Riverdale - Beneath The Town (English Version)

Chapter 12: Anatomy of a Murder

"Areyou absolutely sure you looked everywhere? I mean, can you swear that youdidn't miss anything?", I asked preventively, but Veronica shook her head."It's a trailer with literally one closet. There was no lockbox, no gun.Whatever Sheriff Keller is saying he found, it wasn't there", Veronicaagreed with Archie and Betty nodding affirmatively. "Look, we need to tellJughead his dad's innocent. Do you know where he's going?", Archie askedand looked from Veronica to me, but I shook my head and said I had no idea."Should we talk to Sheriff Keller?", Betty finally interposed question,but Archie was against it. "No; not until we tell our parents", hereplied and we looked at him confused. "That we broke into F.P.strailer?", Veronica incredulously asked and Archie turned to me again."My dad will know what to do", he explained confidently and we wentback to the hall where Fred and Mary Andrews, Veronica's mom and Darleen Haylewere still standing and talking. Archie told his parents about the trailer andour belief that F.P. was not a murderer and that someone wanted to frame himfor the murder. "You did what?!", Archie's dad asked in astonishmentwhen he told him about the break-in at the trailer. "We had to make sureF.P. wasn't involved in Jason's murder", Archie tried to explain and Mrs.Hayle interjected that we knew the truth now. "He was", she added,however, and I looked at her uncomprehendingly. "What?! Weren't youlistening? Archie, Veronica and Betty have-", I wanted to say, but Archieinterrupted me. "The gun was planted", he repeated, and Veronicaadded: "By whoever killed Jason." Now Mrs. Lodge interfered, suggestingthey might have just missed it. "Excuse me if I trust the detection skillsof an officer of the law over four amateur sleuths", Darleen Hayle said beforeVeronica could answer her mom's question and I shook my head in stunnedastonishment. "You put those three up to breaking and entering", Isaid, and Hermione Lodge and Archie's parents looked over at her stunned."What?!", it came incredulously from the three of them like from achoir, but Veronica answered before Mrs. Hayle could. "Actually, Iapproached Mrs. Hayle. I had to know if F.P. was involved and if he wasconnected to my dad", she replied and her mother gave her a nasty look."A gun was found, F.P. is the killer, case closed! We're leaving; it'sover", Hermione Lodge firmly said, and Betty now also repeatedemphatically that there was no gun. "Guys, this isn't petty theft or a barfight we're talking about; this is murder", Archie's dad clarified andlooked at us, but Archie replied that we would go to the Sheriff without them."Archie, you entered F.P.'s residence illegally. Whatever you did or didnot find there would be inadmissible in a court of law", Archie's mothernow explained, but he replied that he didn't care what happened to him. "Ido care. F.P. ruined Jughead's life, I'm not gonna let him ruin yours",his dad explained, and finally everyone headed home without having achievedanything and I thought about what I should do now. As stupid as it was,Archie's mother was right and I was also concerned about the consequences ofthe break-in for my friends. My dad picked me up and at home, I put on normalclothes and shoes in which I could also move. I had written Jug some messagesand tried to call him, but as expected, he didn't answer. I had talked to mybest friend on the phone and Betty had agreed to help me find him and I wasjust about to leave my room when I got a message from Archie. I'm worried about Jughead. Let's go find him,stood there and I texted him that I would come to him and Betty. I took myfather's car and explained to my friends that I could well imagine Jug wantingto go to Toledo; without F.P., who was stuck in the police station. For all Iknew, Jughead's sister and his mother lived there and Archie, Betty and Idecided to go to the bus station and check on him there. The bus station wasalready shut down and we couldn't see Jug anywhere. I looked again on my cellphone to see if there was a message from him, but of course there was nothingnew. "Maybe his phone died", Archie tried to explain in agood-natured way, but he, too, had to realize that this could hardly be thereason. "Or maybe the only friends he has just completely betrayed him",Betty replied regretfully and at that moment, Archie's cell phone rang and welooked at him hopefully. "Is that him?", I asked, but he replied thatit was Veronica. "Hey, you okay?", he asked as he took the call and Icontinued to look frustrated at Jughead's number on my display. "I'm withBetty and Scar, looking for Jughead", Archie replied on the phone and thenwe heard him say that we were at the bus station but it was shut down. "Ohman, you're right! We'll meet you there, okay?", he then said and hung upafter her answer and I looked at him questioningly. "We should check Pop's, guys. Pop's is the only place that's open all night", Archieexplained and we headed for it. We ran into Veronica outside the diner and Ientered the diner hoping we were right and Jug was here. And indeed, I saw himsitting to our left at a table further back and it took a load off my mind."Told you", Veronica just said, and we went to him. "Jug",Archie greeted him, and he looked at us for a moment before he turned hisannoyed look to the window next to him. I saw the beanie lying on the table infront of him and a cup of coffee was next to it. "Jug, we're sosorry", I finally started in a mild tone of voice, but he did not look atme. "Although I want to stress again that I knew nothing about the plan",I added and looked at my friends with a look of encouragement. "Juggie, wescrewed up; and Scar really didn't know about any of this", Archie nowturned to his best friend and I gave him a grateful look. "Breaking intoyour dad's was wrong, but some good came out of it", Archie went on, andJug answered without looking at him or any of us. "Pretty sure my dad wasjust arrested for murder", he just replied, looking further out thewindow. "That gun wasn't there when we searched his trailer",Veronica now interfered and Betty agreed with her. "Someone put it thereafter we left", she concluded and now Jug turned to us and looked questioninglyfrom my girlfriends to me. "What are you talking about?", he asked somewhatconfused and I sat down next to him and explained that someone was trying toframe the murder on his dad. When Jughead understood what that meant, we headedto the police station and Archie said we had to see Sheriff Keller. "It'sabout Jason Blossom's murder", I added, and that's when the sheriff cameout of a corridor next to us. "Sheriff, we need to talk to you about F.P.Jones", Veronica started, and Kevin's dad asked what was about him."He's innocent", Archie explained, and Veronica added that someonewas trying to frame him. "Well, then why did he just confess?", SheriffKeller replied and looked at Jughead next to me, who now stared at him indisbelief. At that moment, two policemen passed us, taking F.P. Jones away inhandcuffs, and we stared at them in bewilderment. Mr. Jones took a quick lookat his son before looking down at the ground again and Sheriff Kelleraccompanied the three to the cell where Jug's dad was about to be taken. Mypulse was rapid and I just couldn't believe that this was really happening andwe stared at them for a moment.