September first, 1998

11

"Dean, Klena" his boss ordered, looking at JD and Ollie, breaking him from his thoughts, "I want you two to focus on finding close friends of the kids, they may be harder to track now, but we still have a list of pupils from that year group somewhere in storage. Go back there and dig it out, there should be some other stuff like high school photos and all that, just see what you can find."

"Yes sir" they both said in unison, heading towards the basement where they kept old case files. At least this way JD had a way to see some of the records for himself to check if there was anything that could incriminate either himself or Veronica.

He wasn't looking forward to connecting with old classmates however. Again, it wouldn't be long before someone recognised him, especially since he had chosen not to change his name. Why did he ever think that would be a good idea?

He knew that most of the kids in their year had rushed at the first opportunity they could to leave Sherwood Ohio behind them. He had made sure to make tabs of anyone that was linked closely to the murders, like Duke, MacNamara and Martha, and had never intended to ever reach out to them. Now he was going to have to go out of his way to contact them and call them up for questioning, or else his boss could get suspicious.

"Hey Jason, you coming or what?" Ollie called out, rummaging though boxes of old case files. Reluctantly, JD followed in suit, rifling through  articles and documents, before he came across a box simply labelled "Westerberg".

Wow, he thought, they really didn't organise anything back in 1989, no wonder they got away with it so easily even after Veronica's confession. The contents of the box rattled around as he pulled it closer to the light, as though it was nothing more than an innocent memory trove he'd found in some ones attic. He blew the dust off its lid and looked down to see a myriad of newspaper clippings, photographs, notebooks, and even an old VHS copy of Miss Fleming's little shine a light extravaganza.

As he looked through its contents further, all the memories he had tried to suppress from that year came flooding back to him, as he found more and more souvenirs from his life of crime. There were Polaroids heather had taken with Veronica and the other girls, the red scrunchie she always wore, football trophies Ram and Kurt had won. Since none of this was actual evidence from the crime scene, it made sense why none of it was bagged up, though he still thought it was pretty weird that they had stored away all this crap.

Suddenly, he came across their senior year book from 1989, which sent yet another wave of worry coursing through his blood. He suddenly had flashbacks to one annoyingly hot day in September when their entire year had been forced together for a photo on the cheap, rickety football stand, as Heather Duke ordered them all to smile "for the year book". He remembered watching as Veronica had tried to sneak onto the back row where she was less likely to be seen, given how stupid the whole ordeal was, before Heather Chandler barked for her to sit on the front row with the three of them, "since our their outfits were fucking coordinated so just do it bitch". He remembered smirking to himself as she rolled her eyes, at that point probably unaware of his existence as it was only his second day.

"What have you got there?" one of their colleagues Kyle asked, surprising JD as he hadn't even heard him enter. Kyle was one of the people JD tried to avoid at all costs at work, being and obnoxious cow. Had they been back in high school, he may have served him up his signature hangover cure by now. Ollie climbed down from the top shelf.

"Dude, you could have told me you'd found the box for gods sake, I've been looking for ages!" he groaned.

"It's just the year book, nothing valuable" he mumbled, trying to hide it away. He hadn't had a chance to go through it and he was worried that there could be a photo of himself in it.

"No, let's go through it," Kyle ordered, "we've got nothing better to do, we can at least just laugh at the ugly kids or something!" He joked, causing JD to wince. He just kept telling himself that Veronica had said every one could be beautiful, and tried to ignore his comment.

"Okay, whatever" he said nonchalantly, although inside praying that he wasn't in it.

On the first page was that dreaded photo he had remembered. His eyes were drawn to the pale kid in the corner wearing the long, black trench coat, looking out of place from his perky classmates. He hoped he'd changed enough that Ollie wouldn't recognise him.

"Woah" Kyle laughed "those four in the front are HOT! You don't often get that in Sherwood Ohio, I'll tell you that for free!"

Of course, he was looking at the Heathers and Veronica. JD felt his fist clench a little to hear him speak like that about Veronica, but he was able to calm himself down.

"Hey man, which one would you take, Red, Yellow, Green or Blue?" He joked, unknowingly angering JD.

"They're real people, not colours" he warned "besides, one of them was killed, show a little more respect." At this, Ollie nodded, he himself annoyed with Kyle's casual sexism.

"Okay, calm down big guy. I don't know though, personally, I'd let blue do me any day of the week..."

At this, JD snatched the book away from him, burning with rage. He focused all his strength into not punching Kyle right there and then, knowing he'd loose his job.

"For fucks sake, calm down, it's not like you know her. Come on, admit it, you would screw her too..."

But his laughter was cut short as JD smacked him as hard as he could in the face with the book. Ollie watched shocked as Kyle tried to regain his footing, and attempted to return the punch, only for him to miss completely. As JD casually dodged the impact, he grabbed Kyle by his ears and smacked their heads together three times in a way that caused him little pain but knocked out Kyle. Ollie watched horrified as if it had all happened in slow motion, although at the same time it was nice to see Kyle get what he deserved.