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

Killing Mr. Honey - Part 4

And so the dragon that had been terrorizing the halls of Riverdale High had been beaten. Vanquished. All that remained was giving it a proper burial.

"Hurry up," Jughead called. "It's almost dawn."
"How deep does this grave have to be?" Reggie asked as he, Archie, and Sweet Pea continued to dig.

"Deep. It's Riverdale."
"The sodium hydroxide will corrode the body, but the more we allow ourselves to cover our tracks the better," Aminity told them.

///

Pop's was abuzz with champagne and non-alcoholic sparkling cider.

Cheryl cleared her throat as she stepped up onto the counter. "Classmates," she addressed them, "mothers, fathers, Nana, prom is officially back on." They all cheered and clapped, some clinking their glasses. "So, I'd like to propose a toast. To generations united, together we have proved victorious. To all of us and to a senior prom we will never forget."

"Cheers!"

"And if I may speak for the grownups," Alice said, "we're just so very, very proud of you and the thoughtful, intelligent young adults you've become."

"You kids have been through a lot," Mary agreed. "Much more than we did when we were at Riverdale High." They chuckled.

"And we may not say it enough, but you mean the world to us."

"And although it may not always seem like it, we have your best interests at heart," Hiram said after Hermione.

"You worked hard, you deserve to celebrate," Tom raised his glass.

"My boy's gonna be the first Jones man to go to college! Whoo!" FP yelled, making them all laugh. They all clinked their glasses with each other, cheering as they celebrated, Pop turning the music up high.

///

They were supposed to feel relief. Honey was dead and buried. And they'd gotten away with it. They were free. Free to go back to talking about college and homework and prom.

"So, in terms of a theme for prom," Cheryl started as they all hung out in the lounge, "I was thinking 'Old Hollywood.'"
"I was going to suggest F. Scott Fitzgerald," Veronica told her, "The Beautiful and the Damned, but Old Hollywood Glamour works as well. Now, how many limos should we get?"

"How can you talk about prom," Reggie blurted out, "and limos after what we did last night?" They all sat up straighter and voices went quieter.

"Hey, Reggie, shut the hell up right now," Betty told him.

"All I'm saying is that last night was seriously messed up."

"Reg-"

"Guys, I was just in the front office and I saw Mrs. Bell talking to the police," Kevin said as he walked in.

"What? What were they talking about?" Archie asked.

"You know how Principal Honey's gone missing? Well, some Adventure Scouts were camping in the woods, found a pair of glasses that now belong to Mr. Honey. So now the police are suspecting foul play. They're canceling class, sending out a search party. Should we go sign up?" Reggie stood and ran out of the room.

"Uh, yeah," Aminity nodded, looking at Kevin. "We'll be right there."

///

"This is a great complication, Jug," Betty told him as she and Aminity finished reading the next section.

"You think so?"

"Yeah. I didn't really see it coming," Aminity agreed.

"Really?" You don't think the Adventure Scouts finding the glasses is too contrived?"

"No, they needed to come back in. I was wondering why you mentioned his glasses missing earlier. I like it," she told her brother.

"Guys, I was in the office just now," Kevin told him as he walked over to them in the lounge. "Mr. Honey asked me to find you. Said he wanted to see you asap."

"That's weird," Jughead said as they stood and went to the office.

"Charles," Betty said in surprise as they walked in. "Mr. Honey."

"What's up, Chuck?" Jughead asked.

"Well, a videotape was delivered to the school this morning," Honey told them. "I called Agent Smith and he told me that the three of you had been helping him with his case. I thought you might want to see this. Be warned, it's extremely unsettling." He started the tape and they watched the recording of the school. "Now, it's just the school's facade at first, but then..." he fast forwarded to show the camera going through the school.

"How long does this go on for?" Jughead asked,

"Hours. Whoever shot this video covered every inch of this school. I mean, every hallway, every classroom, the gym, the auditorium, the locker rooms. But what could it possible mean? Because it feels like a... I don't know. Like a warning. Or a threat. Wouldn't you agree, Agent Smith?"

"That's one way to interpret it, yes."

"Well, in that case," he took a breath, "seems I have no other option but to put the school on high alert. And despite the PTA's wishes, cancel prom. If this tape even suggests the possibility of violence against any of my students, every precaution must be taken, including curbing extracurricular activities." He looked at the three teens. "Will you let your friends know while alert your parents?"

"Mmm-hmm," Betty nodded before pushing Jughead out of the room and to the Blue and Gold office. Charles grabbed the tape and followed Aminity out. "This feels very wrong," she said after she closed the door.

"Completely agree. We know that our guy has moved on from simple recordings and onto recreations. This tape feels like he's backtracking."

"He's not," Aminity said simply and they all looked at her. "It's not the original voyeur. I've watched enough tapes to pick up a few things. The way he watched the school was different from the others. The placement. It didn't look like much, but the more I watched, it's a different type of filming. The camera quality is different."
"She's right," Jughead nodded. "It could be a hoax. The general public does not know our voyeur slash auteur has moved on to recreations, right?"

"Correct," Charles nodded.

"I'm following you guys. So, if someone wanted to pretend to be our auteur and didn't have the privileged information that we do, they would have shot a video exactly like the one Mr. Honey was sent. It's not a coincidence. Honey wants to cancel prom, he's conveniently sent a video that gives him the perfect excuse."

"Guys, unless we have conclusive proof that this videotape was made by someone other than our original guy, Honey's well within his rights to cancel prom."

"So then we catch the person who did this," Aminity shrugged.

"How do we do that?"

"You remember when we trained in the school with Dad?"

"Yeah."

"We catch catch our copycat the same way I caught Mr. Keller. Reflections. We watch the tape long and hard enough, there has to be a reflection in a piece of glass or a mirror somewhere in there."

"Okay. We need to review every second of that tape."

"No," Betty told him. "You have a story to write. We will watch the damn tape."

This episode has so many chapters! I don't know why I wrote so much for this episode, but I think there's gonna be two more chapters for this episode lol.