✿
The garage door opens the next morning. Archie walks in and his eyes move from Jughead, who is fast asleep on the floor, to Mickey.
She looks down at herself and then at Jughead and realizes what it looks like. It's exactly what it looks like, but she doesn't want Archie to know that. She presses her finger to her lips, gesturing to Jughead, and then leads Archie outside of the garage.
"What the hell, Mickey?!" Archie roars in disbelief. "You're half naked!"
The morning chill hits her legs because all she's wearing is Jughead's flannel. "Archie, it's not like that," she lies. "I came to see how he was doing last night and we just talked. I crashed here just to make sure he was okay."
Doubt still plays on his face.
"For God's sake," Mickey huffs, "he's on the floor." Truth be told, Jughead is only on the floor because the couch was too small for the both of them to sleep on. It was barely big enough to do other things.
Archie studies her and decides to trust her word. "Fine. We're gonna go meet my Mom to talk about FP, so wake him up. And, Mick? Put on some pants."
She watches him go into the house through the backdoor. When the coast is clear, she goes back into the garage. Quietly, she pulls on her clothes from last night.
"Sneaking out?" Jughead sits up, using his elbows as support.
"I should go before Archie thinks something happened." Mickey squats down and pecks him on the lips. "We're good, right? I know people get weird after their first time, but...no big deal, right?"
"'No big deal?'" he repeats.
"I just mean that even though that was my first time, I'm good—more than good! Are you?"
He pulls his bottom lip in between his teeth and nods. "We'll talk later."
✿
That morning, Mickey went home, showered, and went to run errands. When she returned home in the afternoon, she walked in on Veronica and Archie looking pretty cozy.
Archie began telling Mickey about suspicions he has about Joaquin.
Mickey was tasked with calling Kevin and getting him to get Joaquin over to Archie's for a little interrogation.
At Archie's, Joaquin is put in the hot seat as Archie starts off with some pretty heavy accusations. "We know FP used his call from jail to get in touch with you."
Kevin leans on a crate and Veronica and Mickey stand together.
"What did he say?" Mickey asks.
"It was basically just a warning. Said to lay low," Joaquin shrugs.
Veronica crosses her arms over her chest, "No one uses their one call to say 'lay low.'"
Kevin leans down in front of his boyfriend. "Joaquin, do you know something? I'm not talking to you as your boyfriend, I'm talking to you as the Sheriff's son. Did FP kill Jason?" It's weird because Kevin is rarely this serious.
Joaquin is looking everywhere but at Kevin. It's like he's a little kid being scolded. "Yeah. I mean, I-I assume."
Kevin moves back to stand with the twins. "Oh, my God."
Veronica questions, "Did you see him pull the trigger?"
Joaquin finally looks up. "No, no. God, no"
Archie knits his thick brows together, "Then why do you think he did it?"
"On July eleventh, I got a phone call in the middle of the night from FP. Said he needed help with some clean-up job at the Whyte Wyrm." He's using his hands as he speaks and he looks like it physically pains him to explain this.
Mickey shakes her head in disbelief, "What job?"
The blue eyed Serpent continues, "The basement of the Whyte Wyrm is off limits to everyone, but that's where I met FP, and that's where I saw. He'd been shot. I never asked FP if he did it. I just—I mean, I was terrified. I-I just assumed. We stashed the body in the freezer, cleaned up the mess, got rid of any evidence."
Kevin's on the verge of tears as he looks at Joaquin in disgust, "You are a criminal."
"Joaquin, FP has done jobs for my dad, Hiram Lodge, in the past." Veronica's desperate for the truth. "Do you think killing Jason was one of them?"
Joaquin says, "There was one time I overheard a conversation between FP and Mustang "
"Who's Mustang?" Archie inquires.
"He's another Serpent. The only other guy who knew about the clean-up. The guy you got into a fight with at the Wyrm. I heard him tell FP something about some rich guy. I don't know who."
Mickey remembers Mustang. He's the guy from the bar, who cut FP and Mickey's conversation short because he was bothering Archie—and would've probably beat him up if FP didn't interfere.
Veronica asks, "Where is Mustang?"
"No, no, no, no. You do not want to go see him," Joaquin warns.
"Yes, I do," Veronica points at him. "And you're going to take us. Or—"
"Or I'm going to tell my Dad about your little clean-up job," Kevin threatens.
Joaquin agrees, happily, to take them to see Mustang after Kevin's threat.
The group ends up at a motel. The parking lot is filled with trash all over the concrete and the motel's outside lights and signs are flickering.
"Not that much money in local crime and villainy, huh?" Veronica remarks as they walk up to the second floor of the motel.
Joaquin stops in front of room 226. "This is him, here." He knocks on the door. Without invitation, he opens the door, "Mustang? You here?"
There are beer bottles, drugs, clothes, and just about everything else thrown around and on the floor.
Mickey grabs on to Archie's arm for comfort and safety. She leads him to the bathroom and pushes open the door. They both jump back slightly.
There's Mustang, dead in the tub.
"Oh, my God," Archie breathes.
The others join to see what they're looking at. Mustang has several needle marks on his arm and one needle is still injected. His entire body is pale with a blue undertone. Definitely dead.
Joaquin mutters, "I can't-I can't be here."
"Let's go call my Dad." Kevin follows Joaquin outside.
Soon, police and ambulance arrive and the motel becomes a crime scene, yellow tape and all. All the nosy motel guests are peeking their heads out their doors or they're looking through their windows.
Hermione is the first parent, other than Keller, to arrive. She reprimands the girls just with her eyes.
Mickey turns away from her to see Fred getting out of his car.
"Son," Fred approaches them.
"I'm okay. We all are," Archie assures.
Sheriff Keller walks up to the teens and asks, "What were you doing here in the first place? "
Archie answers, "We knew Mustang was a Serpent. We just wanted to talk to him, to see if he knew anything about FP."
Hermione grabs Veronica's wrist. "Veronica, this has to stop. Why are you doing this? And, Mickey, I expect more from you."
Fred asks Keller, "What do you think happened in there?"
"Likely an overdose. We're waiting to see a time of death, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was somehow involved in Jason's murder, and was feeling the heat." Keller looks between the three teens, "And how'd you know he even lived here?"
"Sheriff," a female deputy comes over, taking the attention off of the previous question. "Found it under his bed."
Mickey notices the bag she's holding.
The deputy opens it and reveals money inside of the bag.
The Sheriff looks at Hermione, "Hermione Lodge? Mind explaining to me why your initials are on this bag?"
Hermione stares blankly.
Before she can say anything, Mickey says, "Not Hermione Lodge, Sheriff." This was her father's dirty deal.
Veronica says, "Hiram Lodge. Our Dad."
"Girls!" Hermione chides.
Veronica continues, "He was doing business with the Serpents."
"And that's all we're saying until there's an attorney present," Hermione states.
The ride home is silent. No music and no talking. All of the emotions create this thick tension and it's suffocating.
It's not until they're in the safety of their home, that Hermione begins to sob. She can't even move away from the door because her knees feel week. She leans her back against the door and slides down.
Mickey and Veronica sit on each side of her, letting her cry and be vulnerable.
The moment only lasts a few minutes before their mother announces that she's going to her room for the rest of the night. "Try not to get into any more trouble."
Not even fifteen minutes later , both girls receive messages from Kevin, telling them to get to Archie's garage.
Archie is wearing Jason's varsity jacket when they arrive.
"This is a whole different level of creepy," Mickey states in utter shock.
"What the hell?" Veronica is looking in Betty's direction.
The blonde is holding up a USB drive.
"Nancy Drew strikes again," Kevin smiles.
Not wasting any time, Betty sticks the drive into Jughead's laptop and they all sit around it to see what pops up.
It's a surveillance video. Jason Blossom is tied up in the basement of that Southside bar. Mustang makes an appearance, taunting Jason and getting his kicks.
Then the unthinkable happens.
Clifford Blossom walks into the basement. Even more shockingly, he pulls out a gun and shoots his son without any hesitation. Jason's own father is the murderer. He killed his flesh and blood.
Betty closes the laptop and the room is deathly silent. Betty and Veronica are crying and the rest of them are breathing pretty heavy in distress from the bombshell.
Betty reaches for her phone and they all know who she's talking to when she says, "Get out of that house."
It's Cheryl.
Betty then calls her Mom, who shows up a few minutes later. Mrs. Cooper takes the drive and goes to give it in to the Sheriff.
✿
After such a long twenty-four hours, Mickey is glad when her and Veronica get back home. She kicks off her shoes and puts her bag down.
Hermione is standing by the fire.
Veronica instantly goes to hug their mother. "I'm sorry, Mom, that I ever thought that Dad..." she trails off.
The video cleared their Dad of the suspicions they had.
Mickey feels a little guilty. Her Dad is responsible for a lot of horrible things, but not murder. She was so quick to assume he was.
"Shh, mija," Hermione rubs Veronica's back. "Everyone makes mistakes." She looks at Mickey, "I have good news. Very good news."
Veronica pulls away from her, awaiting the announcement.
From the look on their mother's face, Mickey has an inkling.
"Your father's coming home."