wasn't expecting to visit, it was you," FP looked confused as he, like the receptionist had, assessed her from head to toe. She squirmed under his gaze, keeping her expression neutral as she, in turn, looked upon his unshaven face. "Come to talk on behalf of your aunt?"

Delilah shook her head. "Alice didn't send me."

"What can I do for you then, Miss Evans?"

"I need to know why you confessed," she jumped straight into it, not wanting to waste any time.

"Well, here's the thing, if a guilty suspect confesses - he usually gets a lesser punishment if he tells the truth." He said with an over exaggerated smile.

Delilah fought the urge to roll her eyes. "But here's the thing," she smiled right back, using his words. "You're not guilty."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Because you are a lot of things, Mr Jones, but murderer is not one of them." He didn't reply, and Delilah took a deep breath to continue. "I believe that you love your son very much - and whether he shows it or not he loves you too. You're one of the few things he has left, and you know it. I don't think you'd be dumb enough to screw up the relationship between you and Jughead more than you already have," she paused as FP stood from where he was sat on the stiff bed attached to the wall. "But I have to say, confessing is the easy route."

"Excuse me?"

"You're safe that way, you spend however many years in here - away from all the stress and effort of having to look after a teenage boy."