They came to his house. Jazz was in her room studying, the Fenton couple was in the lab, but Danny was nowhere to be found. "Jazz, have you seen Danny anywhere?"
"Last time I saw him he was in his room. Why?"
"Just asking; do you have any idea as to why he wouldn't be answering his phone?"
Jazz shrugged. "No idea. You could go and ask him."
So Tucker and Sam went into the other room so they could go patrolling for ghosts, et cetera. But what they found was not what they had anticipated.
Sam shrieked. Red was everywhere, mixed with fine, almost insignificant traces of green ectoplasm pulled into the mix.
The Fenton's all stormed in. They were all too petrified to make note of any of it.
The police came, and took pictures, ran an autopsy, did fingerprinting and DNA analysis.
Detective Jackson Heralding read aloud the information to the Inspector, Hue Evergreen. "Victim is Daniel Fenton, age fifteen. He goes to Casper High, and kept mediocre grades. Time of death is 1 'o clock this afternoon. He was found dead at 5 'o clock PM on the floor. The room has been ransacked, probably as a result of Daniel fighting back. Obviously he was murdered, with a knife."
"Who are our suspects?"
"Well, we have his parents, Jack and Madeline Fenton, his older sister Jasmine Fenton, and his two school-friends Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley."
Sam was curious as to who could have done this. He'd gained many enemies, but who would be willing to kill him? One word: ghosts.
Why was it always a ghost?
"Sam and I are innocent," Tucker cried. "We spent the whole day at the arcade, you can check the footage. I was eve asked to leave for being 'obnoxious'."
"You check on that," Evergreen instructed, and a few people left to do so.
"So until those guys come back you're still suspects," Detective Heralding teased childishly.
"Moving on," Inspector Evergreen insisted. "We then have Madeline Fenton, Jack Fenton, and Jazz Fenton; all the three of you don't have alibis."
"I have an alibi," Jack exclaimed. "Just…uh, what IS an alibi?"
Detective Heralding slapped his forehead. "Anyhow, Jasmine AKA Jazz Fenton claims to have been in her room studying, and these two say they were…what were you doing again?"
"We were modifying the specter speeder."
"What's that supposed to do?"
"It's a vehicle made to go through the Ghost Zone," Jack blurted.
"Right, the Ghost Zone; I think I'll pretend I have every idea as to what the Ghost Zone is."
Maddie looked at the red blood and wanted to hurl. She noticed traces of something in the blood. It was green. Ectoplasm-in her boy's blood-how is that possible, how can that be?
Sam and Tucker's alibis were confirmed a few moments later, and they were released. They sat on the steps outside his house to discuss the matter.
"It has to be a ghost," Tucker suggested.
"I was thinking the same thing. Who else could have done it?"
Tucker shrugged, and the conversation was soon stalked by a deadly silence that filled the air. Tucker sighed. "I can't believe he's dead."
"Yeah, I know. But it's not surprising that it led to this. How many enemies have we gained from all this?"
"Well, I don't think I can count."
"Any one of them could do it."
"Accept the Box Ghost."
Sam gave a quiet, uneasy chuckle. "He's instantly ruled out; so are the Lunch Lady, the Dairy King, Pandora, the Observers, Frostbite, Clockwork, and Vlad."
"What makes you think VLAD wouldn't kill him?"
"It would cause his mom a ton of grief. He wouldn't do that to her."
"Well, that leaves the rest of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone."
"Yeah…"
Eventually they both drifted into their own thoughts and muddled emotions, not sure what to think, what to do, how to act, and how things will be different.
The two of them went their separate ways.
That night, while Tucker was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, contemplating everything that had just happened, something felt different in his room. He felt an ominous, lurking presence.
He sat up. "Hello," he interrogated weakly.
The air was so stiff. He looked at his dresser. Things began to move and shake. One of his PDAs fell off. He managed to catch it just in time before it crashed on the ground and broke. Although the room was pitch-black, he could make out a silhouette.
"WHO'S THERE," he shouted. There was no reply.
Another PDA fell over. Luckily, it didn't break. The silhouette was hovering over the PDA. It was misty, dark, surreal.
Words appeared on the screen of his PDA. Find
"Find what?"
Frostbite
Tucker didn't have much time to be confused before the rest of the note was finished.
Ask
About
Apparitions
SOS
The lights in his room flickered, and the presence was gone, just as abruptly as it had appeared.
"Find Frostbite Ask About Apparitions SOS," Tucker read aloud to Sam the next day, at the lunch table.
"Do you think that perhaps Danny's death and this message have some sort of connection?"
"Maybe, but I think we should talk to Frostbite about this…which means we'll need to take the specter-speeder."
Sam nodded in agreement.
As they entered the house, everyone was there, in the living room.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We…uh, just came to look around, feel how things used to be, you know, with Danny around and all that. We'll be in his room looking at his things. Oh, and by the way, how did you guys convince the cops you're innocent?"
"Well," Jazz spoke up. "Apparently Mayor Masters had decided to show the police a video of his spying on our house; he got arrested for illegally spying, and Mom and Dad got an alibi."
As Sam and Tucker crept into the other room, Jazz blurted, "Wait! Can I go with you? There are some things I wanna talk about with you two."
They exchanged glances, shrugged, and agreed in unison.
As they entered the other room, Jazz voluntarily started the sparkling conversation. "It really pains me to see my parents like that; I think they should know…about Danny, and his powers."
Suddenly, the walls shook. Things fell over. Papers flew around. A pen was drawn out of one of the drawers, and began to write on one of the papers. The same shady silhouette returned. "This happened last night," Tucker exclaimed.
Sam ignored that and read aloud what was written. "Help…trapped…Frostbite…knows… a lot…he…probably…knows…about…apparitions…"
In a quick flash, everything dropped to the floor at once.
"Who's Frostbite," Jazz questioned.
"He's a ghost we met once," Sam explained, picking up the paper. "But I think this needs some more thorough investigation."
They all agreed, and headed to the lab, to find something quite shocking waiting for them.