2~

Nestled in the center of a trendy block, in one of the peripheral neighborhoods that encircled the vast campus of Darrow University, was a record store called The Vinyl Act.

Known by the locals and student body for its eclectic selection of all types of musical fare, it was as much a staple of college life as The Counter-Revolution, a local coffeehouse, Dog Ear's Book Store, or Campus Burger. But, today, it received an extra dose of notoriety, thanks to the police tape strung across the store's open doorway.

Marcie, Daisy, Red, and Jason strolled up to the front of the building, collectively considering their options to either wait for the deputy on duty to allow them to enter, or simply ask him or her what was seen in the store and work with that.

When they saw Sheriff Stone, obliviously, perusing through the record bins, their decision was made for them. Direct investigation, it was.

Marcie stepped up to the tape and lifted it high, so the rest could maneuver into the store, but Daisy, holding Red back, said to Marcie, "You and Jason go in first and look for clues. I've got some questioning I want to do, out here, first."

Marcie looked where they were. There was no one around for Daisy to question, but she might have known something that the others didn't, so she shrugged. "Okay, Daisy. C'mon, Jason."

Once the other two entered the store, Daisy turned to face Red with a suspicious look in her eyes. "All right, Red, who is she, your stalker? It's obviously that you two must've met, somewhere."

"No way, Daisy!" Red exclaimed, confused as to why he was suddenly feeling guilty for no reason. It might have had something to do with Daisy sounding very much like his aunt whenever he was up to no good. "I was at Aunt Hedda's garage when she came on the scene, and we just saw each other."

"Across a crowded garage, maybe?" Daisy pressed.

"Huh? Nah, it was a slow day," Red answered, obliviously. "It wasn't that crowded."

She peered up at him with mistrust. "What did she look like? Was she one of those girls who hang out at Lambda Epsilon Gamma? You know the ones I'm taking about. Those girls the jocks at Mu Gamma Tau keep talking about?"

Red looked, thoughtfully. "Well, she had curly blond hair-" That was enough for Daisy.

"You remembered what she looked like?" she cut him off, he voice rising with every question she bombarded him with. "Was she cute? Did she have a winning personality? Did she have a smile as bright as the sun?"

Still confused, even Red could tell that Daisy wasn't her normal self. "Uh, I didn't notice. Daisy, is there something wrong? You sound kind of...revved up."

Daisy stopped hyperventilating long enough to notice that she was hyperventilating, considering that if Red noticed that she was a bit wound up, she had to be wound up, indeed.

"Oh, I, uh, just want to get to the bottom of this, that's all," she cheerfully lied, taking breaths to calm herself and regain her composure. "You know, the more information we have, the faster the mystery gets solved!"

'And the sooner I get Missy away from Red!' she thought, darkly.

"Yeah...okay." Red nodded, glad that the scene was resolved. He didn't realize how close he had been standing in the envious, destructive path of Hurricane Daisy. "Uh, let's see what Marcie and Jason found."

"Yeah...let's!" Daisy agreed, with a poorly disguised and slightly manic smile.

Red lifted the police tape for Daisy, and as she ducked under it and stepped inside, he was never so happy to get back into the case.

He knew that he wasn't as sharp at solving mysteries as the others, but he knew that he would have rather jumped into this mystery, than get entangled in a mystery that he knew he had no chance in solving.

Girls.

Sheriff Stone straightened from his personal record search, when he saw the four teens approach from the corner of his eye.

"Okay, you kids step back," he warned, officiously. "I don't need you coming in and contaminating the crime scene."

"But, Sheriff, you're just going through the albums," Jason pointed out. "What are you looking for, in there?"

Caught, Stone puffed up and sniffed at the question. "For your information, I'm checking to see if this was a botched smash and grab. The suspect might have wanted to steal any cool music from here, since the price of all the music will, no doubt, be hiked up."

"Why is that?"

He sighed at the questioning. "Haven't you heard the radio stations outside of town, lately? They're all playing these weird Celtic versions of popular tunes! Although, I do kind of like the uilleann horn solos on their version of Pink Floyd's Us and Them. Anyway, K-COOL is still going through their old playlists, so there's that, at least, and I'm here to make sure that these rare musical gems were pilfered by our suspect."

"Somehow, I doubt that the crime scene is between Slim Whitman and Hank Williams, Sr.," Marcie snarked at his weak excuse.

"Look, I don't have to answer to you, Miss Smarty-britches!" he sputtered in a high octave. "You kids don't know! These are classics, worth more, now, than they did before all of this nonsense. Besides, we're lucky that this is the worse that we have to deal with, right now. Mayor-wife has enough to worry about, trying to assure the people that we can rise above this civil chaos. My men and I are doing the best we can to keep a lid on all of this."

Considering what he had just said, Marcie put the days of news reports she had seen, together with what she had parsed through Stone's babble. Despite his unprofessional and marginal incompetence, what he and his people were dealing with was both serious and true, and it wouldn't help matters to purposely get in the way of that.

"We understand, Sheriff." Marcie said with a nod, angling towards the incongruous sight of the building's front door resting on a pair of record bins in the back of the store. "We'll try not to get in your way."

"See that you don't," Stone said, resuming his hunt for more classic Country and Western lp's.

"A change of heart, Marcie?" Jason said in low tones, while Marcie headed to the door, non-chalantly. "I didn't see that coming."

"The sheriff's right," she explained. "Think of human beings like herd animals. If a few get skittish, the rest will, too, and this town is getting tenser every day. The people need answers, if we're going to get through this without Crystal Cove being set on fire."

"We can always go to Mayor Nettles, and ask her to ask the sheriff to let us work with him," Jason suggested.

Marcie shook her head. "She's got enough on her mind without us shoving a wedge between the two of them."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't want to be responsible for their kids having divorced parents. They'll find me and beat me up."

"Exactly," said Marcie. "I'm going to check the door for clues. You go and question the cashier."

Jason nodded. "All right."

He waddled over to the store's proprietor, Colin, who was busy leafing through a months-old music industry magazine, and bopping his head, softly, to Bauhaus coming from the store's speaker system.

He looked up from his reading. "How are you doing?"

"Hi, there," said Jason. "Do you know what happened, here?"

Colin shrugged. "It's just what I told the sheriff. Red and I were talking about how crazy the world was getting, after he picked up his new Barry Manilow album."

That comment was met with a hiss, as Red sternly shushed him.

"Hey, you shouldn't be ashamed, Red," Colin teased. "Guys like him, too,"

"Well, I didn't know Red was a Fanilow, but that doesn't mean that the world's crazy because of it," Daisy replied.

"No," Colin corrected her. "He was just here to pick up the album. The world's gone crazy from something else."

"Oh, okay. Go on."

"Anyway, I said that I wanted to call my friend in Irvine, but I couldn't get through, because the phone was disconnected on his end. So, while we were talking, I heard the door open, but we didn't look to see who came in. The next thing we knew, the front door winds up on top of Independent Artists and Show Tunes, and some girl starts to move in on Red. I mean, that door was always kind of loose, but, man! He managed to give her the slip, and run out of the store, just as I was calling the police. Then, she just walked out."

"See?" A vindicated Red asked Daisy. "I told you. That girl's bad news."

"I guess you're right, Red," she admitted, pensively. "We have to stop her before she does to you what happened to that door."

The rest of the gang soon reconvened with Marcie, who, armed with a magnifying lens, carefully swept the surface of the door where it laid, atop the two bins of broken albums, a top hinge hanging loosely from it.

"What do you see?" Red asked.

"I'll tell you what I don't see. Fingerprints."

"What are you talking about? People have been coming and going through here since before I showed up. There should be tons of fingerprints," Red said.

"There are typical fingerprints on the inner and outer doorknobs, and the outer face of the door, which make sense, since the door needs to be pushed in to open," she said, explaining her findings to them.

Looking up, she noted, "However, judging from the condition of what's left of the upper hinge, the door had to be wrenched from its frame, and it's the absence of fingerprints, on the sides where the door would have been grabbed, that's the big clue."

"Meaning what?" Jason asked her.

Marcie gave him a knowing look, while Red and Daisy looked on in mild confusion. "Meaning, Jason, that I think that you and I might have to finish that little project of ours a lot sooner that I thought."

Red led the gang through the busy, winding paths, thoroughfares and promenades of the university campus.

"Where are we going, Red?" Marcie asked. "Are you following a hunch that because the stalker knew that you went into the neighborhood record store, that she might live in the area or might even be a student of the university?"

Red's focus was taken away by the questioning. "Huh? No. Jason wanted to swing by Campus Burger for something to eat, and in a rare moment of unity, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe some food will help take my mind off of all this, for a while."

"It works for me, although normally, food helps me think better," Jason added.

"Then, you must smarter than Einstein by now," Red said, stopping in front of the restaurant to quip.

Jason caught up to him, and countered. "Ha, ha. No, just you."

A quick pluck behind Jason's ear, prompted the customary wail of, "Daisy!" from him, followed by her giving Red the customary, punitive jab against his upper arm, which was about as effective as hitting a half-frozen side of beef, but Red always knew that it communicated her displeasure with him bullying the younger teen.

"Sorry," Red muttered.

"Not to me," she said, sounding almost maternal. "To him."

Red scoffed.

"Go on, or you can't eat."

"What? It's a restaurant. I can come in, if I want to," he defended, again, feeling like he was on the bad side of his aunt, all of the sudden.

"Okay, let me clarify that," Daisy said. "Apologize, or you can't eat...with me."

That gave him pause. To be denied any time with Daisy was a harsh penalty to bear. His bruised ego would have to be the price he would pay.

He slouched his head and acquiesced. "All right."

As the girls went into Campus Burger, Red stood outside with an awaiting Jason, but what he said next, was no apology.

"Jason, I might have to go away."

Jason had to admit that he was not expecting that. "Aw, c'mon, Red. We pick on each other all the time. I'm sorry you got in trouble with Daisy, but it's wasn't that serious."

Red's expression hadn't changed, which only raised Jason's worry. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Jace. I just might have to blow town, soon, that's all."

"That's all?" Jason parroted in a concerned and higher octave. "Why, and just as importantly, why are you telling me this?"

Red sighed and gave a glance towards the eatery. "Because, I can't tell the girls. Marcie's busy enough dealing with this case, and that Greenman guy. I can tell you, because, technically, you're a guy, and you're the only other one who knows what's going on."

"Really? So, trusting me with your bro secrets, like what a huge Manilow fan you are?" Jason asked, with an inner glee. Apart from his internet friends, who were probably gone, thanks to the recent changes in the timeline, he hadn't any close friends in town, forcing him to be a mother-coddled recluse at an early age.

But, being with Red these past few months, and running with Marcie on the odd case, opened a door of confidence in him, and in the cocky, rough-around-the-edges Red, he saw more than just a burgeoning friend, but a surrogate big brother, a bond that he was sure Red, secretly, shared.

Red scoffed, again. "I didn't say that, and if you spread my musical tastes around, I'll spread you around with a steamroller. It just means that I trust you to keep an eye on my two favorite girls in the world."

Jason was confused at Red's emotional state. All of this drama was over them? "Your pet goldfish?" he, naively, asked.

Red rolled his eyes heavenward. "Ugh! No, Aunt Hedda and Daisy! I want you to keep an eye on them. I'm thinking about leaving town, not to protect myself from the stalker, but because if we can't put the breaks on this thing, then...I'm gonna have to leave, and just hope that Little Miss Nutcase follows me."

"By yourself? But, why? That's too dangerous."

"I can't have her sticking around, and maybe hurting them, if she can't get to me. If I can bait her, while I'm on the move, then hopefully, she'll focus on me, and they'll be safe. But, I don't want them to know about that, and I don't want you telling them, or they'll worry. I don't want them to worry."

"They're going to worry, anyway, Red, when they want to see you, and you're not around, anymore," Jason reasoned.

His eyes, downcast, even Red couldn't escape that logic. "Yeah, I know, but look at me. I look like trouble. I'm hoping that they'll think I was just a loser, all along, and not care, after a while."

That didn't compute with Jason. Red was many things: cocksure, strong, and even loyal. The one thing he would have never thought Red would refer to himself as, was a loser. It was departure of what he knew of him, and for a moment, he wondered if the change in the outside world had anything to do with it.

"Is that what you think others think of you as?" Jason asked.

The question hit Red like a left hook. He wasn't prepared to answer it, or thought that he ever could. "I-I don't think so. I don't know. I do alright with Aunt Hedda. She raised me, and I know that she loves me."

"But."

"I'm crazy about Daisy, and I don't know why she wants to talk to me, sometimes," he sighed. "I'm just a grease monkey, a wrench jockey, an incredibly handsome one, but still, I know the score. Daisy's a Blake. She may not act like it, but she's a regular uptown girl, from one of the richest families in town."

"So what?" Jason countered. "You know that she likes hanging out with us."

"Maybe, but what if being with me is, you know, just something she did to pass the time, until she meets someone better? If I can pull this off, then I can, at least, keep my troubles off her and Aunt Hedda's backs. They deserve that."

Jason was surprised. Tough guy Red Herring had a heart, not only tattooed on his shoulder, but worn on his sleeve.

"If you say so, Red, but it still sounds pretty reckless," Jason said, not entirely convinced of the soundness of his friend's pending action. "You should, at least, wait until we've done all we can, first."

Red shrugged at the common sense and logic of that. "Maybe. We still have time, I guess, but the stalker's not after you."

Then, he perked up, and assumed his cocky attitude towards life, in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Besides, my plan'll work. What are you worried about, Jellyfish, that you won't have a guy as cool as me to talk to, anymore?"

With that, Red turned on the heel of his boot, and walked into Campus Burger. Pouring his heart out gave him a man-sized appetite.

"Maybe," Jason fretted, before following him in.

"Did you two patch things up?" Daisy asked Red, as they all sat in a booth and prepared to dig into their purchases.

His thoughts were, once again, taken from him by questions. "Huh? Oh, yeah, Daisy! We're the best of buds, right, Jason?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Jason concurred between mouthfuls of chili burger. "We'll always be together, even after this blows over!"

Jason jumped as a quick kick from Red struck his shin. "Ow!"

The bell by the glass doors rang, announcing another patron.

"Are you okay, Jason?" Marcie asked.

"Uh, yeah. I just said 'Wow!' because this burger's so good. It's fine. Everything's fine."

Satisfied with that, Marcie said to Red, "Okay, you said that the stalker kept following you, that you saw her everywhere you went. Were you with someone at those places?"

"Nope," he answered. "I always rode, alone."

Jason was about to take another bite, and wash it down with more Grape Ape soda, when he noticed a young woman sauntering by the table, behind the side of the booth where Red was sitting.

"Oh, hi, there!" he said to her.

Curious, Red turned to glance over at who Jason had greeted, and screamed.

A woman with curly blonde hair and a determined stare, reached over and grabbed Red by his resilient, leather vest, and slung him out of the booth. He landed into a tumble across the tiled floor that ended with him colliding with the base of the front counter.

As Red recovered from the trip, he, reflexively, backed further along the counter, while the cashier ran into the kitchen, in the back, and the other patrons fled towards the freedom of the parking lot.

Marcie thrust her hand into her jacket pocket, while she muttered, "Well, this proves that she's after him, specifically."

"Look! You've gotta take no for an answer!" Red attempted to reason with her, as she approached. "You look great, by the way, and, hey, I understand the attraction, but I told you that I already like somebody else. Don't take it personally! It's just bad timing, that's all!"

"Maybe, she knows you like Manilow," Jason said, hiding under the booth's table.

"You're not helping, Jellyfish!" Red yelled at him, then said to the woman, "You-You can't keep doing this! I may be tough, but-but I've got friends!"

"You need a restraining order!" Jason interjected.

The woman curled her fingers, eager to find something on Red to clutch and, quite possibly, injure, as she wordlessly moved in to strike.

Cornered, Red curled up and gave a high-pitched wail. "Auntie!"

Ice, suddenly, spread around her feet, thickening into a mass that cemented her to the floor, and threatened to make her fall, if she attempted to continue moving forward.

As Marcie applied more Insta-Ice at the girl's feet, three officers from campus security, finally, burst into the restaurant.

The first two officers flanked behind her, as she twisted to try and face them, each grabbing an arm to restrain her. The last one provided cover and called the arrest in via walkie-talkie.

She snatched her left arm away from the one who grabbed her there, reached back and clutched him by the throat, lifted him, and flung him over the counter top. The officer clipped his head against the side of the cash register and collapsed on the other side in a moaning heap.

The officer on her right arm was thrown off with the force of a small catapult, where he landed atop a table in the dining area, smashed it in two parts with his weight, and lay upon the wreckage, the wind, completely, knocked out of him.

The covering officer rushed at her from the side, preparing to subdue her in a regulation, textbook take-down, but was he seen from the corner of her eye.

A backhanded swing whipped out and connected with the side of the jaw, causing the man to spin from her, like wobbly top, until he crashed, with even less dignity, upon the rest of the gang, in their booth.

"She's one of those Questoid things?" Daisy asked, incredulously, while pulling out from under the stunned policeman. She didn't know why the machine was after Red, specifically, but she was more than ecstatic that, whatever the reason, it couldn't romantic in nature. "Yes! I mean, be careful, guys! She's a killer robot, and not, in any way, a real-life stealer of guys, unless, she likes guys, anyway."

"Get Red, Daisy!" Marcie yelled, throwing another Insta-Ice capsule at the gynoid's feet. "She's trying to break out!

The blond stooped down and proceeded to punch against the growing ice, buying Daisy time to rush over to Red.

The Questoid managed to crack the block, sufficiently, to lift and pull the block apart with her legs, spraying cold water and ice shards in their faces.

Although the sheer weight of the ice around her feet, make her movements sluggish, she was still close enough to reach down and grab at Daisy, to tear her away from Red, but then, she was halted by the sound of campus police cars coming onto the scene.

With a microsecond's deliberation, and two stamps of her feet, hitting the floor with enough force to make the windows rattle, the ice shattered, and she turned and ran from Campus Burger, the new officers attempting to give chase.