Chapter 4 The Clue That Went Unnoticed
"First things first," Fred told the others. "We need to get out of this tunnel and sort through everything in a place where we'll be alone."
"Why don't we, like, tell Carter or something?" Shaggy suggested hopefully. "He'd have to do something about this."
The others gave him a skeptical look. "You can try that if you want, but I doubt anyone will ever believe this," Fred told him. "I mean, if I hadn't been here myself, I never would've believed it!"
Shaggy then thought back to one of Carter's last comments to him. "Please don't even try to tell me that you believe to rumors about this place being haunted."
"You're right," Shaggy said with a sigh. "Well, I guess you can all come to my room. It's, like, totally alone and I have no roommate."
"Thanks, Shaggy," Fred said gratefully. "We'll meet there at ten."
A few hours later, the gang met up in Shaggy's room.
"R'oh boy, r'oh boy, r'oh boy," Scooby shouted as he saw the teenagers pile into the room. He wasted no time in jumping on them and looking for some affection.
"Jeez, Shaggy," Fred said with a laugh as the Great Dane bounded over to him. "I didn't know you had a talking dog. I didn't think that was possible. But, then again, this day has been one where the impossible seem to happen."
"He's so cute," Daphne said, scratching behind Scooby's ears.
While the others paid attention to the dog, Velma sat down at Shaggy's desk and took out a pen and a piece of paper. Shaggy stood over her as she quickly scribbled down everything that they had discovered that day.
Tunnels under Grimm Manor
Torn piece of ghost's costume
Ghost walks through walls/flies
Speaks in poems
Some sort of camera in the tunnel
Has successfully scared off multiple visitors over the past year
"But how does this all add up?" Velma asked, more to herself that to the others.
"Beats me," Fred said. "I think we need to brush up on our history."
"I had a feeling you'd say that," Daphne butted in, stepping away from Scooby and walking toward Fred. She pulled a few books out of her bag and handed them to Velma. "I checked these out from the library. They're supposedly histories of Robert Grimm."
"Jinkies, get a load of this," Velma said. "It says here that Grimm was the captain of a ship."
"Like, that would explain his funky outfit," Shaggy commented.
"It also says that when he went out to sea, he left behind the love of his life. He promised to come back for her and build a house for them to live in," Velma continued, "but when he returned, she had died. Grimm built this building as the house he promised to give to his love, in the hope that she would come back to him one day. After the construction was complete, Grimm claimed that he could see her ghost walking through the hallways, but she was disappointed so he kept building. There are many secret passageways and such in the Manor. After many years, Grimm's love never seemed happy with his work so he drove himself mad trying to make it better. One day, he was found dead, clutching her picture."
Daphne shivered. "Jeepers, that's creepy."
"I'll say," Fred added.
A low rumbling noise came from the corner of the room. All eyes were drawn in that direction. Scooby-Doo sat there, whimpering.
"Like, what's wrong, Scoob?" Shaggy asked.
"R-I'm r-hungry," he whined.
The rest of the gang laughed. They all agreed to go down to the kitchen and see if there was anything the dog could munch on.
"D-D-Daphne," a red-headed boy in the kitchen stammered. He wiped some flour off of his freckled face.
"Hi, Jimmy," she responded, uninterested.
Fred found that he didn't like the way this kid was looking at Daphne. Luckily for him, she didn't enjoy the attention either. Unfortunately, Jimmy Walters, the young chef at Grimm Manor, didn't seem to notice her obvious distaste for him.
While Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby inspected the refrigerator, Jimmy made his way over to his crush. However, Fred was hovering close by, making sure this little nerd didn't try anything with her.
"S-so, Daphne," he said, "have I showed you my newest project?" Before she could answer, he continued. "It's a new form of holographic projection that makes the image appear more life-like."
"Fascinating," Daphne replied with no real emotion. She looked helplessly over at Fred. Her pleading eyes were hard to resist.
Fred made his way over to Jimmy and Daphne just in time to hear the boy ask her out.
"Jimmy, I'm really sorry," she said, truly feeling bad about rejecting him. "But I can't go out with you?"
"Why not?" he asked, looking more enraged than upset.
"Be-because I-I'm already dating someone else," she lied hurriedly.
"Who?" The boy's face was turning a shade of red that nearly matched his hair. He was really taking this terribly.
"Fred," Daphne fibbed once more. She grabbed Fred's arm and pulled him close. "Yeah, so I can't really date anyone else right now."
"Fine," Jimmy shouted, storming out of sight.
Daphne sighed with relief. She realized that she was still clinging onto Fred and immediately released him. She blushed slightly and joined the others.
