The Other Queen - Book 5 (Riverdale Season 5)

Strange Bedfellows - Part 1

 Aminity sat down at her desk in the sheriff station, looking over the list of the convicts still missing.

"This is Aminity Jones," she said as she picked up her phone.

"Aminity, this is Tabitha Tate."

"Hey, Tabitha. What's up?"

"Listen, I know that this is out of the blue and you probably have a lot on your plate with the prison break, but I can't find Jughead anywhere."

"What do you mean? Did he not show up for work?"

"I was supposed to watch him, long story-"

"Why?"
She sighed. "He had a writing deadline and had writer's block, so he was doing magic mushrooms in the bunker. He asked me to check in on him from time to time. I checked in twice and he was fine, but when I went back a third time he was missing and I'm worried about him."

"As awful as it is, when Jughead's writing, he gets into his head. Especially when he's doing drugs or drinking too. Sometimes he goes off the grid for a couple days at a time. But I'll see if I can reach him. I'll keep you updated."
"Thank you."

"Thank you." Aminity sighed as she put the phone down and Tom walked in.

"Archie and I are gonna go talk to one of the inmates who ended up in the hospital, see what information we can get out of him."

"Sounds good."

"Everything okay."

She licked her lips, hesitating. "Jughead's missing. It's probably nothing, but if you hear anything-"

"I'll keep an ear out."

"Thank you."

"Of course."

***

Aminity drank another cup of coffee while going through all the reports people had called in about the inmates when her phone rang again.

"Pea, now's not a good time. Besides, I thought you were helping clean up the school."

"You need to turn on the tv right now."

"What?"

"Just turn on the news." Aminity picked up the remote and turned on the tv in the office, seeing Governor Dooley with Hiram.

"... managed to round up the majority of these criminals, but we believe that there is a small group of escapees that are still at large in the town formerly known as Riverdale. Local philanthropist, Hiram Lodge, and I are offering a reward for any information that may lead to a safe capture of any and all prisoners."

"You've got to be kidding me," Aminity let out as Sweet Pea put her on speaker phone.

"Wait, so Hiram sets free a bunch of cons and now he's offering a reward for bringing them all back?" Fangs asked.

"It's a PR stunt to paint themselves as heroes," Kevin let out.

"Archie, where are you going?" Sweet Pea asked.

"We need money to fix this school and they're offering it. I'm rounding up some criminals and I'm cashing in."

"That's actually not a terrible idea," Aminity said. "I have a lot of tips coming in, but Tom and I can't get to them all."

"Alright, so where do we start?"

***

"Aminity, it's Tabitha."

"Hi. Have you heard anything? I still haven't."
"No, but I asked Betty to help. We've got it. I just want to give you one less thing to worry about."
"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Aminity hung up and walked back into Archie's kitchen.

"Everything okay?" Fangs asked her.

"Yeah. Let's get started," she said, ignoring the look Sweet Pea was giving her.

"Uncle Frank, my mom's building a case that should grant you early release because of the heroism you showed the night of the prison break. If you can help us find these convicts, it should bolster your chances."

"Oh, hell yeah, I'll help you find them. I might even know where some of these guys are hiding."

"I also heard of a group of convicts squatting in an old tuna fish warehouse out on the docks."

"I also got a couple tips about that," Aminity sorted through her papers.

"Great, we'll start there," Archie decided.

"No answer?" Fangs asked as Kevin walked back in the room.

"No. Straight to voicemail again. Thanks for asking."

"I talked to your dad earlier, Kev. He knew we were meeting here," Archie said.

"Well, it's Riverdale. He could be doing literally anything."

"Kevin's right," Aminity said. "He and I both had a long list of things to get done before coming here. Maybe he just got held up. We should just keep him in the loop so he can meet us later."

"Exactly. Onwards with the plan," Kevin said. "Are we going in armed?"

"Yeah. Batons, tasers, and zip ties all provided by the sheriff station. Thank you, Aminity."

"Anytime."

"No guns, minimal bloodshed. Let's go get them."