A timeline was pieced together by the FBI with the assistance of several distraught childcare workers from Maple Street Early Learning Center.
At 10 AM, a phone call had been made to the daycare center. The woman who called claimed to be Elizabeth Jones, and informed the workers that her sister Polly would be arriving around 12:30 PM to take Bethany to a doctor's appointment.
They found nothing suspicious about the phone call, and made a note of it in their center's logbook.
Just after 12:30 PM, while Betty was arresting Cora's mother at the elementary school, a blonde woman entered the daycare's reception area.
The woman told a friendly worker that she was Mrs Jones' sister, Polly. The upbeat nineteen year old worker checked the daily notes, confirmed that Polly was due to arrive at 12:30 PM, and beckoned her into the babies and toddlers room.
"Polly" picked Bethany up from the floor, and greeted the baby warmly. Bethany stared up at her with an odd look; at the time, the young worker thought it was merely tiredness on Bethany's face. But upon further reflection, when prompted by the FBI, the worker considered that Bethany may have been confused and uncertain of her "aunt".
"Polly" apologised for forgetting her pin code to the electronic sign-in system, and asked the worker if she'd mind signing Bethany out for her. The worker apologised and said she'd need to get the center's director's permission to do so, and promptly called out to the older woman.
The worker thought, perhaps, that "Polly" seemed momentarily uncomfortable, but was in good spirits when the director opened the little gate that led into the room designated for older children. Emma Jones had tried to follow the director out, but that was a common occurrence for the energetic child and it wasn't given much overthought.
When Emma sounded panicked as she asked: "Why are you taking her?" the overworked and underpaid childcare workers assured Emma that everything was okay, Aunty Polly was just taking Bethany to the doctor. When Emma started to cry, and said: "I don't want you to take Bethy", that didn't seem unusual to the ladies either - after all, young children often got upset when their siblings were picked up from daycare early and they were left behind.
When "Polly" approached Emma, and crouched down beside the gate, the director busied herself with overriding the sign-in system. Both workers heard "Polly" tell Emma: "Don't worry, Emma. Everything will be fine. Can you give this to Daddy, please?" and the younger of the workers watched as "Polly" handed a folded piece of paper to the little girl.
"Polly" was entirely composed as she turned her back on the sniffling child. "So sorry to leave Emma in this state, ladies." She has said apologetically.
The director had waved her hand and said: "Not to worry, she'll be fine in five minutes. I'll sign Bethany out for you for now, and we'll get your pin code changed the next time you're in."
"Polly" grinned wide and thanked the girls for 'making this easy for her'.
This wasn't suspicious either. Bethany's "mother" had called ahead… and it wasn't like the workers had been warned that the Jones children were at a high risk of being kidnapped.
After all, Bethany's parents had never considered the possibility that Cora Carter might come after her.
Emma had been uncharacteristically quiet when her "aunt" left with her sister. Even after one of the workers encouraged her to put the folded note in her strawberry shaped backpack, Emma seemed forlorn and distressed. The workers did what they could to comfort Emma, but by 1:30 PM the child was still intermittently crying and asking them to call her Mommy. She periodically wanted her sister, and the workers' attempts to distract the three year old with toys and treats all went down in vain.
During nap time at 1:45 PM, while the director attempted to get Emma to go to sleep, another worker came in for a shift change. This worker's name was Nina Woods, who, with a look of anxiety, furiously whispered to her nineteen year old colleague that her older sister Nancy had informed her of an incident at the elementary school involving the parents of Emma and Bethany.
As Nina explained her wild story, and expressed her sympathies for the craziness in the lives of two of the children in their care, the nineteen year old worker's face paled as she stated: "I need to check something in Emma's backpack."
Five minutes later the director of the daycare center called 911.
…
Headlines about the kidnapping flooded the media.
Daughter of FPJ3 snatched from daycare by ex-wife, proclaimed one.
FPJ3's baby abducted in Riverdale, said another.
Amber Alert for child of popular author received by residents of New York State, was written by an online blog.
Of course, neither Jughead nor Betty saw any of these headlines. Not even the one that said: Remember the face of Bethany Jones, daughter of FPJ3. She is out there and you can help find her.
The parents were too preoccupied with trying to locate their baby girl to take any notice.
…
Screaming at your boss isn't technically a critical element of interrogating suspects in a kidnapping case, and yet Betty found herself doing exactly that.
"You need to let me talk to her!" Betty growled, her eyes wide and her fists clenched at her sides. "This woman is just as insane as her daughter! We're wasting time by arguing!"
But Director Lincoln was firm in his refusal of allowing Betty to lead the case against the Carter family. "You're right, we are. Every second that you stand here arguing with me is a second you could be using to search for your kid."
"She knows something! Cora lives with her. They have to be working together—"
"Betty." Lincoln snapped. "You are way too emotionally compromised for me to even consider letting you in that interrogation room."
"But—"
"The answer is no." Lincoln said, his face morphing into a stony expression. "We all want the same thing here, and that's to find your little girl and get her back. But that isn't going to happen if you're blazing around the station throwing accusations at potential witnesses."
Betty was so enraged that she couldn't speak. She turned her head towards the glass window beside them, and tried to take a few deep steadying breaths. Difficult to achieve as she locked eyes with Mrs Carter; the older woman had her arms crossed over her chest, seated between her youngest son Cainon, and the immaculately groomed lawyer that was representing them. Neither were under arrest, but Agent Wendy was clearly grilling them hard enough that the lawyer looked annoyed.
Betty spared another glare for Director Lincoln before she stormed out of the Sheriff's station.
…
Betty's head hit the steering wheel seconds after she buckled her seatbelt. Her heart was racing, so everything felt fast. But her mind was a sluggish minefield, which slowed down the very fabric of time. It was disconcerting, and Betty was reaching the end of the rope of her mental sanity.
Was this how her own mother had felt when she was missing?
Betty swallowed and slowly sat back against her car seat. No, Betty decided, m y mother knew I could fight back when I was taken… but Bethany…
Betty took in a gasping breath and forced herself not to cry. Somewhere in Riverdale, with the company of all their adult relatives and friends, and a significant portion of what remained of the South Side Serpents, Betty's husband was probably crying enough for the both of them. But no amount of tears were going to make the search party find Bethany any faster.
Truthfully, Betty doubted they were going to find the baby by searching the streets or the forest. Cora was too smart to not have an escape plan. But it was giving Jughead a task to focus on, and Betty wasn't about to rain on the only parade he had going that was keeping him from completely falling apart.
She grit her teeth as she started the car and drove the short distance to the Sheriff's station's parking lot exit. She almost made it to the boom gate when a car pulled in rather erratically and paused across both lanes. Betty's eyes narrowed as she took in the sight of the black haired driver…
It only took a few seconds of studying the make and model of the car to recognise that it belonged to Sweet Pea, and that the driver was Dagwood.
Betty grimaced as she shoved the gear stick into park and hurried out of the car. Dagwood did the same, leaving the rusty old Pontiac in the middle of the parking lot's entrance.
"What happened?" Betty demanded as Dagwood raced breathlessly to her side. He was heaving in gasps of air as she studied his distressed form. "Did they find…"
"No, no. God, I wish." Dagwood said, choking a cough. He knocked his fist against his chest. "Sorry, give me a sec."
"Daggy, we're in the middle of the road."
"I know. I know, I'm sorry." He straightened up and pushed some of his dishevelled locks of hair out of his face. "And… I hate myself for what I'm about to tell you." He said mournfully. "It goes against every intricate facet of the cousin bond."
Betty pinched the bridge of her nose. "Dagwood, I'm kind of in a hurry right now." Her eyes widened for a moment. "Hold on, you're meant to be watching all the kids with Juniper at Thornhill."
"Yes! I know, but… well, Juniper has everything under control, and Nanna Rose has plenty of creepy stories to entertain them all with." Dagwood squared his shoulders. "This can't wait, Aunt Betty. I'm only telling you in case it's somehow relevant to finding Beth. Juniper thinks it might be, so I'm… gonna have to snitch on Jordan."
Betty's eyebrows raised and she crossed her arms over her chest. "What did he do?"
Dagwood rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "So… have you ever heard of SpaceChat?"
Betty pursed her lips. "Yes…" The social media app had been a point of contention in their household for several months because Jordan really wanted to download it and Jughead vehemently refused to let him have it. Betty thought Jordan wouldn't give up on the topic… but he'd abruptly stopped begging Jughead to download the app sometime in the previous year.
Dagwood swallowed. "Well… Chandler let slip this afternoon that Jordan's been using it. Juniper cornered C away from the other kids, and he finally confessed that Jordan has been downloading the app and deleting it for months so that you and Uncle Jug don't figure out he has it."
"That's… sneaky." Betty's mind swirled. "Okay… I won't lie, any other day he'd be getting in trouble for it—"
"Yes, well." Dagwood huffed. "Before you think the sky isn't falling… Jordan has been talking to his cousins with it. His Carter cousins."
A cold rush of foreboding rolled through Betty's chest. "He has?"
Dagwood nodded. "Yeah. So Juniper thought there might be some sort of evidence on his account. And… please don't be mad, but… I kind of broke into your house - I put the alarm code in, don't worry, it's not still blaring - and I grabbed Jordan's tablet out of his room. It was really easy, actually, he had all his account details on auto fill—"
"Please get to the point." Betty said firmly.
"Right, right, sorry." Dagwood sighed. "Here, it's probably easier if I just show you." He nodded towards Sweet Pea's car, and Betty followed him, anticipation building inside her.
Dagwood opened the passenger door and leaned forward to retrieve the tablet in the glovebox. He stood straight and tapped the screen for a few moments, then turned the tablet around and showed it to Betty. She took it in her hands, her eyes scanning the screen.
She almost wanted to smirk in amusement as she saw Jordan's screen name: ToffeeTrain28 . A little green alien wearing a beanie was his profile photo. It reminded Betty of Facebook Messenger, only all the accounts had some kind of space-themed icon in lieu of photos, and all had screen names. She'd have to take a deep dive into SpaceChat another day, but for now she had plenty of information right beneath her fingertips in Jordan's messages to his cousins…
Most of whom were children of the Carter's.
Betty gave Dagwood some cash to go and get pizza for all the little people he was meant to be supervising, and he gave her a weak smile as he clumsily drove the car away from the station's parking lot. She'd assured him that he'd absolutely done the right thing by telling her, and he seemed relieved not to be in any grief for breaking into her house.
Betty parked her own car in a proper parking space before she delved through the messages.
She ignored Jordan's chat with "BigCDawg", determining pretty quickly that it was Chandler. It didn't take too much reasoning to figure out that "KristalMaria" was Jordan's nine year old cousin, a child of Caleb's. Kelly Carter hadn't spoken to Jordan as much as Kristal, or even Kain, and none of their recent chats gave away any information that could be used against the Carter family.
But Carlisle Carter's eight year old daughter, Liarah, had made a single statement a week earlier that gave Betty all the proof she needed to keep Mrs Carter under lock and key for the time being.
Betty practically exploded into the station. Her eyes blared with vengeance as she shoved open the glass doors and located Director Lincoln talking to Agent Wendy.
He sighed when he saw her. "We didn't get anything out of them."
"Well try harder." Betty spat. "I have evidence that Mrs Carter was conspiring with Cora to snatch Jordan."
Lincoln gave her, oddly, an impressed look. "What did you find?"
Betty held up Jordan's tablet. "A week ago, one of Mrs Carter's granddaughters told Jordan that her "Grandma" and "Aunty Cora" were going on vacation in Canada for a long time. They were set to leave tomorrow." She gripped the edges of the tablet a little tighter. "Jordan had plenty of questions about "Aunty Cora" which little Liarah Carter was all too happy to answer - provided, of course, that he didn't tell anyone, because it was supposed to be a secret, and she'd only found out by eavesdropping."
Lincoln's face went blank. "I assume you already know that Cora isn't permitted to leave the country until the end of her parole."
"Indeed." Betty said. "So the fact that she apparently has plans to do that the same time my daughter goes missing is a bit suspicious, isn't it?" She took a step towards the interrogation room. "I'd like to ask Mrs Carter a little more about her plans for leaving the country—"
"Jones, wait." Wendy said, and the desperation in her voice brought Betty up short. "The Carters… they're not here anymore."
Betty turned slowly to face them. "You let them leave?!"
"We had to." Lincoln said quickly. He hung his head in defeat. "Their lawyer… well, we had no legal grounds to keep them in the building…"
Betty spun back around. "I was in the parking lot that whole time! I didn't see them leave."
Lincoln groaned. "They asked to go out the side exit… they didn't want to walk past you to get to their car… it's parked up the street and—"
"I can't believe this!" Betty's voice had raised beyond her normal pitch. She hurried to the side exit with every intention of pulling her gun out of its holster and demanding that Mrs Carter - and Cainon Carter, for that matter - get the hell on the ground and stay there until they'd given up the location of Cora and… and Bethany.
But there was no sign of them, their lawyer, or Mrs Carter's white corolla anywhere in the vicinity.
…
It took the FBI over two hours to locate the corolla.
The pair of Carters had travelled to Centerville, a town that was almost as rough as Riverdale used to be under Hiram Lodge's governance, but which had significantly more hotels.
But, as Betty feared would be the case… Mrs Carter hadn't been there.
…
Jughead was deep in Fox Forest when he received a call from Betty. "Any news?" He asked, fearing what the answer might be.
"Not the news you're hoping for, but yes." She replied, her voice remarkably steady. Jughead leaned against a nearby tree as he waited for her to tell him the ghastly information. "The CliffsNotes version is that Mrs Carter is MIA, and Cainon is claiming that she was 'just going to get coffee' for them on the way to the hotel and has no idea where she could be. They drove there from Riverdale separately, and allegedly he didn't realise her car was even at his hotel. We used his phone to call Mrs Carter, but it went straight to voicemail. His car was at a hotel in Centerville, as was Mrs Carter's, which means she either left on foot…"
"Or she's met up with Cora." Jughead said glumly. He'd long passed holding back tears, and his body had settled into a crushing numbness that threatened to overtake his senses. "I got a call from Caleb. He offered to come to Riverdale and help search for…" He trailed off, but knew that Betty could hear the unsaid words.
"Tell him to stay in Long Island for now." Betty said seriously. "It's a long shot, but one of them might turn up in New York. And if he spots either of them…"
"I'll message him right now." Jughead said, and took a few steps away from the rest of the search party. It consisted of FP, Sweet Pea, Fangs and Toni, all of whom were giving him pitiful looks as he reached a hand out to support himself on a tree trunk. "Betty… I'm so sorry…" His words caught in his throat.
"It's not your fault, Juggie." She said, her pain revealing itself in her voice. "We're going to get her back."
When he'd finished speaking to his wife, and subsequently messaging Caleb to keep an eye out for his mother and sister in New York, he told the others to keep walking ahead. He needed a moment to collect himself…
He hadn't quite recovered when he received another phone call. He didn't recognise the phone number, but a force like a premonition hit him hard as he swiped open the call and held the phone up against his ear. "Where's my daughter, Cora?"
A shrill laugh echoed in his ears. "Aw, is that really all you have to say to me after all these years apart?"
The sound of her voice stabbed him hard, worse than any slap or shove - worse than the time she'd shattered his wrist with his own typewriter. The rest of the search party were too far ahead, none of them looking back towards him. Probably trying to give me privacy, he realised, but now would be the best time for somebody to invade it.
"I don't want to say anything to you." Jughead forced out around the lump in his throat. "I don't want anything to do with you unless you're going to tell me where you've taken my baby."
Cora still sounded gleeful as she spoke again. "Such a quiet little thing, our son's half-sister is." She said. "I can almost forget she's here with me."
Jughead forced his hands to stay steady as he clutched the phone tighter. "Please, I'm begging you… just bring her back. We can forget this ever happened."
Cora laughed again, but this time it was devoid of all emotion. "Oh, it's far too late for that! You've sent the cops after me. The whole country is out looking." She chuckled to herself. "The media absolutely loves this."
Jughead couldn't find the words to respond.
"You know the rules, Jughead." She said demurely. "You'll get your kid when I have Jordan back with me."
"That's not going to happen." Jughead said aggressively.
"Well, then I guess your new wife is going to have to go to bed wondering where her little blonde ray of sunshine is."
"Why are you doing this?" He choked out. "Why can't you just leave my family alone?"
"You know why." She said fiercely. "You vowed to love me until the day we died, and then you tore our family apart."
"I didn't do anything to you." Jughead said, his voice betraying his anguish. "I worshipped you, I did everything you ever asked me to. And that still wasn't enough. No, you just couldn't accept that I had other women in my life who cared about me, and you took it out on our son."
"A little hypocritical of you to say that considering you married your whore step-sister the second you had me out of the way." Her tone grew in malice. "Did you even wait until we were divorced before you jumped back in bed with her?"
"I'm not entertaining this conversation." Jughead said. He rubbed his eyes. He wished he had his glasses with him. The sun was setting, and the darkness of the forest was slowly making his vision blurry… or maybe it was his terror that was keeping him from seeing the area clearly. "I need proof that you haven't done something to Beth."
"Are you saying you don't trust me with your child?"
"I wouldn't even trust you with your own child."
Jughead felt his phone buzz against his face. He pulled it back to inspect the screen - an image had been sent to his messages from the same phone number. His heart almost stopped when he opened the image.
Bethany was seated on a bed, her little blonde curls and bright blue eyes staring upwards at the photographer. She seemed to be in the perfect condition she'd been in when he left for work that morning… but her tiny hands were wrapped around the barrel of a gun.
Jughead slowly held the phone back up to his ear.
"When you come to your senses," Cora said frostily, "you know how to contact me." Then she abruptly ended their phone call.
His heart was racing fast as he stared back down at the image of his baby girl, momentarily distracted by her gaze. The more he looked at her eyes, the more he recognised her fear… but his mind forced him to rationalise that perhaps he was projecting his own fear onto her. Bethany had no idea what level of danger she was in. Only seconds later he frowned… Bethany was sitting up against a golden coloured pillow, which took up most of the background… but there was a slight glimpse of the bed frame behind her. A white bed frame… with the hint of bronze, round metal embedded in the corner…
And Jughead recognised it.
He pulled his phone out to make another call, but this one wasn't to Cora.
Betty answered immediately. "Jug. I've been monitoring your phone."
"I know where Bethany is!" He said breathlessly, hope sliding into his heart for the first time that day. "Did you see the photo Cora sent?!"
"I did." She said quickly. "And we'd both recognise that bedframe anywhere."
Jughead and the rest of his search party wasted no time in circling back to his SUV. By the time they arrived at the Five Seasons Hotel, the only place in Riverdale that had the starkly recognisable white wooden bed frames with wrought iron circle embellishments, Betty and her fellow Agents had stormed the hotel.
Flustered hotel staff ambled about trying to assist the FBI in locating the correct room, and curious guests peeked their heads out of doors as the helmet and vest clad agents told Cora to come outside with her hands up. Betty felt a sick enjoyment at lifting her gun up to face the door.
Cora opened it slowly, and raised her eyebrows curiously. "Is there a problem, officers?"
Betty stepped forward. "Get on the ground. Lay on your stomach with your hands behind your back." She commanded. Cora gave her a blank look, but stepped backwards into the room and obeyed Betty's orders.
Betty let Lincoln take care of handcuffing the woman, who kept her piercing eyes on Betty's back as she cleared the room. Betty opened every drawer and checked under every surface with the assistance of Wendy and DeNiro. When Betty had finished searching the bathroom, going as far as to ensure Bethany hadn't been stuffed into the toilet bowl, she set her gaze into a glare as she approached Cora's deplorable form.
"Where," Betty said stiffly, "is my baby?"
Cora tilted her head to the side, her cheek pressed into the carpet as she smirked. "How should I know?"
Betty loaded the gun and pointed it at Cora's head. In her peripheral vision she saw Lincoln giving her a warning look, but she kept her eyes on Cora's when she said: "Tell me. Right now."
Cora looked at her for a long moment. "You know… it makes sense why Jughead was so obsessed with you." Her eyes lit up with glee. "He always did like being bossed around."
Betty had barely taken a step closer to Cora when Lincoln abruptly materialised in front of her. He held up his hands and gave her a pleading look. "Okay, she's not cooperating. But we'll take her to the station and interrogate her there."
Betty craned her neck around his shoulders to keep her glare on Cora. "I'm doing it. No arguments."
"Yes. I'll agree to that." Lincoln nodded. When Betty slowly lowered her gun, he stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Now, I want you to go downstairs and talk to the hotel staff. Find out if they saw anything useful. Wendy, go with her. DeNiro, help me get this piece of shit into the van…"
When Betty stalked towards the elevator, Wendy hot on her heels, she noted that some of the hotel guests had their phones out, and were pointing to the FBI Agents and talking with a mix of scandal and excitement as they tried to guess what was going on. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out who Cora was when they caught sight of her blonde hair, but Betty wasn't looking forward to the media speculation.
Especially since Bethany had absolutely not been located.
Betty flashed her badge at the reception staff when she arrived on the bottom floor. Two men dressed in maroon suits stared at her nervously as she approached. Wendy split in order to talk to the cleaning lady, and Betty tried to smooth her expression into an illusion of calm as she pulled a photo of Bethany out of her pocket and held it up to their eyesight.
"Have you seen this girl?" She asked.
Perhaps she hadn't been successful in calming her gaze, because the younger of the two men shivered. The older man, whose silvering hair suggested he was in his late fifties, shook his head and replied: "No, I'm sorry. I've been doing room service most of the day."
Betty set her gaze on the younger man. "And you?"
He shook a little as he nodded. "Yeah…" He cleared his throat. "Yes. She came in at around 1PM with that blonde woman in Room 32."
Betty's voice was devoid of emotion as she asked: "Are you aware that the woman and baby matched the description of an Amber Alert that went out around fifteen past two today?"
The man's face went red. "I… I turned my emergency alerts off…" He averted her gaze as his shoulders slumped. "I kept getting weather warnings in the middle of the night… they were just annoying, you know?"
Betty took a deep breath before responding. Yes, how annoying it must be to Riverdale residents that my daughter was kidnapped, she thought. She shoved Bethany's picture back into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "I need to know whether this woman has been in the hotel." She scrolled through her photos until she found a picture of Mrs Carter, screenshot from Cainon's Facebook page. When Betty held the photo up, both men inspected the screen and shook their heads. "Are you absolutely certain?"
The younger man squinted, and slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, she definitely hasn't been here. I would have seen her."
"And the baby?" Betty pressed. "When was she moved out of here?"
The receptionists both shared a glance. "Ahh…" said the younger man, "they… well, neither of them left the building. At least not through the front doors."
Betty bit her lips together in frustration. "Is there anywhere on the premises that she could have been hidden?" She straightened up and widened her eyes. "Actually… your fire escape. You have security cameras recording all the exit points, right?"
This time the older man blushed. "Maybe she could have hidden her in our maintenance room, or the laundry?" He looked nervous as he explained: "Our security cameras… are fakes. Hiram Lodge increased our rent so much that we couldn't afford to keep the real ones running… electricity bills were too high, you know… and usually if people think they're real then that's enough to deter criminals from trying anything…"
Betty felt every ounce of her energy deflating. "We'll be in touch." She reached up and pressed her earpiece. "I need a full scale search of the building conducted. Get the deputies to take care of it." She ordered through the receiver.
But in her heart, she knew that Bethany likely wouldn't still be here.
She heard a commotion happening by the front doors, and the voice of a disgruntled man saying: "I don't give a flying fuck if this is a crime scene! My daughter's in there!"
Betty looked over and saw Jughead trying to push past the FBI Agents stationed at the door. She walked over slowly, feeling the energy still draining out of her body as she asked the agents to let him through.
Jughead hurried past and reached out to Betty. "Did you get her?" When Betty merely stared at him, sorrow in her expression, he gripped her shoulders. "Betty, please, where's Beth?" He gasped out.
"She's…" Betty swallowed and shook her head. "She's not here."
Jughead tensed up. His fingers tightened their grasp. "What?" He breathed.
Betty's eyes finally filled with tears. "Juggie… she's gone." She coughed, and was completely unable to withhold the sobs as she collapsed into Jughead's arms.
…
Cora Carter must have inherited her evil smirk from her mother, because it was planted on her face almost immediately after Betty stepped into the interrogation room.
Don't fly off the handle and make me put you on leave, Lincoln had begged Betty before she opened the door. But at this point, the government could lock her up for the rest of her life for all she cared. If it got Bethany back in her arms she'd use whatever methods were necessary to get the truth out of Cora.
Even if those methods weren't strictly legal.
But she held herself together and met Cora with a level expression as she sat across from her. "Are you ready to talk?"
Cora's lips twitched. She stayed silent as she stared Betty down.
Betty sat ramrod straight. "Our search of your hotel room found some pretty incriminating evidence." She leaned forward just slightly. "Curly strands of blonde hair that I'm sure will be a match to Bethany Jones. And a bag stuffed in the air vent containing a revolver and fifty thousand dollars in cash." Cora's eyes narrowed slightly, but she stayed silent. Betty pushed on emotionlessly. "Where does a freshly released convict with a waitressing job get that kind of money?"
Cora raised her eyebrows. "Maybe I just get really great tips."
"Cut the bullshit." Betty growled. "You've been positively identified by three different witnesses. Regardless of the outcome, you're going away for a long time. So just give up the act."
"Regardless of the outcome?" Cora said sweetly. "You mean regardless of if you see your mini me again, right?"
Betty's hands balled into fists, but she kept them rested on top of her knees. "You tell me where she is, and we can cut you a deal." She said slowly. "How does ten years sound? We can put you in a different prison if you'd prefer."
Cora snorted. "I'm not negotiating anything."
"Suit yourself. I hope you enjoyed your stay in Riverdale. It'll be the last vacation you get for another… twenty five years, I'd say. Unless of course Bethany doesn't show up alive, then you'll be looking at life imprisonment, and believe me, I'll be making sure you get the maximum sentence."
Cora leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, but the smirk remained. "You talk about the implication that your baby is dead with such… pragmatism. It's impressive." She said casually. "I at least cried when Jordan drowned."
"When you drowned him, you mean?" Betty's words slid out unintentionally. "To punish your husband for having the audacity to love him more than he loved you."
Cora's eyes flashed with fury for a fraction of a second - Betty almost considered the possibility that she imagined it. "I don't see an attempted murder charge on my record."
Betty pursed her lips for a moment as she pondered her next move; the thing that could make her say checkmate and knock Cora off the board. "Lucky for you or we wouldn't be having this conversation." She opened her fists and relaxed them against her knees. "Jordan was doing so much better without you in his life. He had separation anxiety and was scared of loud noises for months after you broke Jughead's arm."
"That's hardly my fault." Cora said, her smirk turning into a sneer. "The way Jughead would coddle him, it's a wonder he didn't just sew him up to his body."
"It still bugs you, doesn't it?" Betty asked, gaining confidence. "The fact that Jughead would pick Jordan over you. His wife." Her lips twitched. "It must sting so bad for you to still be harping on about it over half a decade later."
"Don't look so smug." Cora said, her sneer dropping. "He'd do the same to you. He's more obsessed with Jordan than anything else in the world. He'd push you in front of a bus if it meant keeping his kid alive."
"And what, exactly, makes you think I'd be any different?" Betty asked, her eyebrows raising quizzically. "Do you think I wouldn't do everything in my power to get Bethany back? Do you think I wouldn't kill for her?"
"Maybe. Bethany is your child, after all." The devilish grin was back on Cora's face. "But Jordan isn't. You can pretend, and play happy families all you want, but he'll never be your son. I gave birth to him. I brought him into this world. You'll never have a perfectly happy suburban life with a doting husband and kids because one of them doesn't belong to you. He's a stain in your family, one that is spilled in red ink that no amount of baking soda will get out of your carpet."
Betty let out a single surprised laugh. "Wow. So you threatening Jughead to make him hand Jordan over, that's what, a cleaning favour?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "I can't believe no publishing company wanted to work with your books. Your imagery is riveting."
"Fuck you."
Betty shrugged. "Whatever you say to me is irrelevant, you know. No amount of smart-ass quips or ridiculous metaphors are going to help you get out of here." Betty placed her hands on top of the table. "And you're never going to see Jordan again. Any dreams you have of getting your family back together are nothing more than a psychotic fantasy."
Cora smiled. "Oh, I knew Jughead wasn't going to give Jordan back to me." She said, then leaned forward and lowered her voice. "He's far too predictable for that. I knew he'd just go running to you. And since he didn't fulfil his part of our arrangement," she practically whispered, "I made sure that there's no possible way to fulfil mine. Bethany is nothing more than a ghost."
Anger raised in Betty like an aggressive Cobra. "What did you do to her?"
Cora had the nerve to giggle. "Me? I didn't do anything to her." Her smirk crept back onto her face. "You know… there's something so… mouldable about babies, don't you think?" Betty's heart pounded in her chest as Cora continued: "They're a blank slate. Especially the ones who can't talk yet. They don't even know their own names." She stared unblinkingly into Betty's eyes. "And pretty little blonde girls with baby blue eyes? Well," she said, her mouth widening into an all-out grin, "those are the ones with quite the high market value. I'd say there are people out there who'd pay anything to get their hands on a child like that. Maybe even… fifty thousand dollars."
The Cobra inside of Betty struck out to bite. She stood up so fast that her chair toppled sideways and crashed to the floor with a loud bang. She grabbed Cora by the sides of her collar, and pulled her roughly up to her eye level.
The door to the interrogation slammed open. "Stand down, Agent Jones."
"Lincoln I'm not listening to your bullshit—"
"Stand. Down."
Betty released Cora's shirt. She stumbled back into her chair with a devious grin. "She just assaulted me." Cora said breathlessly, and turned her gaze to Lincoln. "You saw that. I want to talk to my lawyer."
"In good time." Lincoln muttered, then turned Betty around towards the door.
When they were on the other side of the glass window, the door clicking as it locked, Betty turned her furious glare on Lincoln. "That wasn't assault."
"I don't give a damn what it was, Jones. You're done." Lincoln said angrily.
Betty's eyes flashed with malice. "You're not taking me off my daughter's case!"
"Oh, I'm taking you off all cases, Betty. You're suspended."
"Suspended?!" Betty screeched. "I didn't do anything to her!"
"You're one misstep away from choking Carter to death! I can't have my agents working on a missing person's case when they're too emotional to handle our suspects reasonably!"
"This isn't just a missing person's case! She sold my baby on the black market!"
"Betty." The Director snapped. "If you were thinking with even a shred of rationality you would realise that she's messing with you." Lincoln eyed her with a mix of frustration and regret. "The most likely scenario is that she's smuggled Bethany to her mother for safekeeping until she can scare you into giving her what she wants." He ran his hand over his face and sighed. "Go home. Your husband has called me three times, and I'm sure your other children are desperate to see their mother."
Betty's shoulders heaved as she stared at Lincoln in disbelief. "Lincoln, if we don't locate her within the first forty-eight hours after her abduction then her chances of being found alive are bleak."
"Which is exactly why we have three branches of the FBI and local law enforcement working on locating Mrs Carter and Bethany." Lincoln retorted frostily. "We're going to do everything we can to find your daughter. I promise you that. But right now I don't trust your judgment in handling the evidence with caution."
…
Betty didn't go home, but she did call Jughead as she drove away from the Sheriff's station and made her way to FBI headquarters. She was glad to hear that his voice still held a shred of hope that they'd find their daughter, because Betty was dying inside faster and faster with every minute that passed.
Jellybean and Britta had arrived in Riverdale while Betty was interrogating Cora. The pair were keeping Emma and Jordan occupied while Jughead searched through thousands of social media posts that claimed to have photos of Bethany in the streets of New York.
"All of them are bogus." Jughead said, frustration and defeat in his voice. "I can't believe how many blonde haired toddlers there are in NYC." He let out a groan. "At least people are trying to help, I guess…"
"The New York FBI will be following up on any real leads, Jug." Betty said glumly. "And in any case… Lincoln thinks Beth's with Cora's mother."
"It makes sense." Jughead agreed. "Who else would Cora trust to keep her dirty secrets hidden?"
Betty pulled the car into the basement parking lot. When she parked she closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. She took a few calming breaths to steady her breathing, then Jughead spoke again.
"When are you coming back?" He asked softly.
Betty opened her eyes slowly. "I need to go over some of our files… so probably not until late."
"I understand." Jughead said, his voice betraying his exhaustion. "The kids have been asking for you."
Betty swallowed as something inside her chest started to hurt. "Tell them I love them for me." She said quietly. "And that… I'm trying to make sure their sister comes home."
"She will, Betts." Jughead said, his voice shaking. "We're going to get her back."
"Yeah…" Betty gasped out. "We will…" She took her phone off of speaker mode and held it to her ear as she stepped out of the car. "I love you."
"Love you too."
There weren't many agents still in the building when she made her way to her desk. One of the young trainees gave her a sad smile as she passed, and Betty nodded her head as she settled into her computer. She had to hurry to find what she needed; she doubted that Lincoln would actually lock her out of the FBI databases despite his declaration that she was suspended, but she didn't want to take the chance, and it was likely that he'd show up to headquarters before their closing hours.
She pulled up everything they had on Bethany Jones.
DeNiro may be an older member of their headquarters, but he was thorough with uploading evidence to their database. She searched through the records they'd obtained from the Five Season's Hotel, and located the log-book from that day.
She read over it quickly and frowned when she didn't see Cora's name listed. It took her a few moments of staring at the screen before she rolled her eyes and realised Cora would have used a fake name.
Maybe Lincoln's right, Betty thought, bemused, I am overlooking things because I'm not thinking clearly. She placed her hands on top of the desk and tried to implement some of the therapeutic techniques she'd learned at Shady Grove to ground herself. I can feel the wooden desk, and the chair beneath me. She took another slow breath and closed her eyes. I can hear the trainee brewing coffee. I can taste the blood from where I've bitten my lip. She opened her eyes and stared at the computer screen again. I can see the names of all the hotel guests— she paused her meditation and raised her eyebrows.
A woman named Bella Jensen had checked in at 1 PM.
The name was obviously Cora's pseudonym, but why that name specifically? It looked familiar to Betty somehow… but she couldn't quite place it. Bella Jensen, Bella Jensen… she repeated the name to herself several more times before she realised what she was seeing.
"Hmmm…" She mumbled to herself.
"Ah, sorry Agent Jones, did you ask me something?" The trainee asked, giving her a worried look.
Betty shook her head. "No, sorry. Just musing to myself."
The trainee lifted up her foam coffee cup and took a step towards her. "Um, I'm sure you have a lot to do with your kid's case… so…" she gave Betty a tentative smile, "if there's anything I can do to help…?"
"Thanks, Hannah." Betty said, sighing. "I'll let you know… actually." She looked up and gave the trainee a curious look. "The name 'Bella Jensen' doesn't ring any bells, does it?"
To her surprise, Hannah blushed. "Um… yeah?" She cringed a little, but nodded. "Isn't she a porn star or something?"
That had most certainly not been the link Betty was looking for, but she found herself opening a Google page and typing Bella Jensen porn into the search bar anyway.
"Damn." Betty said, surprise distracting her from her grief. Her eyes scanned several images of Cora in various stages of undress, and noted several links to different pages on adult websites. "You're right."
"Well, yeah." She said, letting out a nervous laugh. "My roommates follow her on OnlyFans. She's into some sick shit, apparently. Not that I've ever watched it."
"That explains where she got the money from…"
"I'm… not following." Hannah said awkwardly.
Betty gave her a tight smile. "Don't worry about it. Thanks for your help."
Hannah gave her a half-hearted salute and took a sip of her coffee as she walked towards her own desk.
Betty's eyes narrowed as she searched the page of results. She could probably find out what 'sick shit' Cora was apparently into by getting past her paywall, but the title of a PornHub link claimed that "Bella Jensen tortures bad boy into submission" and told Betty plenty more than she ever wanted to know.
"Where have I heard that name before?" Betty mumbled to herself. Bella… Jensen… She could figure this out. This was just another mystery that was begging to be solved.
Hold on, Betty realised, her eyes widening, Jensen is the surname of Jordan from The Outcasts. She straightened up and searched the title of Jughead's book into Google, but her mind connected the dots before the results even finished loading. And Bella is Jordan's love interest…
Betty pulled her notepad out from the drawer beneath her desk to scribble down her thoughts.
Cora's internet persona was named after Jughead's characters. Betty wasn't at Jughead and Cora's wedding, but she knew enough about it to recall that the bewitched groom had made some emotional speech about how his first book had brought them together.
Psychiatrist said Cora is 'fixated' on ex-husband, she wrote down beneath those notes. She was wearing Jughead's shirt…
She thought back to Jughead's depressed expression as he told Betty about his fight with Cora the night she'd tried to drown Jordan. His words rang in her ears as though he'd said them to her only seconds earlier rather than years previously: "…she's hurt that I love Jordan more than her… I thought she would want that… I hope she loves Jordan more than me… She's his mother. I want him to be her priority… She should love him more than anything else in the world. I do. There's nothing I wouldn't do for that kid… He's everything to me."
Jordan was everything to Jughead. All his kids were. There really wasn't anything he wouldn't do for them…
And Cora knew that.
But Cora's priority was never their son, Betty realised, writing her thoughts out like they were the new gospel, her priority was keeping control of Jughead to get what she wants, even if she had to use his child to do it…
Just like she'd done with Bethany.
But it wasn't Bethany that Cora wanted. And it wasn't really even Jordan.
Betty held her head in her hands and she let out a mournful sigh. It's Jughead that Cora wants.
And she wasn't going to stop until she got him.
The dark tendrils of an idea that went beyond any reasonable plan of action started formulating in Betty's mind…
…
It was three o'clock in the morning when Betty finally arrived home.
Jellybean and Jughead were seated at the kitchen table. Jughead's eyes were red and his cheeks wet, but he still gave her a small smile as she walked through the door.
Jellybean gave Betty a long hug before she left their house and headed to FP and Alice's to join Britta. When Betty and Jughead were finally alone, she had no words left to comfort her husband, but he still held her close as they tried to go to sleep.
Without their baby in the house with them, however, neither of them could drift off into a slumber, even when they both closed their eyes…
Betty jumped when her phone rang at 6 AM the next morning, but she wasn't surprised, and when she groggily spoke to the caller, she merely nodded to herself as she said: "Thank you for telling me."
Jughead sat up and gazed at her. "Who was that?"
"Director Lincoln. He was letting me know that Cora escaped from her cell."
Jughead stiffened and stared at her with a horrified expression. "What?! But she was at the Sheriff's station! How could she have gotten out?!"
Betty's voice was emotionless. "Someone knocked out the night guard and overided the electronic locking mechanism." She explained. "He only just woke up and discovered that one of his prisoners was missing."
Jughead kept staring at her. "You… don't look surprised."
"I'm not." Betty said flatly.
His face crumpled in confusion before he stated: "You let her get free?"
Betty stood up from the bed and made her way to the dresser. "It's the only way we're going to find Bethany."
"Betty!" Jughead choked out and rushed to clamber over her side of the bed and stand up beside her. "You let our daughter's kidnapper get free! How the hell do you expect to find Bethany if you don't even know where Cora is?!"
Betty pulled a clean shirt out of her drawer. "She isn't going to tell us where our daughter is. The only way we're getting her back is if we make her believe she's getting what she wants."
"She wants our son, Betty!" Jughead yelled. "You can't seriously be considering letting Jordan go with her."
Betty didn't respond as she replaced her pyjama shirt with a blouse.
Jughead's voice shook as he stared at her in shock. "You are. You're actually going to give him to her."
"This is the only way." Betty said simply.
Jughead's voice filled with distraught anger. "I'm not going to let you trade our kids!"
Betty grimaced as she turned to look at him. "I'm not going to let her keep him. I have a plan."
But Jughead wasn't to be consoled. "Well you'd better come up with a better fucking plan than that because your current one is bullshit!"
"Juggie, we're running out of time and Cora wants you." She said seriously. "And she is never going to admit to where she's hiding Bethany until she gets what she wants."
"That's not true! She made it very clear that it's Jordan that she wants."
Betty started shaking her head. "No. Cora's mother wants Jordan. That's why she's helping her." She reached out for Jughead's hand but he crossed his arms over his chest. "And when Cora gets you and Jordan then she'll be a lot less inclined to keep the location of her safe house a secret."
"Betty, this is unhinged!" Jughead's voice was pleading. "I don't care if she wants me. She can have me! But I can't put Jordan in the firing line."
"Jordan isn't our only child!" Betty said, her voice choking up as tears threatened to spill over her cheeks. "We have three kids, Jughead. And one of them is missing!"
Jughead's voice was tight with anger. "If you think even for a second that I'm not taking Beth's abduction as seriously as you are—"
"You know I don't think that!" Betty said, begging him to believe her. "Jughead, please, you have to trust me. When have I ever let you down before?"
Something inside Jughead snapped. "Jordan wouldn't even exist if you'd never let me down before!"
Silence hung in the air between them. A hot tear leaked out of Betty's eye. "That's not fair." She finally gasped out.
Jughead's expression filled with regret, but he stood firm as he said: "What's not fair is that you want to use our son as bait for a maniac!"
"Dad?"
Betty took a step back from Jughead and wiped her eyes. Jughead turned to face Jordan, who looked even smaller than usual in their doorway. "Jordan…" Jughead forced out. "How much of that did you hear?"
Jordan looked down at the ground. "You guys were yelling pretty loud." He mumbled.
Jughead sighed and moved to crouch down beside him. "I'm so sorry you heard that, Buddy." He said, placing his hand on Jordan's shoulder. "Me and Mom are just," he swallowed, "we're both really upset right now."
"Because Cora kidnapped Bethy?" The child asked.
Jughead nodded, his lips clamping together for a moment. He released them from his teeth and replied: "Yeah. Because of that."
Jordan looked up at his father. "I want to do it."
Jughead's eyebrows furrowed. "You… what?"
"I want to help." Jordan said seriously. "Mom said if you give her what she wants we can get Bethy back." His face was hard to read, and he took a shaky breath before he continued. "I'm brave like you are, Dad. I want to help Mommy get Beth back."
Jughead stared at his son, both anguish and pride bonding itself with his overwhelmingly stricken grief.
Betty kneeled down beside them. "You know I'm never going to let her keep you, right?" She said, and Jughead spared her a glance over his shoulder.
"I know, Mom." Jordan said confidently. "You're brave too."
…
Jughead's eyes had dark circles beneath them when he opened up his Instagram live stream. He inspected his appearance out of habit more than a desire to see how depressed he was. But he had a plan; or more accurately, Betty had a plan. It included a lot of chance and far too much involvement from their oldest child; Emma, at least, was safe with Alice for the day. But he did trust Betty, despite what he'd said to her only hours earlier. And if this was how she thought they'd get their daughter back… then he'd go along with it.
Even if the likelihood that her plan would fail was too high for him to reach with his stressed mind.
"I know you're watching." Jughead said glumly into the camera. He noted that almost ten thousand people were viewing the live stream. If Cora somehow wasn't watching the video, then no doubt at least one of the viewers would post a recording on some cringey YouTube channel. Jughead squared his shoulders as he pressed on. "I'm ready to do things your way." He picked up the hammer that was resting on his kitchen table. "Meet me at the place where you implied that Jordan's accident was my fault."
He placed the phone on top of the kitchen table then brought the hammer down on it hard. It shattered, pieces of glass spraying on either side as he brought the hammer down again.
The screen blinked into blackness.
Jughead pulled on a black hoodie as he ran into the garage. Betty was adjusting a helmet onto Jordan's head, and looked up at Jughead as he approached the motorbike.
"Been a while since I used this old thing." He mused as he secured his own helmet onto his head.
"I know." Betty mused, tucking a strand of her long brunette wig behind her ear. "I stole the plates from Old Man Dreyfus' junkyard last night. No one should be able to track you." Her phone rang out loudly, and she pulled it out of her pocket and grimaced. "Looks like the FBI saw your live stream. You'd better get on the road before we have a whole SWAT team in our house." She said as she turned off her cell phone.
Jughead nodded and lifted Jordan up onto the back of the motorbike. He lifted his own leg over the seat, and kick started the engine. Betty took out her keys and pressed the button that would open up their garage door, but he gave her an apologetic look before he took off. "Betty… about this morning. I didn't mean what I said—"
"I know." Betty said, and reached a hand out to stroke what she could reach of his cheek. She leaned to the side to look at Jordan. "Don't forget our secret."
"I won't, Mom." He replied, nodding. She smiled weakly at him.
Jughead gave Betty a confused look, but she shook her head. "It's better if you don't know." She said. Jughead could only nod as Betty leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. "Go. I'll see you later."
"I sure hope so, Betts." He said. "Hold on tight, Bud." He said over the roar of the bike, and when Jordan's arms wrapped around his waist tightly, he revved the engine and took off out of the garage doors.
Betty watched them leave, hoping that her plan would work. If it did, then she'd have her husband and kids back in her arms that night.
If it didn't…
Betty forced the negativity away as she jogged out of the garage. She paused only to click the button to close the doors, and kept a steady pace as she walked along the street. Sirens blared in the distance, but when the squad cars sped past her, none of them thought to stop for the 'brunette' woman walking alone…
…
The parking lot at Riverdale General Hospital had a lot of cars, but nobody was wandering around looking for anyone suspicious. Jughead could only hope it stayed that way as he dismounted the motorbike and lifted Jordan down onto the ground.
He pulled off his helmet and unbuckled the strap beneath Jordan's chin. "Are you okay?" He asked his son as he lifted the helmet off his head.
Jordan nodded, his face betraying no hint of fear. "We've got this, Dad."
Jughead gave him a tired laugh. "Come on, stay close to me." He said, taking the boy's hand as he led him over to the sheltered parking meter.
More than thirty minutes passed, and Jughead's nerves grew stronger as the possibility that the FBI would figure out where they were increased. Two new cars pulled into the parking lot, but the distracted drivers merely got out of their vehicles and set their sights on the hospital's front doors.
"Do you think she's still coming?" Jordan asked when another minute passed with no sign of his birth mother.
Jughead opened his mouth to respond, but a new voice appeared from behind him. "Oh, I'm sure your real mother is right around the corner."
Jughead turned around to look at Cora. She was stepping out from behind the shelter, a stony expression on her face. Seeing her again was like looking into the face of all his worst nightmares rolled into one. Like a stab directly into the heart, twisting around until it found the perfect way to slice his arteries. Like a dried up desert, the kind that stretched out for miles and provided no relief from the blistering heat.
"You certainly took your time." He mused sarcastically.
Cora shrugged, keeping her eyes on him. "I had to make sure the feds weren't lurking around. And it was difficult to get out of the abandoned comic book store unseen. There's cops everywhere on the South Side." She stepped forward and began patting down Jughead's pockets. "Well, no phone I see. But I'm sure your wife is smarter than that." She roughly pulled Jordan closer and reached into the pocket's of his jacket.
Jughead froze as she pulled out his old cell phone, the one that was still connected to his iCloud account and most definitely still connected to the hospital's wifi. Jordan looked up at him, a hint of terror in his eyes as she said: "Nice try." and slammed the phone on the ground then shoved her heel into the glass.
Jughead felt his own fear increasing as the screen shattered.
She reached out and grabbed Jughead on the arm, then pulled a gun out of her waistband. She held it up against Jughead's back and pushed him forward. "Hurry up. I have no doubt that your wife was trying to pull a fast one on me. Now keep up, Jordan, I don't have time to explain to you how important it is that you obey your mother."
"Where did you get another gun?" He asked, his eyes flicking over to hers.
Cora merely pressed the gun further into his back. "I liberated them both from Cainon's safe a few weeks ago."
"You stole them, you mean."
"He'll understand why. He gets me, unlike some men in my life."
As she led them both to the back of the hospital Jughead heard the telltale sound of sirens blaring in the distance. She guided them towards an old fashioned Camry. "Get in." She demanded, and Jughead resigned himself to getting into the passenger seat. Jordan obediently slid into the back seat, and his eyes were wide. Cora slowly walked to the driver's side, and Jughead turned to look back at Jordan.
Jordan held a finger up to his lips and winked.
Startled, Jughead whipped his head back to stare forward as Cora opened the car door. She slammed the door shut and started the engine. "So nice to have the family back together, don't you think?" She asked. She was greeted with silence, and let out a dreadful laugh. "Such gloomy faces you both have. It's almost like you aren't both happy to see me!"
Jughead kept his gaze on the windshield. "Funny, that."
Cora rolled her eyes and started the drive away from the hospital. "I need you to tell me somewhere we can go to wait this out. I'm sure Betty has the FBI keeping track of all the highways."
Maybe not, considering she'd been suspended and was doing all of this behind the FBI's back. Jughead slumped against the car seat. "Yeah… I know a place."
"Excellent. I hope you haven't lost your keen sense of direction." She nodded as he told her where to go - to a place that they wouldn't be followed.
There was a tense silence in the car as they drove towards the South Side. Jughead grit his teeth and broke it by saying: "I gave you what you wanted. Are you going to tell me where my daughter is now?"
Cora's shrill laugh echoed in his ears. "Oh, certainly. She's in NYC at the Hotel Carter." She grinned as she spared Jughead a glance before turning her eyes back to the road. "Fitting, don't you think?"
Jughead's jaw clenched. "What makes you think they aren't going to call the cops when they realise they're harbouring a kidnapped baby?"
"You pay those people enough cash and none of them ask questions." She said simply. "Besides, it's not like any of this matters - you aren't going to see her again…"
At a bench seat in Picken's Park, Betty finally turned on her cell phone. She was immediately bombarded with messages and voicemail notifications from the FBI and worried family members, but she ignored them as she tapped open her 'Always Find Me' app. She stared at her phone screen as she watched the little location dot move across a map of Riverdale. It manoeuvred closer and closer to Fox Forest, and Betty gripped the phone in her hands tighter as she realised where the trio was headed.
She closed the app and phoned Director Lincoln.
He was fuming when he answered. "Do you have any idea how much legal trouble you're in right now?!"
"Plenty." She said curtly. She kept her eyes on the road ahead of her and watched a green Camry drive past. Got you, she thought as her eyes caught sight of Cora in the driver's seat. "Are you locked on to my location?"
"Oh we will be in about sixty seconds! This is unbelievable Betty. How can you be so idiotic?!"
"Well, keep tracking me." Betty said as she stood up and began jogging in the direction of Fox Forest. "I'm going to lead you to Cora."
"She shouldn't even be out on the streets and I know you know that!"
"I had to save my daughter, Lincoln." Betty said calmly as she hurried up the road towards the forest. "Whatever the consequences of my actions are, I'll accept them without arguing."
"You're damned right you will! Good luck explaining this to a judge."
"Don't follow too closely." Betty requested as she reached the tree line. "If Cora sees the cops then she might do something impulsive. And I'm pretty sure she's armed."
"You're so beyond having the authority to make demands."
"Please." Betty begged. "For my kids' sake… just wait to storm inside the bunker until it's absolutely necessary." She said, then added: "And no sirens."
…
It took Betty longer than she would have liked to run to Dilton Doiley's bunker, but she was in excellent physical fitness and barely out of breath by the time she reached her destination. The green Camry was nearby, covered in dust and confirming that she'd come to the right place. She hadn't been back here since her second wedding anniversary, when Jughead had convinced her they needed one child free night to let loose and remind themselves that parents were allowed to have fun.
As she dropped her phone beside the hatch and set to work on opening it, she grimaced at the loud scraping sounds it made. Cora would realise that she'd been followed for sure now.
Betty took a deep breath before wrenching it open and forgoing the ladder all together. She leapt down into the hole, and cringed as her knees protested her hard landing.
Jughead was staring at her, pale and sweating with his hands tied behind his back. But Cora was closer, Jordan held up against her chest, the barrel of her gun pressed against his forehead. He was facing towards Betty, fear evident in his eyes but a relieved smile morphing on his lips as he said: "Mom, you found us!"
"Shut up." Cora demanded, her eyes glaring at Betty. Jordan clamped his lips shut, but he was holding his nerve remarkably well.
"Betty," Jughead said quickly, "Beth is—"
"One more word," Cora said harshly, "and I'll put a bullet in our son's brain." When nobody spoke, Cora's eyes narrowed as she stared Betty up and down. "How did you find us? I made sure we weren't followed."
Betty pulled off her brunette wig and let it fall to the ground. She shook out her hair, and the strands of her ponytail bounced against her back. "You obviously didn't search Jordan well enough." She said, the ghost of a smirk sliding onto her face. "If you had, then you would have found Jughead's smart watch strapped to his left leg."
Jughead's eyes widened, and a small smile came over his face. Cora, however, looked flustered.
"It's over now, Cora." Betty said, reaching for her own gun, holstered to her hip. "The FBI are on their way, if they're not already surrounding this place." She raised the gun and pointed it at Cora's face. "Put him down. We can all still walk out of this alive."
But Cora only glared further. "No. This isn't how it was supposed to go."
Betty let out a cold laugh. "What did you expect? You really thought we'd just hand over our kid? Did you think you and Jughead would be honeymooning in Canada again? One big happy family?"
"He's not your kid!" Cora spat. "You can kid yourself all you want, but I know there's no way he even compares to your real baby!"
Betty clicked the safety off of her gun, and the sound echoed through the bunker.
"Do it." Cora said. "Jordan will be dead before he hits the ground."
Betty held her resolve as she stared Cora down. "How does this end, then? What's your grand plan for how this day pans out?"
Cora pressed the gun harder against Jordan's temple. "You know what? I'm in a giving mood today." She said, tilting her head to the side. "Since you're so determined to play the hero, I'm going to let you choose which one of these gentlemen you get to save."
"Seriously?" Betty retorted, her stomach clenching. "Prison must not have been kind to you."
"Oh, I'm dead serious about this." Cora said menacingly. "Someone is going to die tonight, and I'll let you do the honours of making the selection."
Jughead stepped forward. "Cora, don't do this."
"I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut." She glared at Jughead, and he shivered as he took a step away from her.
Betty felt her confidence draining from her body. "You're not going to make me choose."
"Aren't I?" She asked in a sugary sweet voice.
Betty swallowed. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because no matter what, this ends with me in a jail cell." She answered. "If I'm going down, I want to make sure someone in my family goes down with me."
"They're not your family anymore, Cora."
Cora rolled her eyes. "We can argue about the technicalities all you want, but it isn't going to change my decision." She pursed her lips. "Call me curious, but I'm really just interested to see who you love more: your husband, or your adopted bastard."
"I'm not you, Cora." Betty's finger twitched towards the trigger. "I'd never choose my husband over my kids."
"There's absolutely no way you could love Jordan more than you love Jughead!" Cora shrieked, then cracked her neck and took a breath before continuing. "I don't believe you. You didn't carry him around in your body. He's just the spawn Jughead fathered by accident, and you've spent the last six years of your life trying to make it work." She said, glaring at Betty as she planted a kiss to the back of Jordan's head. Jordan flinched away from her, and Cora held him tighter to her chest before she kept speaking. "But he'll never really be yours. Not like that little baby is. That's exactly why you were willing to trade Jordan for her, because she's your real child."
"How Jordan was born is irrelevant to how much I love him!" Betty exclaimed. "I don't care if he's not biologically mine, I'm the one who raised him."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Cora deadpanned. "Right now, Jughead and Jordan are the only other people who know where your daughter is." She said, the smirk of pure evil returning to her mouth again. "Assuming Jordan even remembers. I'm sure you know how confused children can get when they're scared."
Betty said nothing as her glare dissolved into an expression of tired acceptance.
"Either you shoot your pathetic excuse for a husband, and I'll let Jordan climb out of this hole in the ground," she said, glee and delight evident in her piercing voice, "or you shoot Jordan, and Jughead is free to go."
"Betty, don't—"
"Stop talking." Cora growled at Jughead.
Betty's heart raced as she said: "Or you could kill me." She said, unable to keep the plea out of her voice. "Let both of them go and we can settle this ourselves."
Cora laughed; the sound sent a chill down Betty's spine, and Jordan squirmed against the woman. "Right, so he can go running to the FBI?" She shook her head. "No way, we're ending this now. One of them is going to die tonight, but I'll leave the choice up to you." She tilted her head to the side, a sly smirk on her ruby lips. "Do you want this half-blooded mongrel who'll never truly belong to you, or do you want to take your husband out of here and reunite with your real kid? Who's it going to be? Jughead… or Jordan?"
Betty didn't blink, and her expression didn't change as she lifted her arm in front of her, aiming for the child's chest. "Close your eyes, Jordy."
Jordan screwed them shut.
…..
Betty had jumped down into the bunker with a list of predictions of how the recovery mission and subsequent events might unfold.
Shooting her husband wasn't on that list.
Cora stared her dead in the eyes with a cold and calculating expression. Her lips twitched. Betty watched as Jordan's birth mother loaded the chamber of her own gun, still pointing it directly at his head. Her hand faltered slightly, and she moved it forward as though she was about to redirect the aim of her gun at Betty…
And Betty abruptly whipped her arm to the side, aiming her gun at Jughead.
Jordan, whose eyes were still screwed tightly shut, covered his ears with his hands when the gunshot went off.
"No!" Cora screamed as she watched Jughead fall. She let go of Jordan, and he fell in a heap to the floor; the air in his lungs left him with a humph.
Betty's ears were ringing as she lept towards the other woman. She shoved her backwards, head butted her directly into her nose, and grabbed the wrist of the arm that held the gun. Betty slammed Cora's hand against the cold metal of the bunker's wall and Cora lost her grip on the firearm - it fell to the ground with a loud clang . Blood trickled down Cora's face, but her eyes were no longer on Betty - they were locked on the crumpled form of her ex-husband.
"You…" Cora choked out. "You just…"
Betty slammed her forearm against Cora's throat. "If you thought for a second I'd even contemplate killing my son," she whispered, and Cora's eyes abruptly shot back towards her, "then you're even more deplorable than I gave you credit."
She shoved Cora back against the wall again, and her head hit the metal hard. Before she dropped to the floor, Betty grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and slapped her clean across the face.
No, Betty hadn't considered the possibility that she'd end up shooting her husband that night… but the look in Cora's eyes, the sheer mirth the woman had when it became clear to Betty that she fully expected her to choose Jughead's life over Jordan's… well, Betty knew instantly that Cora was so obsessed with her ex that she hadn't believed that Betty didn't share her depraved views.
Betty devised her plan knowing full well that she'd need to beat Cora at her own game. And Cora had expected Betty to play it her way. But the unhinged abductress obviously never believed for a second that her ex-husband would be the one to end up dead that night.
Director Lincoln was inside the bunker within seconds of the gunshot. Another agent followed, Wendy, Betty thought it might be. But she wasn't focusing on the woman who took over Betty's hold on Cora and turned her around to face the wall.
Betty dropped beside Jordan first. "Hey, Jordy, it's okay. It's over now. It's over." She said, trying to keep the nausea out of her voice. She pulled his hands away from his ears and said. "Keep your eyes closed. Don't look at anything."
Jordan whimpered, his eyes still clamped shut as he reached for her. "Dad… where's Dad?"
"He's fine, honey. He's going to be okay." She lifted the boy into her arms. He was sturdy, but Betty held his body close to her as she felt him wrap his arms and legs around her. She stood up, Jordan locked in her arms, and turned to face Jughead.
He was sitting up now, his eyes wide and his mouth locked in a grimace as he met her panicked expression. Director Lincoln kneeled beside him, his hands pressed firm against Jughead's arm. Blood covered Lincoln's fingers, but Jughead's voice was calm as he said: "Beth's at Hotel Carter. Now get Jordan the hell out of here."
Betty felt Cora's eyes glaring at her back as she told Jordan to hold on tight and started the difficult climb up the Bunker's ladder…