Chapter 8
Nine o'clock in the morning, the air was cool and slightly breezy, the sun was rising over Clifford House, almost as if it was a sign.
"Are you going to be ok?" Fred asked. "Yeah, I'll solider through." Shaggy said, "These innocent people are relyin' on me, these kids are relyin' on us." He looked at the team of detectives who were gathered outside Clifford House.
It had been a week since the arrests and Fred and Shaggy joined Alessandro, Green and a few other detectives from Topaz Police Station to recover the victims buried on the house grounds, using the map that Luelle Clifford had made.
The road was blocked half a mile left and right of the house, to stop any media intrusion and crime scene contamination. The news was all over the murder case, but the names of the victims had not been released. In fact, they only mentioned that two people had been murdered, they had not been identified.
This was the only time that Fred felt relieved that Daphne wasn't with him. When they recovered the victims from the ground the detectives made comments, about how cruel someone could be to do this to innocent people. Then they recovered the remains of the Clifford Children, the group of detectives had to take a break.
"Listen up people," Shaggy said, as he looked at the faces of the detectives, "We're here today for these people, includin' these kids. They're countin' on us t'help them. So, let's get back to work."
Fred admired that Shaggy, even in a time of despair, could always think so positively, and his speech encouraged the detectives, who, as Shaggy put it, "soldiered on".
By the end of the day, they had recovered the remains twenty-four victims. The bodies of the couple who were murdered the other night in the hotel, were recovered from the basement on the night of the arrests.
The remains were taken straight to the lab for examination.
And when the gang returned to New York the next day, not much had changed since leaving Michigan.
Daphne and Fred rarely slept, sleepless night number eight was coming up. Every time, Daphne closed her eyes she saw Luelle with an axe or hearing the words in the back of her mind, "The children are buried in the garden." And Daphne would wake in a cold sweat.
Fred drank four cups of coffee in the morning to keep him awake while he drove the gang back to New York, refusing to let anyone take over from him. HIis mother was phoning them every hour, checking up on them.
When Shaggy hadn't drunk himself into a blacked out 'sleep', he and Scooby stayed awake, not talking or watching TV, but sitting in silence. When they returned to Buffalo, Shaggy and Scooby walked around the local park, there were kids playing on the swing set, Mr Goldblum threw a tennis ball for his dogs to chase, and a group of small children were playing Duck, Duck, Goose and laughed with excitement.
For a few seconds they forgot about the murder case, until they saw a man reading a newspaper headlined; 24 BODIES RECOVERED IN CLIFFORD MURDER CASE.
Then it was time to go home. Whilst they were away, a new kebab shop opened up by their apartment building, and Shaggy was grateful that they had the Subway across the road from their office.
Velma was the only one who slept, she was the only one who made it through the day without crying or rethinking about their night at the hotel. She slept through her nightmares, she thought if she got the sleep she needed she didn't care about the nightmares, she thought they would go away soon, but it would be months until she slept without seeing Luelle and Thomas Clifford in her dreams. If she 'soldiered on' through the day, then it made her feel a little bit better, and the gang admired her.
The day after they returned to Buffalo, they were in their office.
The results from the lab were sent to them, the detectives had successfully identified the victims, they knew that 6 of the victims were Elias, Toby, Maggie and Rosie Clifford and the two who the gang had witnessed being murdered in the hotel, they were identified as Rachel and Michael Herman.
Daphne and Fred sat in the office, going through all the missing persons files from the victims to get the addresses of their families. They decided that they were going to visit their families and give them the unfortunate news. Velma, Scooby and Shaggy stayed behind, Shaggy dealt with the press who had gathered outside their office. Daphne and Fred went out the back way to Daphne's car.
"Two of our colleagues have gone t'inform the families of the victims. Before anymore details are released, the families have the right t'have their privacy respected and the time t'grieve." Shaggy said, before he returned to the office and pulled the blinds down, the press left not long after.
Daphne drove back to Michigan, "Do you think we should have flown?" Fred asked. "What, and be hassled by the press, no we'll be fine." Daphne said. "Are we going to-" Fred began. "No, we're not staying in a hotel, we'll sleep in the car." Daphne said, stubbornly.
This was something else he would have to get them both through, a new fear of hotels. Sounds ridiculous but after the night they had, Daphne told herself she'd never go into another hotel again.
One of the victims was Sarah Jane Pepper, Fred read the file and told Daphne that she has four sisters; one older and three youngers.
Daphne and Fred parked outside the house, it was lucky if Sarah's family still lived there as she had been missing for five years. Daphne looked at the house through the car window, a white picket fence, surrounded the pale blue house.
As they walked up the path, Daphne admired the flowers growing in the front garden. This is how she imagined her house with Fred.
Fred knocked on the door. A woman opened the door, she greeted them with a smile. Her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, she was probably in her mid-forties. "Hello." She smiled. "Hello, are you Mrs Pepper?" Daphne asked. "Yes, who might you be." The lady asked.
"I'm Detective Jones and this is my partner Detective Blake, may we come in?" He asked, Daphne and Fred showed her their badges, which they had recovered from the hotel. Mrs Pepper looked into his eyes, her smile fade, she nodded. "It's about Sarah, isn't it?" She asked. "Yes." Daphne said.
"Please sit down." Mrs Pepper said as she led Fred and Daphne into the living room, "I'll get my husband." She wondered into another room, "I think she knows." Daphne said quietly. Mrs Pepper returned with a man who looked like the girl in the picture inside the file Fred held.
"We were investigating the disappearance of Harry and Jessica Allen." Daphne began, "We discovered that they had stayed at the Clifford House Hotel, in Ironwood. Your daughter also stayed there." Daphne said, she felt her heart racing, how can she tell them their daughter was murder and buried, leaving the Pepper's thinking she was missing.
"Unfortunately." Daphne shuddered, "Unfortunately, your daughter was killed in the hotel."
"What?" Mr Pepper asked. "We arrested one of the murders just over a week ago, the other one was killed when the police raided the house." Fred said.
"When… When was Sarah killed." Mrs Pepper asked. "Five years ago." Daphne said, "Before she was reported missing."
Mrs Pepper burst into tears, Mr Pepper held her. "How do you know it's Sarah, for sure? The killers could have been lying." He said, trying to remain calm. Daphne took a deep breath, running her hand through her hair.
"Sarah was one of twenty-six, they were all found buried in the grounds of the hotel." Daphne said, she felt like she was going to throw up, her skin turned pale as she watched the couple cry. She heard a noise from upstairs, like a door closing and out the corner of her eye she saw a figure looking down from the staircase, it was one of Sarah's sisters, she looked around eleven years old, so she would have been six when Sarah disappeared.
Mrs Pepper saw her daughter too, "Megan," She said. "Get your sisters and come here." The little girl stepped back up the stairs and returned with four other girls, they all looked like Sarah, same colour eyes, same jaw and nose, but the eldest had darker hair and the youngest, Megan, had blonde hair, like her dad, Sarah had the same hair colour.
Mr and Mrs Pepper broke the news to their daughters, one of them ran upstairs, slamming her bedroom door whilst the other three cried with their parents.
Daphne took Mrs Pepper into the kitchen and helped her make coffee for her husband and warm milk for her daughters, Mrs Pepper smiled as she made the warm milk, "It was Sarah's idea to give Laura and Megan warm milk when they were sick and when they were sad."
"Mrs Pepper, I don't know if this will help you, but I know it would help me. One of the killers, the one who was arrested, will be trialled soon, the courthouse has offered to save seats for the families if you want to attend. It'll be difficult I know, but it might give you closure." Daphne said.
"Have you ever lost anyone, close to you?" Mrs Pepper asked. "No, but my sister has." Daphne said, "Her best friend was killed in a car accident, the other driver was on his phone. My sister went to the courthouse, she listened to the sentencing and she said it helped." Daphne replied.
Mrs Pepper nodded, "We will think about it." Daphne nodded, she wrote her phone number down on a page from her notepad and gave it to Mrs Pepper. "If you decide you want to go to the trail, or if you need me, you can ring me." She said.
Mrs Pepper took the number and wrapped her arms around Daphne, "Thank you Detective." She said, "Call me Daphne." Mrs Pepper smiled.
"That's my name too." Daphne smiled.
Daphne and Fred visited the other families, it was hard to watch parents and the siblings cry when they told them the awful news, a lot of the families agreed to go to the trial, some didn't, and Fred and Daphne accepted that.
And though it was a rough day, Daphne felt that she could sleep better at night, knowing that some of the families were going to get closure, and the victims were getting justice.
When they returned to their office later that night, they were relieved to see that the press had gone. Velma, Shaggy and Scooby had also gone home, Daphne and Fred put the files back in the office before they returned to their home.
The next morning the phone rang, "Hello?" Daphne answered it, still half asleep with Fred's arm draped over her as he was still snuggled close to her. "Daphne! Turn on Channel Five, quick!" Velma screamed down the phone. Daphne grabbed the remote, turned the TV on and put on Channel 5. Fred woke up when he heard the TV, he sat up and looked at the screen.
A news anchor sat at the desk saying the words, "Judge Arlo James has called for a retrial for Jack English, who, we now learn, was wrongly accused of murdering Beatrice Clifford, nine years ago. We don't have many details on the Clifford murder case, but new evidence suggests Jack English was not the murderer."
Daphne ran her hand through her hair. "This is going to be one hell of a trial." She said. Fred climbed out of bed and made them both coffees, "We'd better get down to the office and get the papers ready." He said.
