It was the ultimate cliffhanger. Clifford Blossom had killed himself. But why? Life's not an Agatha Christie novel. It's a lot messier.
Turns out, maple syrup was a front for his true business: transporting heroin from Montreal on his trucks.
A narrative quickly emerged:
That Jason Blossom learned about dear old Dad's drug running, and threatened to expose the truth; which led to Jason's abduction at the hands of a Southside Serpent named Mustang, and then to Jason's murder at the hands of his father.
Clifford killed Mustang to cover his tracks, making it look like he'd overdosed, and tried to implicate a rival businessman, Hiram Lodge, as having masterminded the whole thing. And, oh, yeah, I almost forgot.
Mr. Blossom threatened my life, so that my dad would confess to pulling the trigger, even though all he did was clean up the mess. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for a group of pesky kids who uncovered the truth.
Even as Clifford Blossom, consumed by guilt and shame, took the coward's way out, Jason's murder had revealed some dark truths none of us were too eager to face - especially not Mayor McCoy, who wanted every last vestige of corruption crushed like a snake under a boot heel.
[...]
We had many milkshakes that night, and we all felt that as dangerous as the world around us had become, here, at least in this booth, we were safe.
[...]
Imagine this instant, frozen in time. People will look back at this as the exact moment that last bit of Riverdale's innocence finally died.
When darkness won.
Marked by an act of violence that was anything but random.