Jughead's vision spun, blurring as his world came toppling down around him. Despite his Fathers obvious involvement in the case. Jughead had still held out hope. This was very out of the ordinary for the pessimistic, raven haired boy. When he saw Penelope Blossom pull the trigger end the mystery that was Jason Blossoms murder. Jughead felt the muscles in back relax, his chest deflate and a weight lifted off of his shoulders. But still something didn't sit right with him. He should have been relieved that his Father wasn't the murderer he feared he was. Was that not the answer he was looking for? Why didn't he feel satisfied? It was almost as if he knew it was to good to be true.
But he wasn't the only one to have had their world shaken in it entirety. His girlfriends father had also stumbled onto the scene. Betty couldn't believe it, yet a part of her almost expected it. Both herself and Jughead couldn't shake the feeling of her parents involvement in the murder. The investigation had come full circle. Starting with her Dad and finishing it. He had just become another name warped into the spider diagram that was Jason Blossoms murder.
While both Betty and Jughead processed the events, the video file continued to play in front of them.
Penelope had finally calmed herself. Returning to her formal presentable state. Clifford stood in front of the two visibly shaken men extending his arm, a gun in his hand pointing at them. His index finger wrapped around the trigger.
Clifford gestured to her. Henceforth, she walked toward the men, untying their blindfolds with her skeletal hands.
"Don't bother screaming. This room is sound proof , no one can hear a thing outside these wall." Clifford threatened.
"Clifford Blossom, your the one doing this?" Hal asked.
"Why are we her..." F.P said coming to a halt as his gaze fell to the dead body rotting in the corner strapped to a chair.
"Holy shit.." He uttered. Surprising no one with his perplexing vocabulary. His face had drained of colour making him look weak and vulnerable.
This hit Jughead hard. Alough F.P had never been a stable father. Jughead had always saw him as the strong emotionless warrior he claimed to be. Seeing him so feeble and scared, forced Jughead to unbury some hidden emotions he had towards his Dad.
Betty on the other hand was shocked. Her Father stood calmly before the gun and body. The man she knew would have most likely been ecstatic in this situation.
"What the hell did you do?" Hal asked slightly raising his voice.
"Now lets not get agitated shall we?" Clifford threatened gesturing to the gun in his hand.
Both men stepped back. " There has been an incident involving Jason. Sadly this means he is no longer with us."
"Why are we here ? This is your problem not ours." Hal told him with confidence.
"No my friend. This is our problem as you are both now witness'" Clifford began to pace around the room, fiddling with his gun as if it were a toy.
"So why are we here?" F.P pressed.
"You are here to help us remove of this entire situation. You F.P will use you skill in avaiding the law to make this crime untraceable. You will also use your connection with the Serpents to convince them all we will never here. We will of course provide a lump some in order to obtain bribery. But you must make sure everyone stays quiet no matter what you have to do. As we are using their underground bar are."
That explains the brief case full of money addressed to the serpents.
"You will also drive the case as far away form the Blossom name as possible. Frame someone if you will. I would start with someone who has a connection to the sheriff, he can not persecute someone he has a relationship with." He continued.
That explains why Kevin, the Sheriff son looked to both Betty and Jughead to be their prime suspect. Sheriff Keller would never convict his son.
Clifford turned and pointed to Hal.
"Now you, Hal. You are going to help Mustang here clean up the mess. Then you are going to destroy ant evidence that is found as the case of our sons death progresses. You will also point to other theories in your little newspaper business, driving this as far away form us as possible. Understood?"
"What makes you think that as soon as you let us go we arnt just going to go to Sheriff Keller and tell them everything." Hal asked, without an once of dear in his system.
"Well Hal, if you do I can reveal a few things my self. I can tell the world about the pure Blossom blood flowing through your veins, I can tell them the truth abut Polly and the child she is carrying. But most of all, if you turn us into the police, I will turn you in."
"Oh yeah, for what?" Hal asked folding his arms.
"For felony tax evasion. You have been running your business I Riverdale for at least twenty years now, and I happen to know that through what ever scheme you have had planned, you have never paid a dime. That's thirty years minimum in prison . The DA would also drag your family into this. Involving Alice, Polly and even Betty if they went that far. Not to mention the fact I would bring up your past, every thing your hiding from the world."
Betty held back a sob. She really had no idea who her father was. What had he been up to? What was he hiding form her?
Hal grew quiet, knowing his place.
"What about me? My life is already messed up as it is, you have nothing on me." F.P stated, a hint of sass to his voice.
"Well your not wrong there..." Penelope interjected. " But we can make sure your family has no chance of regrouping. We can start by finding out every illegal act you have committed, we have people on the South side. Then we will turn you into the police destroying your relationship with your family. The one thing you treasure the most."
"My son cant even look me in the eye without seeing a failure, it wouldn't matter if I was in jail or in his house." F.P had an answer for every situation.
A pang of guilt hit Jughead. That was how his father felt. Sure, sometimes it was true but there was nothing more Jughead wanted in the world was to have a place to call home. That's all he ever wanted.... but now he found that in Bettys arms.
"Well we also have a back up plan, F.P. We can remove all possible reunions of the Jone's family by removing each member one by one. Until there were none left. Just you alone in the world, without a family . Their deaths would be on your hands."
F.P grew pale. "I will do what you want. But stay away from my family."
Is that why his Mom and Jellybean left for Toledo and why his Dad wanted him to go to? Is that why for the past six month he had been driving his family away? To protect them? Jughead's heart ached at the prospect.
"Now I'm glad we are all on the same page, start the clean up." Clifford ordered grabbing his wife's hand, pulling her out of the door.
He stood by the door. "Any word of this from either of you and we will soin it around. You are just as guilty as we are." He slammed the door behind him.
The room was silent .
Both men stood still.
Until they weren't. They began ushering about the cleaning products in the corner.
Betty used the mouse to fast forward by the hour. For the next seventeen hours, both F.P , Hal and Mustang, a serpent who had later entered, cleaned the crime scene , disposed of the body and let their minds trouble them.
Betty exited the video, no longer wanting to stare at the deceased corpse of Jason.
She turned to her boyfriend, knowing very well how he was feeling- she felt the same way too.
She linked his arm, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Now what?"
A question they all had on their minds.
What would they do with this information? It would destroy their lives.