The Only Beanie - Book 4 (Riverdale Season 4/5)

How to Get Away with Murder

 "Hey, have you heard from Jughead?" Betty asked as she came downstairs and found Aminity reading a book with Hot Dog in her lap.

"No. I haven't seen him or talked to him since the hearing at Stonewall yesterday. Why?"

"I haven't heard anything in a couple hours and I'm just starting to get worried. I'm gonna head over to Stonewall, see if he's there. I left something there anyway. He's probably just sleeping after last night."

"Probably. The only thing he can do more than eat is sleep," Aminity chuckled and Betty forced one too before heading out the door.

***

"Have you been able to get ahold of him?" Aminity checked with her father as he walked in the door. He only shook his head as he hung his hat up. "Me neither." She sighed, sitting on the couch. "Have you tried tracking his phone?"

"Tracking it?"

She cocked her head at his confusion. "Yeah. You know you can track it, right? It's what you do in case you lose it. You can ping it."

"Huh," he let out.

***

"Elizabeth," Alice stopped her as she came down the stairs, "can you come here for a moment?"

"What's going on?" she asked as she came to sit next to Aminity on the couch, across from her mother and FP.

"I got to admit, it was Aminity's idea. We've been calling Jug's phone. Of course, no answer. It's been going straight to voicemail, but then Aminity said that... That we should try to track it. That there's a way to, uh... To ping a lost phone. So we did that and sure enough, it started to... to ping."

"Where was it?" Betty asked, looking between them.

FP stood, pulling Jughead's phone out of his pocket and dropping it on the table. "In your jacket." He sat back down as she stared at it. "So I guess I'm wondering, Betty, what the hell are you doing with my missing son's phone?" She was quiet.

"Well, Elizabeth? Explain yourself."

"We're not trying to blame you," Aminity spoke up quietly next to her. "We just want to find my brother."

Betty took a breath and nodded. "Okay, uh, the night of the party, Jughead was talking about losing his phone. He thought he had lost it in the woods, but I reminded him that he had just left it here to charge before the party. It was dead, so we plugged it in to charge it... and when we left for the party, we must have forgot about it."

"Forgot about it?" FP demanded as he stood. "All this time."

"Yeah."

"Okay, how did it get into your jacket?" Alice asked as she leant forwards.

"I must've picked it up at some point."

"At some point?"

"Elizabeth," Alice stood, "Jughead is missing. You have his phone. You didn't think it was worth mentioning to anyone?"

"I don't know what to tell you, Mom. I'm worried, okay? This is the longest Jughead and I have gone without talking, even when we've been in a fight. So please forgive me if I'm not one hundred percent lucid about this."

"Can we not fight? Please?" Aminity asked as she hugged her legs to her chest, Hot Dog hopping onto the couch and putting his head on her knee. The room was quiet before Betty stood.

"I think we should declare Jughead a missing person, Mr. Jones. Can you do that? I'm losing my mind here."

***

"Anything new?" Sweet Pea asked over the phone the next day.

"A hiker found a bloody rock in the woods near the party. Charles is sending it to Quantico to get it tested. Now we just have to wait," she said, running a hand over her face.

"I wish I could be there with you," he sighed. "At least you've got your trusty companion," he tried to make her smile as he heard Hot Dog's collar as he jumped onto the bed next to her.

"Yeah," she said and he could tell that it wasn't working. "When are you gonna be back?"

"Probably tomorrow. Not long. I promise."

"Okay."

"You know I would be there if I could."

"I know. Just be careful, okay? You and Fangs."

"We will. Besides, it's nothing near as dangerous as we used to."

"I know, but I can't deal with anything else right now."

"Don't worry, Princess. I'll be fine and they'll find Jughead. Okay?"

She hesitated before nodding. "Okay."

***

Aminity walked outside first, Alice, Betty, and FP following. She stopped when she saw Sweet Pea's motorcycle in front of the house, him getting off.

"You're back," she smiled, running to him and he held her close as her nose buried in his chest.

"Hey, Princess," he kissed the top of her head. "Where are you guys going?"

She pulled away and looked up with a sad look. "Search party for Jughead. Half of the town's heading to woods near Stonewall."

"Then I'm coming too," he put his helmet back on.

***

The dogs barked as they all made their way through the woods with flashlights and the police, rain coming down on them.

"Jughead! Jughead!" everyone shouted at the top of their lungs, hoping to get some sort of response.

"Jug!"

"Jughead!" Aminity held Sweet Pea's hand, a flashlight in his other while she held Hot Dog's leash.

"Sheriff Jones, over here!" Archie yelled after a while of searching. "I think I found something." 

FP ran over, holding his hand out to the others as they tried to follow. "Stay back!"

***

Aminity, FP, and Betty walked through the halls of the morgue, Aminity's arms crossed as they passed the crowd of friends, Serpents, and reporters that had lined the hall. Aminity followed her father and brother's girlfriend into the room, the door closing behind them. She froze as she saw the body laying on the metal table, a sheet covering it. FP nodded at Dr. Curdle Jr. and he raised the sheet, Aminity's breath flying out of her. She turned, running out of the room and through the halls, Sweet Pea, Fangs, and Toni following her. Bret and Donna took advantage of the open door, looking in and seeing Jughead's body before Betty yelled and forced them out of the room. Aminity tripped as she made it out of the morgue, falling to her hands and knees on the pavement outside. Her breathing was erratic as tears came to her eyes, blood pounding in her ears as her friends came to her side.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Sweet Pea tried to soothe her, pulling her into his arms. He held her on the ground, Toni and Fangs joining their embrace, Aminity crying in the middle of the embrace of her friends.