Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions/Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network. I am not making any money off of writing this story, I am just a fan. Also this story will be similar to the 1980-82 Scary Scooby Funnies/Scooby and Scrappy Doo series but with Fred, Daphne and Velma instead of Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy Doo.
Chapter 1
We find a cherry red Cadillac Convertible belonging to a wealthy red haired college student named Daphne Blake traveling down the highway in the Eastern portion of the state of Maryland; at the moment the wealthy red haired beauty is sitting in the passenger's seat of the expensive automobile while an intelligent young brown haired woman named Velma Dinkley sits in the backseat of the vehicle.
However the two young women are not alone in the Cadillac, as a young blond haired man named Fred Jones sits in the front seat of the vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel, guiding the Cadillac to the three college students next destination, which is the prevalent topic of conversation in the expensive vehicle as the brunette and the red head proceed to pepper the driver of the car with question after question about their latest trip across the country and the group's final destination.
"Fred?" Daphne asked.
"Yes Daphne?" Fred inquired.
"Where exactly are we going again?" Daphne asked.
"It's pretty simple Daphne, my publisher wants me to go this haunted mansion on the Eastern Shore of Maryland because he thinks it would make a great setting for a mystery novel, and frankly I tend to agree with him" Fred replied.
"How come Fred?" Velma inquired from the backseat of the vehicle.
"Well it's because according to my publisher this mansion has a long history of strange happenings, things floating in the air every now and then, lights turning on and off unexpectedly, strange almost ghostly noises being heard in the house every so often and to top it all off, some people claim to have seen a female spirit roaming through the halls of the mansion, passing through walls and scaring the daylights out of people in the process" Fred replied.
"Sounds interesting Freddie, do you know what the name of this mansion is or what its like?" Daphne inquired.
"Well Daphne according to what my publisher was able to tell me over the phone the mansion is called the Brownstein Mansion and the ghost is supposed to be the spirit of the daughter of the Brownstein family, a woman named Emily Brownstein" Fred replied.
"Jinkies, so what's the story behind this Emily anyway?" Velma inquired.
"From what my publisher said Emily was the only daughter of Jacob and Martha Brownstein; the two of them were wealthy real estate tycoons who helped build up the Eastern Shore back in the early 1900's; apparently the two of them were quite shrewd with their money and as a result built up a vast fortune in the early part of the 20th century, then in around 1906 the two of them hired a developer to build the mansion and after about five months it was completed and the two of them moved in" Fred explained.
"Anything else Freddie?" Daphne asked.
"Believe me Daph, that's just the beginning; about five months after the Brownsteins moved into the mansion, Martha gave birth to a dark brown haired girl named Emily; apparently Emily was a bit of a loaner, in that she didn't really have many friends, or much of a social life for that matter, while she had some boyfriends, she never had a serious relationship, possibly due to the fact that after she got home from school she would always stay in her room; she would never allow anyone to see her and no one, not even her parents would dare come up to visit her because she had a bit of a temper as well" Fred replied.
"Jinkies, that's an interesting combination: a loaner and headstrong too, so what else Fred?" Velma asked.
"Well Emily behaved like this for the rest of her life, her parents couldn't stop her from being the way that she was but they wanted their daughter to have friends; when that didn't work, they gave up trying to help their daughter and began drinking to try and escape their daughter's wrath; eventually their drinking caught up with them and around 1922 Jacob died, followed by Martha's death in 1923; with her parents gone Emily was left to her own devices, however her lifestyle didn't change very much and she became depressed and lonely, eventually she would pass away in 1939, leaving the house empty" Fred replied.
"But there had to have been some relative that wanted to live in the house after Emily died right?" Daphne asked.
"Normally you would think so Daphne, but that was not the case; Jacob and Martha left the mansion in their will, not to Emily but to the Eastern Shore of Maryland Historical Society, to use as a tourist attraction" Fred replied.
"Tourist attraction?" Daphne inquired.
"Right; for about fifty or so years now, ever since Emily's passing, Brownstein Mansion has been among the Eastern seaboard's most popular supernatural tourist attractions; although, I guess some people wouldn't call a haunted mansion a tourist attraction, but nonetheless people still go there and still like to get their pants scared off, pardon my French" Fred responded, chuckling as he spoke.
"You know, after all those times getting scared out of our wits by monsters and ghosts, I can't understand why some people would want to go willingly to a place that's haunted or has ghosts prowling around it" Daphne remarked.
"Well Daphne, some people are just curious about the supernatural and what better way to fulfill or satisfy their curiosity then to go somewhere that has a ghost or monster lurking about; for example, look at the three of us: even when Shaggy and Scooby were with us, we would go in search of the supernatural every so often, I mean why would we visit so many haunted castles, houses and mansions? Or why would we visit places like Loch Ness or the Bermuda Triangle which are known worldwide for having strange things happen in those destinations" Velma explained from her seat in the back of the convertible.
"When you put it that way Velma, I guess you're right; I mean we do search for those things, almost as much as we stumble into them on vacations" Daphne replied.
"That's right; and it's part of the reason why I decided to get into mystery writing, after all those times that we've solved cases involving the supernatural, I always felt that some of them would make excellent books, with some of the events slightly changed and modified of course" Fred stated.
"I think you would make a good writer too Freddie, and I will definitely read whatever you write" Daphne replied with a smile, and a slightly reddish color to her face.
"Thanks Daph, I'm glad to know you'll be my first reader; at least whenever I get my first novel published" Fred remarked proudly.
"You're welcome Freddie; so, are you going to use this mansion for your first novel?" Daphne asked.
"Probably; although I want to spend some time in the mansion to get a feel for what it's like, how many rooms are inside, the history of the ghost, basically all the stuff that would be needed for a good novel" Fred replied.
"You know Fred, that's part of what makes a good mystery novel; some of the best mystery stories ever written are set in some really creepy places, and this mansion sounds like the perfect place for a mystery and it might just prove interesting for us" Velma remarked.
"I hope so Velma, I hope so" Fred replied.
"So will your publisher be coming to the mansion to spend the night with us?" Daphne asked.
"No, unfortunately he's got some other business to attend to in his office and around the Cleveland area, so he won't be able to make it; but we are going to have some one spending the night with us" Fred replied.
"Really? Who is it Fred?" Velma wondered, her curiosity having been piqued by Fred's statements.
"Well Velma, his name is David Randall and he's the head of the Eastern Shore Historical Society; he was mentioned by my publisher by name and he even said that he and my publisher were old friends" Fred responded.
"Jinkies; he sounds interesting, is he going to be at the mansion when we get there?" Velma asked.
"When I talked to my publisher, he said that Mr. Randall already drove to the mansion and that he should be there by now; so he'll most likely be inside the house when we arrive there" Fred replied.
"That reminds me Freddie, how long is it going to take us to get to this mansion?" Daphne inquired.
"More then likely it should take us about ten minutes to get there if everything goes according to plan and the traffic stays the way it is right now" Fred replied.
"Sounds good to me" Daphne responded.
"You know it's too bad Shaggy and Scooby aren't here; they might enjoy the seafood in the Eastern Shore" Velma replied.
"Maybe they would Velma, maybe they would; although I'm sure they're involved in their own adventures right now, and I'm sure they're getting involved with all sorts of ghosts and monsters and all sorts of weird things" Fred stated.
"That's for sure; it always seemed like Shaggy and Scooby would find the monster or ghost in our old mysteries first, but then they would come to us and tell us what they found, then all five of us would come together and trap the villain and solve whatever mystery we were involved in" Daphne replied.
"Right, we're a team and even though Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy aren't with us now, they've always been a part of the group" Fred responded.
"That's right, I don't know what we would do without them and someday they'll be back with us and we'll be solving mysteries again" Daphne replied.
"Right" the three sleuths said in unison.
"Although it helps that the three of us are solving mysteries while Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy are traveling the world and having their own adventures" Velma remarked.
"Yeah, it helps to have something to occupy our time, like a hobby, well, in between our careers at least" Daphne replied.
"Right; and you know, I think with all the supposed supernatural things in the world, I think it would be interesting to find some real supernatural beings instead of just people in costumes, I mean it wouldn't have to be all the time, but once in a while I think it would be interesting to search for a real ghost or monster" Velma remarked.
"Velma, that's what we're doing now; this mansion that we're going to is supposed to have a real ghost" Fred replied.
"Hmm… I guess you're right Fred; but still, wouldn't it be interesting to track down a real live ghost?" Velma wondered aloud.
"That's an interesting thought Velma, but why would you want to find a real ghost or monster?" Fred asked.
"Well, to tell the truth I've been doing some research in the supernatural; specifically some reading, and I found out that there are some real ghosts out there, and some real live haunted houses, we just have to go find them, wouldn't that be exciting?" Velma responded, with a question of her own.
"I guess it would Velma, I guess it would" Daphne replied.
"I think it would be too; but let's worry about that at a later time, right now we still have to get to the Brownstein Mansion and meet Mr. Randall" Fred remarked.
"Right Freddie and I can't wait to get there, it should be an interesting experience" Daphne replied.
"It should be indeed," Velma added.
With that the cherry red Cadillac Convertible continued to speed down the Maryland highway towards the setting of Mystery Inc.'s newest mystery, or at least the location of Fred, Daphne and Velma's latest mystery and hopefully the setting of Fred Jones' first mystery novel; which he hoped would be almost as exciting as he and his friends adventures had been over the years and would be for years to come.
However, as the convertible continued towards its destination, a fairly peculiar thing happened on the Maryland highway: as the cherry red automobile passed out of sight, a young woman, possibly in her late twenties with dark brown hair and wearing a long white dress appeared; she watched the road in front of her and wondered what was going to become of her and more importantly: what did the three people in the convertible want? And why were they on their way to the Brownstein estate in the first place?
Soon the strange looking young woman would find out about the mysterious convertible and the three young adults that inhabited it, and very soon the red haired inhabitant of the convertible would get to meet the mysterious young woman and would find out that she and the strange dark brown haired woman that stood on the highway, not worrying about getting run over by any automobiles had plenty in common, more so then anyone thought and more so then anyone ever knew.
Author's Notes: Hopefully everybody likes the way I ended the first chapter of this story; and hopefully everybody likes the cliff hangar I put in there to end the first chapter. As you might have guessed, this is another of my Fred, Daphne and Velma only stories and so far the intrepid trio have solved some interesting mysteries and are doing a pretty good job (at least in my stories) of solving mysteries without Shaggy and Scooby (and Scrappy for that matter).
Author's Notes #2: But don't worry, Shaggy and Scooby (and maybe Scrappy too) will be in a lot of other stories I am writing and they will be back solving mysteries with the gang soon; now however, the spotlight is on Fred, Daphne and Velma and their efforts to solve the mystery of the Brownstein Mansion and of the young lady on the highway, which be solved before this story's conclusion.