Chapter 6: Explanations and the discovery
"Just as we suspected!" Velma exclaimed as Mary was handcuffed by the deputies.
"Now, what the devil is going on here?" Stone asked. "You telling me that our friend here isn't a tourist attraction?"
"Of course not, sheriff." Fred Jr. replied. "My civics tutor disguised herself as Que Horrifico to seek revenge."
"On who?" Mr. de Portillo asked.
"On Councilmans Bob Rugg, George Spocks and Rick Kenny for sending her father, the investigative journalist Gordon Gleardan, to prison for fraud." Daphne stated. "A fraud ring that was a set up devised by those three councilmen to save their hides once Mr. Gleardan uncovered evidence of their involvement in a money laundering operation."
"Money laundering?" Stone asked before turning to Councilman Kenny and added, "Is that true, Councilman?"
"What do you think, Sheriff?" Kenny asked, obviously denying his involvement. "That meddling reporter should've minded his own business and keep his nose out of where he shouldn't have stick them."
"By setting up a ruse to lure my father into a trap and set him up to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit?" Mary blurted out. "What kind of a councilman are you if you don't respect the law?"
"Young lady, sometimes in politics, you've got to cross a line." Kenny stated. "When you have to get things done and acquire support from your sponsors, you'll have to return the favour or risk losing support of your key sponsors."
"Well, no wonder I always considered politics, particularly City Hall, as a nut house." Shaggy remarked with his arms folded.
"Anyways, how did you kids know it was Mary that was behind the disguise?" Mr. de Portillo asked.
"First off, we know that it's got to be her when we saw her approaching you in the library to ask a question, and you mentioned that she's a top student in your Mayan mythology class." Daphne said.
"That's the only way she could've learned about the monster and use it as her disguise." Fred stated.
"Also, during that encounter at the library, Scoob, Daph and I saw her dropping a book she was holding." Shaggy added. "It was a book on hypnotism, which no doubt has a section on how to hypnotize others with musical instruments, which also explains the pan flute she used in her disguise and how she was able to hypnotize those children into adopting those spooky disguises."
"But our biggest clue was when we researched some background info on the two missing councilmen." Velma continued. "We saw that an investigative journalist, who shared Mary's surname and has a daughter that is in Mary's age group, ran afoul of them when he investigated their involvement in a money-laundering operation. He was subsequently sentenced to prison when he got caught up in a fraud ring, although his family insisted that he was set up in retaliation for gaining condemning evidence against those two missing councilmen and Councilman Kenny."
"It was that last clue that led us to figure out that only Mary could've pulled the stunt." Fred Jr. concluded.
"Yes." Mary nodded. "I almost had my revenge and justice for my father, but you meddling schoolmates ruined everything!"
"Well, too bad you can't do anything to get even with me, young lady." Kenny boasted. "You'll never find anything that will tie me to the racket."
As Kenny was speaking, Scooby happened to sniff his hand before started growling.
"Hey, what are you sniffing at, you mutt?" Kenny asked when he turned and saw the Great Dane growling at him.
"Ri smell roil." Scooby growled. "Rounterfeit vegetable roil!"
"Counterfeit vegetable oil?" The others gasped in surprise and Shaggy instantly paused as his mind flashed to some place.
SHAGGY'S FLASH VISION
As Shaggy watched himself and the gang leaning over to read the information Velma found after doing some research on her laptop, he paused the scene and walked over to Velma.
Taking the laptop, he then did some typing and scrolled through the information related to money laundering operation.
Looking through the information, he found that the money laundering operation was tied to a food safety scandal, in which a massive recall in vegetable oil took place in the county after tons of counterfeit vegetable oil was found to have slipped through the food safety inspection committee - a committee that Kenny was chair around the time Gordon started his investigation into the three councilmen's involvement in a money laundering racket.
The counterfeit oil was found to cause severe poisoning and a committee member was forced to resign as a result of the scandal, although Shaggy believed that the man was thrown under the bus by Councilman Kenny.
As he continued looking through the information, he discovered that the company producing the counterfeit vegetable oil had paid Kenny in bribes to have their vegetable oil approved.
A company named Destroido Corp.
In return for the bribes, the county awarded Destroido Corp. a farming contract that was supposed to provide jobs for thousands of unemployed farmers in the county.
Shaggy then did another search, this time on Kenny, and he discovered that Destroido has been banned from doing business in several countries for its poor environmental record and lax safety and quality standards, in addition to Kenny working at the company prior to entering politics.
"Now that's a clear conflict of interest." Shaggy thought to himself as he returned to the page Velma found and returned the laptop to her before stepping out and resumed playing his flash vision.
END OF FLASH VISION
"Like, the counterfeit vegetable oil is produced by Destroido Corp." Shaggy quickly said. "Councilman Kenny worked for them prior to entering politics, then after getting elected, he was the chair of a food inspection board that approved the counterfeit vegetable oil whom Kenny approved of its development when he was still working for Destroido."
"That's insane!" Kenny roared. "You know that I'll never approve anything that will be hazardous to ones health."
Just then, Scooby sniffed the air and sniffed out a trail and raced towards Kenny's house.
"Hey, come back here, you mutt!" Kenny shouted when he saw Scooby racing towards his house. "That's my house and my property!"
But the Great Dane ignored him, and Kenny was forced to chase him.
Seeing Kenny chasing Scooby into his house, the others looked at each other and raced after them.
"I think Scooby made an important discovery." Daphne said as they followed the councilman and Scooby.
Soon, they found Scooby in the basement of Kenny's house, with the Great Dane founding a secret compartment on the floor.
"Don't even think of opening that, you mutt!" Kenny warned Scooby.
Scooby ignored him as he opened the compartment, revealing a pile of documents and small tanks of what appeared to be oil.
Everyone gasped when Scooby made the discovery as he handed the sheriff the documents.
"Sheriff, do you suppose..." Fred said to the sheriff as he examined the documents.
Stone was silent for a minute before turning to Kenny and said, "Mr. Kenny, you've got some serious explaining to do. I strongly advise that you contact your lawyer immediately if you want to emerge from this unscratched."
"Sheriff, what about Mary Gleardan?" Velma asked. "Is she still under arrest?"
Stone thought for a while before saying, "She's highly likely to serve probation, given her age and motives, although I'll like to hold her in a cell for causing us to waste all of those Que Horrifico merchandises."
The gang rolled their eyes at his last comment but didn't say a word.
April 30, 2012
The next day, the Crystal Cove Times had the following headline:
"COUNCILMEN BUSTED BY MEDDLING KIDS
Councilman Richard Kenny and the two missing councilmen forced to resign from their committee posts as they come under fire for their involvement in the Destroido Vegetable Oil Scandal"
The gang were satisfied when they learned that Mary's father was released from prison following a public outcry, although they were disappointed that the three councilmen aren't even in police custody and have lawyered up to fight the charges facing them.
"Sometimes, there's no justice in the world, gang." Fred sighed as he read the paper with the gang at their school lockers.
"How's your father taking the developments, Freddie?" Daphne asked as Shaggy and Scooby took a sip of water from their water bottles.
"Well, he's fed up about the fact that he needs to find me a new civics tutor, as well as his three best councilmen being forced to resign from their committee posts." Fred replied.
"Not surprised." Shaggy remarked as he leaned against his locker. "I definitely wonder how does a guy like him get elected in the first place."
Everyone else shrugged as the scene moves over to a nearby school poster advertising the upcoming school dance.
The adventure continues in D3 SDMI: The Legend of Alice May.
Stay tuned, and please read and review!