~♛~
"we know fp used his call from jail to get in touch with you. what did he say?" archie asked joaquin.
"it was basically just a warning— just to lay low." joaquin shrugged.
"no one uses their one call to say 'lay low'." veronica scoffed.
"joaquin, do you know something?" kevin asked. "i'm not talking to you as your boyfriend. i'm talking to you as the sheriff's son. did fp kill jason?"
"yeah." joaquin finally said. "i mean— i assume so."
"did you see him pull the trigger?"
"no, no. god, no."
"then why do you think he did it?" archie asked.
"on july 11th, i got a phone call in the middle of the night from fp. he said he needed help with with some cleanup job at the whyte wyrm."
"what job?"
"the basement of the whyte wyrm is off-limits to everyone. but that's where i met up with him, and that's where i saw that— that the boy had been shot. i never asked fp if he did it. i just— i mean, i was terrified. i just assumed. we stashed the body in the freezer, cleaned up the mess and got rid of any evidence."
"you are a criminal." kevin shook his head condescendingly.
"joaquin, fp has done jobs for my dad, hiram lodge, in the past." veronica explained. "do you think killing jason was one of them?"
joaquin shrugged. "there was one time i overheard a conversation between fp and mustang."
"who's mustang?"
"another serpent. he's the only other guy who knew about the cleanup. the one archie got in a fight with at the bar. i heard him tell fp something about some rich guy. i don't know who."
"where is mustang?"
"no, no, no. you do not wanna go see him." he shook his head.
"yes, i do." veronica crossed her arms. "now, are you going to take us, or—"
"—or i'm gonna tell my ad about your cleanup job." kevin threatened.
~♛~
archie, veronica and kevin climbed up the dirty motel steps; being led the way by the desantos boy.
"not that much money in crime and villainy, huh?" veronica said, inspecting the grimy motel.
"this is him." joaquin stopped them outside of room 226. "mustang, you here?" he called, pushing open the already unlocked door.
there was no reply, so the four wandered into the room, looking around for the serpent.
"oh my god..." archie gasped stopping in the door frame of the bathroom.
mustang's body was sprawled in the bathtub, his arm punctured with syringe pokes.
~♛~
"what were you doing here?" sheriff keller asked veronica and archie. the police had turned up at the scene, courtesy of kevin.
"we knew mustang was a serpent. we just wanted to talk to him to see if he knew anything about fp." the andrews boy explained.
"okay, veronica, this has to stop." hermione commanded. "why are you doing this?"
"mom..."
"what do you think happened in there?" fred asked the sheriff.
"likely an overdose. we're waiting to see the time of death. but it wouldn't surprise me if he was involved in jason's murder and was feelings the heat. how did you guys know he lived here?"
veronica and archie racked their brains for a lie to tell, but were interrupted by another policewoman.
"sheriff? i found this under his bed." she showed keller a brown bag full of money, with the letters 'h.l' engraved.
"hermione lodge? you mind explaining to me why your initials are on this bag?"
"not hermione lodge, sheriff." veronica answered for her mother. "hiram lodge.
my dad—"
"—veronica."
"—he was doing business with the serpents."
"and that's all we're saying until there's an attorney present." mrs lodge clarified, pushing her daughter back.
~♛~
"the police found another dead body." alice announced, walking into the blue and gold where betty, jughead and gracie were inspecting their murder board. "a southside serpent." gracie's ears pricked up. "and sheriff clueless is convinced that he was working with your father." she pointed at the jones siblings. "he allegedly committed suicide by overdose, and there was a bag of money that links him to hiram lodge. everything is tied up in a nice little bow. almost too perfect."
betty's phone began to chime and she picked up. "kevin? uh... okay. we'll meet you there." she hung up and looked over and kai and jug.
"change of plans."
~♛~
"whatever it is we're looking for, joaquin didn't know if it'd help your dad or potentially make things worse." kevin explained, as the four of them trudged through the woods, flashlights in hand.
"well, i guess we're gonna find out. and also— why did he take so long to tell us?"
"fp called him from jail. told him about their plan, some contingency plan. he said it was too dangerous."
they stopped by a sign for blossom maple syrup, and dug through the sticks and twigs next to it. jughead managed to pull out a backpack from beneath the wood, and carefully unzipped it, reaching his hand inside and pulling out...
jason blossom's letterman jacket.
~♛~
"how is this supposed to help my father?" gracie asked, looking down at the bulldog letterman.
she, jughead, kevin, betty and archie had retreated to the warmth of archie's garage. "it looks like incriminating evidence to me."
"yeah." jug shrugged. "this just confirms that my dad torched jason's getaway car. and that his confession was true."
"why would fp say jason's varsity jacket is dangerous?" betty asked. "what does that mean?"
"i can ask my father." veronica said, joining them in the garage. "he would know, considering we found concrete proof that he hired someone to kill jason. which... probably means that your dad pulled the trigger..." she looked at the jones siblings apologetically. "i'm sorry."
"no." betty shook her head. "no. no, i'm not giving up yet." she picked up the jacket and started inspecting it, rifling through all the pockets. "there's a hole in the pocket!" she said.
"now we're just grasping at straws." kev shook his head.
"i don't know about you guys, but whenever i have a hole in my pocket..." the blonde dug her hand deeper. "i always lose my chapstick in the lining." she pulled out a usb stick.
"what the hell?" kev exclaimed.
"nancy drew strikes again." the brunette girl chuckled in amazement.
"well, open your laptop then—"
they all gathered on the couch, and archie slid the usb into his laptop, and a video began to load on the screen.
the video played out as mustang taunting jason, who was tied up on a chair in the basement of the whyte wyrm. then, clifford blossom entering and taking the engagement ring from his son's grasp, before pocketing it and raising a gun to his head—
—and brutally shooting him to death.
betty slammed he computer screen down and everyone gasped from the haunting sight, tears streaking down their faces.
gracie whipped out her phone and dialled a number in.
"what are you doing?" archie asked.
she hushed him and put the phone to her ear. "cheryl? cheryl, please listen to me. i know i'm the last person you want to be hearing from right now, and i can't explain right now, but you need to get out of that house."
"i understand." cheryl said from the other end. "thank you, gracelyn."
~♛~
'later, we would learn that when my father confessed, it was because clifford blossom visited him on the night of his arrest with a threat.
that his children would suffer the same fate as jason blossom, if he didn't confess to the crime he didn't commit.
fp was protecting the jones siblings from a monster.
and the nightmare wasn't over yet.'
~♛~