"Someone planted the gun in a closet in FP's trailer," Archie explained. "It wasn't there when we searched it. He's being framed."

"Maybe you didn't look hard enough," Betty suggested.

"We're not talking about the Vogue closet here, Bee," Veronica argued.

"Maybe you looked in the wrong one."

"It's a trailer with one closet. There wasn't a lockbox or gun. Whatever Sheriff Keller is saying he found, it wasn't there."

"We need to tell Jughead his dad's innocence," said Archie. "Where is Jughead?"

"I don't know," Betty replied. "I tried calling him, I left him messages, but he's not answering his phone. Should we tell Sheriff Keller?"

"No. Not after we tell our parents."

"That we broke into FP's trailer?" asked Veronica.

"My dad will understand," Archie assured.

When the trio informed their parents about what Archie and Veronica did, they were not happy.

"You did what?" he asked.

"We had to make sure FP wasn't involved in Jason's murder," Archie justified.

"And now we know he was," said Alice.

"What?" Betty reacted. "No, we just told you. The gun was planted by whoever killed Jason."

"Couldn't you have just missed it?" Hermione suggested.

"Yeah," Alice agreed. "Excuse me if I trust the detection skills of an officer of the law over three amateur sleuths."

"Mom, you're the one who asked Veronica to break in," Betty pointed out.

Before the other parents could shift their wrath onto Alice, Veronica stepped in.

"Actually, I approached her," she informed. "I had to know if FP was involved, and if he was connected to my dad."

"A gun was found," Hermione argued. "FP is the killer, case closed, we're leaving."

"There was no gun!" Archie insisted.

"Son, this isn't petty theft or a bar fight we're talking about, Archie," said Fred. "This is murder."

"Okay, then we'll go to the sheriff."

"Archie, you entered FP's residence illegally," said Mary. "So whatever you did or did not find would be inadmissible in a court of law."

"I don't care what happens to me," said Archie.

"But we do," Fred argued. "FP may have ruined Jughead's life, we're not gonna let him ruin yours."

The girls were taken home while Archie was sent straight to bed. He laid there and once again thought about everything that had happened to him up to this point.

Never did he think he'd be in the center of all this tragedy, but here he was.

That's when he got a text from Betty. It read… 'Arch, I'm worried about Jughead.'

Archie texted back: 'Me too. Let's go find him.'

Jughead was at the town's bus station. Specifically, he was in the phone box, talking to his mother on the phone.

"Hey Mom," he said. "I got a bus ticket to Toledo. Yeah, I thought I'd come to see you and Jellybean for a while. I could crash on the couch."

What his mother said shook Jughead to his core.

"I understand," he said, fighting off the tears. "Look, I… forget I said anything. Okay, bye."

He slammed the phone back onto its holder, and wiped a few stray tears off his face.

Then, he went back to the ticket booth.

"I changed my mind about Toledo," he said. "Can you just put me on whatever the next bus out of town is? I don't even care where it's going."

"Citrusville, Florida," the worker replied as she stamped a ticket for him. "Leaves tomorrow morning at 6:00. Lobby closes in fifteen minutes, and reopens at five."

Jughead took the ticket and looked around the empty place.

Veronica found Hermione rummaging through the drawers.

"Mom, what are you looking for?" she asked.

"Our passports," Hermione explained. "Because Lord knows what FP is going to say now that he's behind bars."

"So, you do think Daddy hired him to kill Jason?"

"Honey, I don't know, but regardless of that, we are known associates of the man who killed Jason Blossom. Your father may have had something to do with that, maybe not, but either way, we need to be ready."

"Ready to do what? Run away like we did New York? We're gonna look guilty."

Hermione slammed her fist on the dresser. "Baby, we are guilty! I'm guilty. I bribed the mayor to give him the drive-in land, I forged your signature, and paid off the Serpents. If that comes out, just… pack a bag, okay?"

Archie and Betty hurried to the bus station. The front door was locked.

"Dammit," Archie muttered. "From what he said in the hall, it seems like he wants to get to his mom in Ohio. Anything?"

"No," Betty replied.

"Maybe his phone's dead."

"Or his only friends betrayed him."

That's when Archie's phone rang.

"Is it Jughead?" asked Betty.

"No, it's Veronica," Archie replied before he answered the phone. "Veronica, are you doing okay?"

"Not really," Veronica replied. "My mom's spiraling, and I'm on the verge. I just wanted to talk. Where are you?"

"I'm with Betty. We're looking for Jughead."

"Wait, you went on a manhunt without me? I can come with you."

"We're at the bus station, but it's shut down for the night."

"What's the one place in town that's open twenty-four hours? Hint: we were just there."

Archie and Betty met up with Veronica at Pop's.

They went inside and found Jughead sitting alone at one of the booths.

The three gathered around him and comforted him.

"Jug, we're so sorry about everything," Betty apologized.

"Juggy, we screwed up," said Archie. "All of us did. It was wrong to break into your dad's trailer, but some good came out of it."

"Pretty sure my dad was just arrested for murder," Jughead retorted, not looking at any of them.

"That gun wasn't there when we searched his trailer," said Veronica. "Someone put it there after we left."

Now, Jughead turned to look at them. "What are you talking about?"

"The gun we found in your trailer matched the bullet that killed Jason Blossom," Keller told FP. "So, did you know him well, or did you just do it for kicks?"

FP stayed silent at first, but he eventually spoke up. "Last summer, some redheaded kid comes up to me at the bar, the White Wyrm, said he was planning to run away with his pregnant girlfriend."

"Polly Cooper."

"So I would learn. He asked me to set him up with a getaway car and some cash. We made a deal. In exchange for some wheels and a tidy sum, he would make a delivery for me."

"Drugs?"

FP nodded. "I got him a station wagon, stashed some weed in the back, then I put two and two together. I realized he was Cliff Blossom's son. I thought, 'a kid like that has everything. Why the hell does he need a guy like me?' He told me the plan. On July 4, his sister was gonna row him across Sweetwater River, tip the boat, say he drowned. Once he made it across the river, I grabbed him before he could reach his getaway car which he'd stashed I don't know where. Then, I took him to the White Wyrm, held him in the basement, and worked out my plan."

"Which was…?"

"Get word to Cliff Blossom that his son was alive and being held for ransom. I set up a drop-off point for payment to get him back. Before I could send the word, the kid got loose, tried to escape."

"That's when you shot him and stuffed him in the freezer?"

FP nodded again. "Once things quieted down, and your guys were done dragging Sweetwater River for his body, that's when I dumped it."

"The only place we already looked. You break into my house and steal my files?"

FP covered his face, as if trying to hide shame. "Yeah, I did. I even followed my son and Betty Cooper to Jason's getaway car, and I torched it."

"You must've thought you were real smart. Now I wanna hear you say it. Did you kill Jason Blossom?"

FP's lips trembled as he nodded one final time.

The quartet entered the police station.

"We need to see Sheriff Keller," Archie told the receptionist. "There's been a huge mistake."

Conveniently, Keller was coming down the hall.

"Sheriff Keller, we need to tell you about FP Jones," said Veronica. "He's innocent. He's being framed."

"Then why did he just confess?" asked Keller.

The kids could only watch in horror as FP, in cuffs, was carried away.

Riverdale

Chapter 12

Anatomy of a Murder

The Blossoms were eating their breakfast when Polly came in.

"Polly, the most incredible thing has happened," Penelope informed her as she showed her the newspaper.

The newspaper had FP's picture on the front page.

"He killed Jason?" Polly asked. "Not…"

She stopped herself as she tried to process this information.

"I went down to the station," said Clifford. "I looked our son's killer in the eye. Finally, we'll have peace. Jason will have peace, and we can all start over."

In the school cafeteria, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Kevin read the paper together.

"The report said FP worked alone," said Betty.

"No mention of your dad, Ronnie," Archie pointed out. "That's good news, right?"

"I can't stop thinking that…" Veronica replied. "Maybe my dad hired another serpent to plant that gun."

Archie held onto Veronica's hand to comfort her.

"It's surreal, isn't it?" Kevin remarked. "How's Jughead doing?"

"He's not coming in today," Archie explained. "He's down at the station."

"Being grilled by your dad," Veronica added.

"He's just doing his job," Kevin defended. "I mean, of course he's gonna ask Jughead questions."

"Well, he's wasting his time, Kev," said Betty. "Because FP didn't kill Jason!"

"Betty, he confessed."

"Or he was coerced, or he's protecting someone, maybe a Serpent."

That's when Archie noticed something that worried him. "Uh oh."

Everyone looked in Archie's direction and saw Jughead walking across the cafeteria.

"What happened to him not coming in today?" Veronica wondered.

Jughead approached Cheryl and said, "I'm sorry."

Cheryl responded with a slap.

Archie stepped up and grabbed Cheryl before things could escalate.

That's when Weatherbee came in.

"Enough!" he shouted. "Mr. Jones, my office, now!"

"He was apologizing!" Archie defended. "He did nothing wrong!"

But Weatherbee ignored him and just carried Jughead out of the cafeteria.

Betty found Cheryl crying in the bathroom.

"I barely touched him!" Cheryl shouted.

"It's not his fault," said Betty. "Even his dad did it, it's…"

"Everybody keeps coming up to me, hugging me, telling me that I must be so relieved that my brother's killer was finally caught. Why doesn't it feel that way?"

Betty just stood there for a moment.

After the conversation with Cheryl, Betty waited for Jughead to come out of the office.

When he did come out, he just walked past her.

"Hey, what happened?" Betty asked, running after Jughead.

"My second interrogation of the day," Jughead explained. "I don't know who's more of a dick, Keller or Weatherbee."

"Everyone else is wrong. Your dad's innocent, and we just to prove it, Jug."

Jughead stopped right there. "Then who killed him, Betty? Tell me. If it wasn't my dad, who killed Jason Blossom? He said it, and you know what? I've been waiting my whole life for that man to do the right thing, and I'm done. You should be, too."

"Jug…"

But Jughead just kept walking.

When Archie got home from school, he saw Fred get off the phone with someone.

"That was Weatherbee," Fred explained before Archie could even ask. "He's concerned for Jug's personal safety after what happened with Cheryl. He's worried how people will react to it. He thinks Jughead should finish the semester from home."

"Jughead's getting kicked out because Cheryl pummeled him?" asked Archie. "How is that fair?"

"It's not."

"Can we call the school board?"

"Son, FP may spend decades in prison, potentially for the rest of his life. We gotta think of a long-term solution."

"We are the long-term solution."

"That's not how it works. I'm not his legal guardian."

"Oh, well good thing Mom's a lawyer."

"Archie, my priority is keeping you safe."

"Safe from who? Jughead? Are you kidding me?"

"No, from whatever trouble seems to follow the Jones' around, wherever they go, whatever they do! Hell, maybe you should go to Chicago and live with your mom!"

Archie was taken aback by that statement. "It wasn't even considering it, Dad, but you know what? Maybe I should."

Hey, if it keeps you out of trouble, I'm all for it.

Archie was about to head upstairs, but then he saw Jughead walking out.

"Jug!" Archie called.

"I'm gonna sleep in the garage tonight, okay?" said Jughead.

"Jug…"

But Jughead had already walked out the door.

Betty couldn't sleep that night. She heard noises coming from downstairs.

She went downstairs to investigate, only to bump into Alice.

"Mom, are you hearing that?" Betty asked.

Alice shushed Betty, and revealed she was holding a gun.

"Mom, what are you doing with that?" asked Betty.

Alice shushed again. "Get behind me, and be ready to dial 911."

The two went down to the basement.

They found someone rummaging through the dresser.

Alice cocked the gun. "Don't move. Hands where I can see them."

The figure slowly turned around to reveal they were Hal Cooper.

"Don't shoot, Alice," he pleaded.

Hal took a bunch of photos and scattered them across the table.

"These are Keller's files about the Blossom murder investigation," he explained.

"How did you get these?" asked Betty.

"I broke into the house, the last night at the drive-in."

"That's impossible," said Alice. "FP Jones already confessed to that."

"I have no idea why he would do that," said Hal. "Because it was me. That's why I destroyed the evidence, to get rid of anything that would link it back to me."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would FP fess up about something he didn't do?"

"I'm not thinking about FP right now," said Betty. "I'd like to know why you, Dad, is stealing and destroying evidence in a murder investigation."

"I was worried the investigation would somehow get back to Polly," said Hal. "To us, and somehow Sheriff Keller would figure out the connection between our family and the Blossoms, and he would think that there was some kind of motive."

"You mean about Great-Grandpappy Cooper being murdered by a Blossom?"

"Betty… your great-grandfather wasn't just murdered by a Blossom. He was a Blossom. After the murder, our family severed ties with the Blossom name, and created a new name: Cooper."

Betty was disgusted by this revelation. "I'm a Blossom?"

"Polly is a Blossom," Alice realized. "Which makes her and Jason… cousins. That's why you wanted to…"

Hal nodded. "Yes, Alice, that's why."

"Wait, if you were so willing to send Polly away to keep her away from Jason…?"

"How far apart would the Blossom go to keep them apart?" asked Betty. "We need to get Polly out of that house."

Polly and the Blossoms were woken up by the sound of banging on the front door.

Clifford answered the door to reveal the Coopers.

"Don't bother calling the cops," said Alice. "We're not staying. Polly!"

"What the hell is going on here, Alice?" asked Clifford. "It's the middle of the night!"

"Well, sorry to disrupt the witching hour at Thornhill!"

"Polly, are you okay?" Hal asked Polly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Polly assured. "Betty, what's going on?"

"We're here to bring you home, Pol," Betty explained.

"She's not leaving us," said Penelope. "She chose to stay here, with a mentally stable family."

"Oh, I know about your family, Penelope," said Alice. "And the incest."

"What?" Polly asked. "What incest?"

Alice angrily turned towards Clifford. "Hal's grandfather wasn't just your grandpappy's murder victim. They were brothers."

"So what?" asked Clifford.

"So everything, starting with FP's confession, has a few gaping holes in it!"

"He's being used by someone with a crazy motive," said Betty. "You were disgusted that Jason and Polly were dating because they were related."

"Nothing can be more purely Blossom than those babies," Penelope retorted.

"Okay, what is wrong with you people?!" Hal yelled.

"Will you just spare us the middle-class morality?" asked Clifford. "It's not like they were brother and sister. They were, what, third cousins?"

"You think I killed my son?" Penelope asked.

"That's it," Alice said, grabbing Polly's hand and carrying her out the door. "Enough of this Doctor Moreau experimentation in breeding and eugenics. It's over! Betty, let's go."

Before Betty could leave with her family, Penelope grabbed her hand.

"You made a grave error," Penelope warned.

Betty just gave a confident smile. "No, I don't think so, and I won't stop until I prove it."

With that, the Coopers left the house.

The next morning, Archie entered the garage and shook Jughead awake.

"Hey, wake up," he said. "We gotta go to Pop's."

Archie and Jughead met up with Mary at Pop's.

"Archie asked me to look into your father's case," she informed Jughead. "I went down to the station and passed myself off as his attorney to try and get as much information as I could."

"How's it going, Mom?" asked Archie.

"Well, unfortunately, between FP's list of priors, the anonymous tip, and the possession of the murder weapon, and let's not forget that pesky confession, things look pretty bad. I was with him all night, and he never once budged from his story."

"Well, if nothing else," said Jughead. "At least he's an honest murderer, right?"

"Jug!" Archie scolded.

"Jughead, my advice is to go see your father," said Mary. "Tell him everything you wanna say. Once he's arraigned, things tend to move pretty quickly, and there's nothing left to do, so this might be your last chance."

Jughead reluctantly decided to visit FP at the station.

"When Archie told me about his little plan to help you, getting you on your feet and working with Fred," he said. "Deep down, I knew it was a mistake."

"Should have listened to your gut," FP remarked.

"You really had me." Jughead sniffed. "Fixing the trailer, convincing me you were trying to… I was so happy for the first time in so long. You paid attention to me. Let's be honest, the only reason you read my manuscript was to make sure I wasn't onto me. You didn't even want to take me back to Toledo to get the family back together. You just wanted to run away."

"I did what I had to do, what I always do."

Jughead bolted out of his seat. "Are you even sorry?"

"I'm sorry that I got caught. Are we done?"

Jughead scoffed and turned away.

"Look at me, Jughead!" FP snapped.

Jughead turned back.

"Never come back here, understand?" FP asked.

Jughead didn't need to be told that twice. "Got it."

He left the room, not noticing FP hanging his head in shame.

"I'm so glad that you're home, Pol, and that you're safe," Betty told Polly. "But, God, everything else…"

"Is the worst," Polly agreed.

Then Betty got a call from Jughead.

"Betty, I just saw my dad," he informed her. "You were right. He's hiding something."

Betty and Jughead met up at the Blue and Gold.

"My dad's been lying to me his whole life," Jughead explained. "But he was never any good at it. I saw it in his eyes. He didn't do it."

"So why lie?" asked Betty. "Who is he protecting?"

Cheryl had kept what she saw to herself for so long now, but with all the secrets that had been revealed, she knew she couldn't keep this one any longer.

She found Penelope in the living room.

"Mommy, the morning before Jay-Jay and I left, why were you and Dad arguing?" she asked.

"We've been over this," Penelope replied. "Your father dedicated himself to grooming Jason to take over the business, but in the end…"

"He couldn't stomach it," Cheryl realized, the memory playing in her mind.

"When, really, I should have been nurturing you. Jason never had the nerve for it, but you? You're a Blossom through and through."

"I remember," said Cheryl. "He told me, but why? What couldn't he handle?"

"So many questions, Cheryl," said Penelope.

"Okay, who can we rule out?" asked Jughead.

"My dad," Betty replied. "Because now we know he was shady. Veronica says her mother is guilty of plenty, but not murder. Plus, she has an alibi: she was in New York."

"So that leaves us with Hiram Lodge…"

"And Clifford and Penelope Blossom."

"I think something happened, Mommy," said Cheryl.

"What do you mean?" asked Penelope.

"If Daddy wasn't mad about Polly, he must have been mad about the business. I don't know if he heard or saw something he shouldn't have."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"What was Jay-Jay running away from? The business, Daddy, you?"

Penelope tightened her grip on Cheryl's hands and carried her out of the room.

Penelope led Cheryl to the nearby barnhouse.

"You think your father killed Jason?" she asked angrily. "That I killed him because Jason knew some deep, dark, horrible secret about our business? Well, you want answers, Cheryl?" She swung the door to the barn open. "Well, there it is! There's the sticky, dark, dirty truth!"

Cheryl looked around the room. From the looks of it, they were just barrels of maple syrup.

But again, that's just what it looked like.

Alice came in and saw Betty and Jughead analyzing the corkboard.

"You two just can't leave well enough alone, can you?" she asked.

"Mom, we know what you're gonna say," said Betty.

That's when she got a call from Archie.

"Archie?" she answered.

"Betty, I think we should go back to where we found Jason's getaway car," Archie suggested. "There's gotta be something we missed there."

"Oh, okay, we'll meet you there."

Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead went back to the place where they found the getaway car.

"Deja vu," Jughead remarked as he saw the 'Maple Farm' sign.

Behind it was a duffel bag. They opened it up to reveal a varsity jacket with Jason's name on it.

The quartet returned to Archie's garage where they examined the jacket.

"So, how is this supposed to help FP?" asked Veronica. "It looks like more incriminating evidence to me."

"Yeah," Jughead agreed. "This just confirms my dad torched the getaway car."

But Betty refused to give up. They came so close to finding the culprit. They couldn't stop now.

She made Archie put on the jacket, then she started checking all the jacket pockets.

"Okay, now it feels like we're just grasping at straws," Archie remarked.

But Betty felt her fingers go through one of the pockets. "There's a hole. Whenever I have a hole in my pocket, there's a line for something to slip through."

She looked around that part of the jacket until she felt something. She pulled the thing out to reveal it was a flash drive.

"What the hell?" Veronica reacted.

Archie smiled. "Nancy Drew strikes again."

Betty inserted the drive to Jughead's computer and clicked on the link that popped up.

What they saw was beyond their craziest theories.

They could only watch in horror as the video played out. They were all crying by the end of it.

Betty got on her phone and dialed a number.

"Betty, who are you calling?" asked Archie.

Betty put a finger to her mouth to shush everyone.

Cheryl was about to go to bed when her phone rang. She checked to see it was Betty calling.

She answered the phone. "Betty, why are you calling me?"

"Cheryl, you need to get out of that house," Betty said without any warning.

What she said next brought Cheryl to tears. "I understand. Thank you."

She hung up the phone, let out a few tears, and walked out.

She walked downstairs, wiped the tears from her eyes, and went to the dining room.

"Cheryl, what is it?" asked Clifford.

"You did a bad thing, Daddy," Cheryl replied. "And now, everyone knows."

Clifford just sat there with a shocked expression on his face. This didn't go unnoticed by Penelope.

Alice went to the mayor's office. Both Keller and McCoy were there.

"Sheriff Keller, your office told me I'd find you here," she said before showing them the drive. "You need to see this, both of you."

That night, Sheriff Keller and Mayor McCoy saw what Archie and his friends watched in the garage.

Jason, tied to a chair, in the basement of a bar, on the Southside of Riverdale, while a Serpent named Mustang taunted him.

Then, the unthinkable.

Clifford Blossom came into the room, took Nana Rose's ring from Jason's pocket, and, for good measure, shot him in between the eyeballs.

Later, they would learn why FP confessed. Because Clifford Blossom visited him on the night of the arrest with a threat.

The threat that Jughead Jones would suffer the same fate Jason did if FP didn't confess.

FP was protecting Jughead from a nightmare, but it was far, far from over.

"He's gonna be charged for tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, mishandling a body, perjury, and that's just off the top of my head," Keller told Jughead not long after the truth was revealed. "He's not getting out any time soon."

Veronica returned to the Pembrooke with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mom," she apologized. "That I ever thought that…"

"Shh, mija," Hermione shushed, hugging Veronica. "Everyone makes mistakes. I have good news. Very good news. Your father's coming home."

"I'm sorry, Mom," Archie told Mary. "But my friends need me here."

"You should come home for the summer, maybe?" Mary suggested.

"That'd be great."

Mary hugged Archie. "You better be careful."

"I will."

"I love you, Archie."

"I love you too, Mom."

Mary then gave Fred one last hug before making her leave.

Play "You Can Run" by Adam Jones

Though one question was answered that night, that it was Clifford Blossom who killed Jason, a new mystery had loomed over Riverdale.

Why had he done it?

It was a question only Clifford himself would be able to answer.

Who's that knocking at your door?

You got lots to answer for

Sheriff Keller and his forces arrived at Thornhill to arrest Clifford.

Cheryl and Penelope were waiting for him at the front door. They both directed him to the barnhouse.

Who's that sleeping in your bed?

High, high

The cops drove to the barn. They swung the door open and readied their guns.

Cross your heart and hope to die

Swear that you won't tell no lie

Cross your heart and hope to die

High, high

Inside the barn, Clifford Blossom was hanging in the air with a rope tied around his neck.

Right below his feet were spilled barrels revealing something that wasn't maple syrup.

It was drugs.

Every time you fall asleep

Pray the lord, your soul to keep

You got problems now, my friend

High, high

End "You Can Run"

Riverdale

A.N.

One chapter left, let's go!

The biggest challenge for me was figuring out how the gang would find the jacket with the drive without Joaquin in the story. Since I decided to not have Kevin realize his sexuality until season 2, I figured I might as well get rid of Joaquin. It's not like he did anything after season 1. Yeah, he returned briefly in season 3, but he didn't do anything note-worthy.

Well, either way, they still find the jacket, and they find out Clifford was the killer, so all's well that ends well.

Yes, I did keep the twist that the Coopers and the Blossoms are related. Believe me, I didn't want to go that route at first, given what I said before about how much I hate incest, but as I thought about it, this plot point does come into play at multiple points in the story.

Sure, maybe I would've figured out an alternative for when I got to those points, but I honestly don't know.

And hey, maybe I can try and make something good out of this. Polly's twins weren't really fleshed out in the actual show, not even in seasons 5 and 6 when they're both slightly older. Well, I plan to do as much research as I can about the physical and mental defects of children of incest that way they get a proper portrayal.

Anyway, we're one chapter away from the end. Stay tuned.