THE NEXT DAY DURING her free period, Marla spent her time in the newspaper room catching up on some Blue & Gold stuff. There were pictures from other photographers that needed to be approved and Marla didn't have the chance to check them because she was so busy running around town looking for clues.

She spread out the pile of photos that was on the table and put them into two groups — approved and disapproved. The approved ones would be sent to the writers so they could incorporate them into their story and the disapproved ones would be touched up or disposed.

Making her way through the pile, Marla was close to the bottom when she found a particularly odd photo. Pulling it out to get a better look, she gasped and dropped the picture once she realized what it was of.

It was of a dead body.

Moreover, it was Dilton's dead body. And from the looks of it, the pictures seemed to have been taken at a coroner's office where his body was being examined. she looked through the other photos — one of them was of his back, where there seemed to be markings carved into it. In another one, his lips were blue.

Marla was quick to take a few snapshots of the photos with her phone before compiling them all and putting them into an empty filing cabinet. She made her way to the student lounge to tell Betty what she saw but soon stopped when she saw Betty and Jughead talking to Ethel Muggs. She moved into a corner where they wouldn't see her and began to eavesdrop.

Jughead was dangling something in front Ethel that looked like a literal stick figure. "What is this? The Gargoyle King?" Marla heard Jughead ask. "Where did you get that?" Ethel asked instead of answering. Jughead climbed onto the couch and made himself comfortable before responding. "Ben's hospital room. What were you doing there, anyway?"

     Ethel looked frantically between Betty and Jughead before rushing to get up. "I don't have to tell you anything. You're not the police."

"Ethel, wait." Betty stopped her. Ethel was reluctant to listen, but she sat back down, anyway. "Jughead and I just want to know a couple of things. Starting with, are you and Ben. . .dating?"

    Ethel nodded. "Yes. But not in real life. In the game. Ben is actually dating Princess Etheline."

     Princess Etheline? thought Marla, what the —

     "Will Princess Etheline be able to show us any of this?" asked Betty. "Well," Ethel looked to Betty and then Jughead, "Dilton has a bunker out in the woods."

     "Dilton has a bunker," Jughead commented.

     "It's really hard to describe."

     "Can you at least show us where the bunker is?" asked Betty, eyebrows raised and anticipating an answer. "Sure," Ethel answered. "After school. Now if you'll excuse me." She was quick to get up and leave their presence. Betty and Jughead gave each other a high-five before going their separate ways and to their next class.

     Marla came out of her hiding spot to grab Betty by the forearm to stop her so she could talk to her. "God, Marla! You scared me. Were you there the entire time?" Betty's eyes were wide as she clutched her hand over her heart.

"Betty, I need to show you something. They're. . .ridiculous." Marla pulled her phone from her pocket to show Betty the pictures she took. "That's a body, Bets. It's Dilton's body."

"Yeah, I know." Betty took Marla's phone so she could look at the photos properly. "Mars, where did you get these?"

"I saw them under a pile of other photos that needed to be approved before sending them to the editors." Marla shrugged. "I hid them in a file cabinet before anyone else could see. Why?"

"Jughead and I went to the coroner to see what was up with Dilton. He took those pictures of Dilton's body."

"What'd you find out?" Marla was giddy with excitement — their investigation was starting on the right foot.

"Look, I can't tell you right now or I'm gonna be late. I'll catch you up after Jug and I go to Dilton's bunker." Betty gave Marla's forearm an affirming squeeze. "Later, Marla. I'll meet you at Pop's."

"Okay," Marla agreed, a little deflated that she would have to wait three more hours before she could get the scoop, but excited nonetheless.

.｡.:*☆

"So, come on. Tell me. What'd you guys find out?" Marla took a forceful sip of her milkshake, trying to get the drink up before flipping her notepad to a new page. "Start with the pictures."

"Well," Betty started, "the coroner said that the symbols on Dilton's back may be Runic and that his lips were blue from a mix of Fresh-Aid and cyanide. Which was the cause of Dilton's death."

"Oh, my God," Marla mumbled as she wrote all this down, "So was it a murder or a suicide?"

"That's what he's having trouble trying to figure out."

"And what about the bunker?" asked Marla. "We found the game set up on a table and some pieces in a box," Betty responded.

"Did you take the manual?"

"No. How'd you know there was a manual?"

"I'm sure every board game has a manual on how to play the game, right?" Marla raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm sure Ethel would be upset that we touched Dilton's stuff and didn't put it back where it belonged," Betty responded. Marla nodded and continued to make notes. "I think we should do some research on those symbols. And maybe sometime when you're free, you could take me to the bunker. That okay?"

Betty nodded. "That sounds great. Saturday okay?"

"Saturday's perfect."

     Later that night before she went to bed, Marla entered all of her notes into her laptop and made a separate page for new notes on the symbols on Dilton's back. She then pinned the photo onto a wall decorated with red yarn, intertwining all the events to help her make more sense of this whole situation.

There were gaps she needed to fill, but those could wait for Saturday.