Chapter 10 - Quite possibly the biggest epiphany

In this chapter, we finally find out who it was that attacked Daphne. Have you guessed who it is yet?

It felt as if an hour had passed before Velma decided to come out of the cold and back into the hospital when, in reality, it was probably only two or three minutes at most. She would be lying if she said she hadn't been a little surprised by Marcie's reaction; if Velma had been accused of committing some awful crime, she would overact like crazy. But Marcie's response was, if nothing else, little more than a cold rejection. Velma guessed she should be glad that Marcie had made less of a scene than expected, but she couldn't even force herself to feel that way. The small, quiet voice in the back of Velma's head that constantly told her that Marcie was telling the truth was now more insistent than ever and Velma, who had always valued logic and rational thinking over intuition, was actually starting to believe it.

Velma was so lost in thought as she wandered aimlessly through the halls that she didn't notice two people, a man and a woman, walking straight towards her and bumped right into them. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" she apologised.

"Velma? Oh, thank goodness!" the woman cried.

For a second, Velma was alarmed that these complete strangers knew her name. When she saw their faces, however, she realised they weren't really that strange. The people she had bumped into were Daphne's parents. They were dressed in their finest winter wear and looked anxious.

"Oh, hi Mr and Mrs Blake" Velma greeted. "Have you come to see Daphne?"

Mrs Blake gasped and gripped her husband's arm. "So it's true! Our daughter really is here! Oh, Velma, tell us quick. How bad are her injuries? Will she wake up?"

Mr Blake calmed his wife, then gave Velma an apologetic look. "Please, excuse us Velma. We're just really concerned for our daughter. Have you heard anything from the doctors yet?"

"It's ok, I understand. And you don't have to worry; although she was badly hurt, we've been told there's no permanent harm done. She'll just be unconscious for a short while, is all."

The Blakes heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, that's lucky" Mr Blake remarked. "We were just on our way to her room if you'd care to join us."

Velma accompanied the Blakes to Daphne's room and sat with them by Daphne's bedside, offering her condolences while Mrs Blake whispered soothing words to her daughter through her tears. This continued for some time before Mr Blake suddenly commented "I'm surprised Fred isn't here."

Velma shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Uh, yes. Well...um...the thing is...he's been...arrested."

Mrs Blake's head shot up. "Arrested? Why?"

"The police seem to think he was the one who attacked Daphne."

"But that's ridiculous!" Mr Blake exclaimed. "I know I didn't really approve of Fred when I first found out he was with Daphne but even I couldn't believe he would ever do something that terrible."

"That's what we've been trying to tell the police" Velma told him. "But they won't listen. So now it's up to me, Shaggy and Scooby to find the real culprit."

"Well, whoever it is, they'd better hope I don't find them first" Mr Blake's tone was low and dangerous and Velma could only imagine what he planned on doing to his daughter's attacker.

"How did you guys know Daphne was here anyway?" Velma asked, suddenly realising, with a pang of guilt, that she hadn't thought to call them when Daphne went into hospital.

"This morning we received a message from an anonymous caller" Mr Blake said. "They sent us a picture of Daphne lying in her bed with all these scars on her face. The caller said they were the one who had done this to Daphne and that they would do even worse to her unless we retracted all that had been said about Cooke's clothing store and made a donation of $60 million."

Velma raised an eyebrow. "What does Cooke's clothing store have to do with this?"

"Well, until a few months ago, we were one of the biggest patrons of Cooke's. Then somebody, I believe her name was Marcie Fleach, informed us that the company was hiding a few unpleasant secrets. It turned out that the clothes they claimed to be made of real animal products were actually counterfeit. We weren't too bothered by this. We could have almost lived with it, if it hadn't caused Daphne to have several violent allergic reactions. She's allergic to fake clothing materials, you see. But we also learnt that Mr Cooke was exploiting his staff, paying them below minimum wage, forcing them to work long hours with no breaks and even firing workers just for taking the day off because they were ill. Long story short, we threatened to expose Mr Cooke if it continued and have since stop sponsoring his company."

The young detective listened to this story, dumbfounded. Several realisations dawned on her and she had a sudden need to speak to Shaggy and Scooby. "That's very...interesting. Would you excuse me for a few minutes? There's...uh...something I forgot to do."

The Blakes happily excused her and, once Velma was back out in the hall, she sprinted in the direction of the cafeteria. The same thought kept circling around in her head. The attack on Daphne wasn't Marcie's way of exacting revenge on the Mystery Inc. gang because it wasn't Marcie who committed the crime. It was Evan Cooke. She had to tell Shaggy and Scooby right away.

Surprised, Velma gave a startled yelp as she turned a corner and bumped into somebody for the second time that day. Unfortunately, she couldn't see who it was because she then fell to the ground and her glasses slid from her face and onto the floor. "My glasses!" she cried, fumbling around for them. "I can't see a thing without my glasses!"

"Here they are" a voice said and, through narrowed eyes, Velma could just make out a hand holding her glasses.

"Gee, thanks" Velma said as she took her glasses and put them back on.

"No problem. Let me help you up." A hand then gently grabbed Velma's arm and pulled her to her feet. Velma was about to thank the person again when she saw their face and gasped. It was none other than Evan Cooke. "Why Velma, what's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Velma narrowed her eyes and roughly shoved him away, earning her a confused look. For reasons even she couldn't explain, she said to him "I know what you did to Daphne."

At first, Evan seemed confused. Then, with horror, he realised what the girl meant. Before Velma had time to react, the man flew at her and the last thing she remembered before everything went dark was a searing pain in the back of her head.