Chapter Two

Shaggy still had the phone in his ear and realized that he hadn't said anything in several seconds, "Did you say g-g-g-ghost?"

Al laughed again, "You crack me up. Yeah, seems that the ghost appeared a few days before the accident and is still hanging around. At least that is what the employees at the theme park say. No one else has seen it."

The mention of a ghost had brought Scooby out of his office, "Rid romeone ray rhost?"

Daphne looked up and held a finger against her lips.

Scooby looked sheepish and mouthed, "Rorry." But he stayed to eavesdrop on the rest of Shaggy's conversation.

This was Shaggy's biggest client and saying 'no' was not an option. It was probably going to be routine… even boring. Meet the police, read the report, inspect the scene, confirm it was an accident, and be on the next plane back. The ghost was probably a mass hallucination brought about by the trauma of the accident. Yes, there were lots of logic holes in that train of thought but he wasn't going to think about those. He had created this nice fantasy and he was going to stick with it.

"When do you need me there?"

"Tomorrow would be best. That would put you there for the week-end which is when all of the park employees are on site at the same time. You should be able to get what you need and come back on Sunday or Monday."

Tomorrow was awfully fast. Another gulp rose in Shaggy's throat, but he had entertained his client enough for one day. "Okay. I'll see what travel arrangements I can make."

"You won't need a hotel. The park owners have reserved a bed for you on site. I'm afraid it's in the employee housing which is a double room. You'll be sharing with one of the employees."

"I'll be staying on site with a ghost and sharing a room with an employee who might be a murderer?"

Another laugh, "I never really thought of it that way. Yeah, I guess so. Are you ready for the Work Order number?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Shaggy held his pen poised above the paper.

"NEV-WAW-074. Got it?"

"Yep."

"Send me a copy of your travel itinerary and I'll confirm your arrival time with the park."

Shaggy faked an upbeat tone of voice, "Will do."

"Thanks." The call ended.

Shaggy's desk was immediately surrounded by Daphne, Velma, and Scooby.

Daphne spoke first, "We're investigating another murder?"

Scooby was next, "Rand a rhost?"

Velma shook her head, "If it's an AHJ job, then it's just a claim investigation.

Shaggy nodded in response, "It's a death benefit claim in Nevada. I have to go tomorrow."

Velma's face went flat, "You're going to Nevada?"

Scooby finished, "Romorrow?"

Velma and Scooby looked at each other. Velma's face reddened slightly, and Scooby's would have, if it could.

Velma turned back to Shaggy, "I'm going with you."

"You can't. The client is only paying for me, you have school tomorrow, and I'm having to share a room."

Scooby's turn, "Then Rye'm roing with roo. Rye can sleep on the floor."

"No. You have three birthday party appearances at the restaurant this week-end. We can't say no to free money, dude."

Daphne didn't know what was going on with Velma and Scooby but did notice that they looked at each other uncomfortably for a second time. She focused on Shaggy, "Anything I can do to help?"

"Can you help with navigating the travel website on-line? I'm terrible with that thing and might end up booking myself a flight to Timbuktu for last week."

"Sure, no problem." She stepped around behind Shaggy's desk and leaned in to commandeer his mouse.

He slid back and watched the incomprehensibly quick motions of the pointer thingy on the screen as Velma and Scooby returned to their desks.

"What's going on with Velma and Scooby?" Daphne whispered.

"Probably best that I don't answer that. Everything should be okay in a few days." He returned the whisper.

"You three have so many secrets now." Daphne immediately thought of the secrets that she and Fred shared. She continued in her normal voice, "Okay. Destination?..."

One of Fred and Daphne's secrets returned to the office about twenty minutes later when Fred dragged in. They had not told the rest of the gang about Fred's sleepless nights although his face attested to exhaustion. Fred had been forced to tell Velma that he was considering therapy in order to get her opinion as the resident expert on premises. But he had asked her not to tell Shaggy or Scooby and he knew that she would keep that promise. She was Velma. Velma, of course, had already deduced, from the haggard appearance that he had been sporting since the Southeast Riley Elementary shooting, that he was having issues dealing with its aftermath and she was glad that he was seeking professional help. Neither Shaggy nor Scooby were stupid and both knew generally what was going on albeit without the details. As secrets go, it was poorly kept.

Daphne stood as Fred walked in, trying to get to his desk and go straight to work. She was grabbing his arm and leading him to the conference room before he unzipped his backpack. Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby did not look up from their computers.

After Daphne had closed the door behind them, Fred turned, "As if nobody noticed that!"

"Freddy, they know something is going on."

"They know what you tell them!" His efforts to reign in his irritation were failing.

"I haven't told anyone anything. Did it go badly?"

He simultaneously wanted to stop being mad and wanted to keep being mad. He needed to find a way for 'stop being mad' to win. His short fuse with Daphne had been a major part of their marital problems in the past. But it didn't happen immediately. He paced around the room for a moment and looked out the window.

He was still wrestling with his emotions but knew he had to say something, "It was all right."

"Are you going to keep seeing him?"

"I have another session scheduled. I'm glad that we've paid our deductible, he's not cheap."

"So, we'll put off buying a yacht for a few weeks."

Which made no real sense but, for some reason, Fred's anger lessened. Since that night, Daphne had looked a little different. No one who hadn't memorized her face would really notice but Fred had memorized her face. Her left cheek bone had a slightly different shape to it and the horizontal scar across her left cheek was barely visible, but there. At a casual glance, neither one could really be seen but when you stared at her, they were obvious. Daphne had always been classically beautiful but there was something about the slight blemish that made her… hotter. Now, a husband can tell his wife that she turns him on more than she ever did before and get a very positive response. But telling her it's because she now has a permanent scar on her face? That poses a dilemma. He kind of wanted to tell her but didn't want to explain why. So, he kept the reason to himself and maybe she wouldn't notice the increase in the times per week he tapped on her shoulder after they had gone to bed.

His revery was interrupted, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Was she reading his mind? "About what?"

She tipped her head, "The therapist."

Oh. Of course. That. "It was fine. I talked. He listened and wrote down notes. Pretty much like in the movies."

"No earthshaking revelations?"

"No. Just going back over that night." Fred didn't mention the discussion about children.

"When's your next session?"

"Next week. Same time."

"Do you think we should tell Shaggy and Scooby? They have to be figuring something out."

"They can figure out what they figure out. This is my business."

"Okay. You ready for work stuff?"

"Yes, please."

"An attorney's office from upstate called and wants to discuss a service agreement. It's a three-hour drive but I set up something for just after lunch tomorrow. You up for some quality car time with Scooby?"

"If he promises not to keep the window open. Listening to an open window for six hours in one day would get on my last nerve."

"Maybe you can compromise and let him hang his head out in speed zones."

"We'll work something out."

"And AHJ is sending Shaggy to Nevada for the week-end to look into a claim. Apparently, there is a ghost involved."

"Wait. I get six hours in a car with Scooby and another hour cleaning dog spit off the rear window and Shaggy gets a ghost mystery? How unfair is that?"

"Totally unfair." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

The rest of Shaggy's day was a whirlwind. The only flight available for the next day left at 6:00 AM so he had to get his end of week reports done for his other clients, get home, get packed, run to the drug store to get the things he didn't have, finish packing, find more things he needed from the drug store, go again, have Velma look at his toilet kit and remind him of one last thing he needed from the drug store, and then a third trip. All the while having conversations with her like the following:

Velma: "I haven't spent much time with my parents lately, I might spend the week-end with them."

Shaggy: "Wait for that until I get back, I would like to see them, too."

Velma: "I can go twice."

Shaggy: "I thought you had a big paper due on Monday and were wanting complete silence to do your final reviews. Scooby will only be at the apartment after 9:00 PM. He is booked at the restaurant all day both days. That seems perfect."

Velma: "But Scooby will bother me after he gets in."

Shaggy: "Bother you? How. After greeting customers and hosting kid's birthday parties, he will do nothing other than come in a collapse in his bed."

Velma: (Blushing) "He'll just bother me."

Shaggy: "Not as much as your mother will bother you. She'll want to talk about wedding plans the entire time."

Touche. And with a grumbling "Okay", Velma acquiesced.

It is really hard to have a discussion where both parties knew the problem but neither was going to mention it.

The Scooby Doo version of the conversation went thusly:

Scooby: "Rye rink that Rye am going to stay at the Government rab this reek-end."

Shaggy: "You hate sleeping there. They never turn the lights off, the blankets are cheap, and its cold."

Scooby: "I know. Rut I ron't want to be arone with Relma."

Shaggy: "And why is that, Scooby Doo?"

Scooby: "Recause, she is rorking on a paper for school and Rye ront want to risturb her."

Shaggy: "You being asleep in your bedroom won't disturb her."

Scooby: (whimpers)

Shaggy: "Scooby. It's time to dog up."

Scooby: "Rokay.

Thursday night was a tug-of-war between varying versions of these two conversations as Shaggy tried to pack. Scooby eventually went over to Amanda's for the evening and Velma watched Shaggy pack and proved that there are certain phrases that are simply genetically a part of the female of the species, "Are you sure you want to pack that?"

Shaggy looked at the clown nose that he was holding in his hand, "It has proven useful many times in the past." He had already packed his theatrical make-up kit and was filling a small kit bag with other disguise items that he had collected and used before.

"It's your call but it doesn't exactly scream 'professional investigator'"

"If this professional investigator is running from a ghost or a murderer, he won't care what the clown nose screams."

"If it's a murderer, they'll probably just kill you in your sleep."

"Can you help someone else?"

"Sorry. We haven't really dealt with that many murderers. Just the one. I'm extrapolating based on little evidence."

Shaggy held a pair of socks in his hand and wondered whether he should pack another pair, "I am hoping to not double our murderer experience on this case. I go out. I confirm its an accident. And then I come back before the sun even sets. No spooky nighttime in a theme park. Why is it always theme parks?"

"Why do tornadoes always hit trailer parks. Some things are just destiny."

"Destiny? Do you have a fever or something?"

"When an observable phenomenon achieves an occurrence rate exceeding possible coincidence, then what am I supposed to call it?"

"Destiny just sounded sort of illogical for you."

"How about I say that it's a demonstration of reverse chaos theory?"

"I have no idea what that means, so I like it."

Scooby knocked on the door to Amanda's apartment. She opened the door without smiling and let him in, "It was a nice surprise when you said you wanted to come over."

Partial truths are the best lies, "Raggy is packing so the apartment is a radhouse."

"You called just in time. I didn't clean the plates from dinner."

Scooby sniffed the air, "Ritalian?"

She nodded.

"Rexcellent." He made his way to the kitchen and cleaned the plates with his tongue. It was store-bought dry pasta with no egg, cheap mass-produced sauce, and unseasoned hamburger meat. Amanda was not going to enter a cooking contest anytime soon.

Bettie was at the living room table working on a coloring book. When Scooby came in, she pointed, "Doggie."

As usual, he pointed back, "Ruman."

After he had finished making sure no morsel of food went uneaten, Scooby stepped back and sat on the beige wall-to-wall carpeting just past the vinyl kitchen flooring as Amanda loaded the dishwasher. He watched Bettie as she concentrated on her coloring and then watched Amanda for a moment as she focused on placing the dishes just so within the dishwasher. There was a peace to the scene which he enjoyed.

"Romorrow is Riday. Rhy don't Rye rake you two to out to rinner?"

Amanda looked up briefly, "Oh? At your restaurant?"

"No. Ret's rive a rittle. Row arout Rhe Ranard?"

"The Canard?" Her face showed no expression but there was a hesitation, "Bettie is going to be with her grandparents this week-end. Why don't we do it some other time?"

"Ree ran do both. Roo and Rye can rave a date night tomorrow and then re'll go again rith Rettie."

Amanda and Scooby had a small universe in their dating life. Most of their time together had been spent had been spent at the park either watching Bettie or just alone together, sitting under the same tree. It was their spot. Otherwise, they spent some evenings at her apartment and had spent a few evenings with Shaggy or Velma at Scooby's place. They had been as a group of three to Shaggy and Scooby's restaurant once.

Amanda's level of Asperger's was such that she could not read nonverbal communication at all. She had never been able to have a sense of what people were thinking beyond the obvious things like smiling, laughing, and angry shouting. With her anxiety issues, Amanda had lived her life shying away from people and, when people did focus their attention on her, she assumed that they were looking on with animosity.

Scooby Doo had spent years being one of the most beloved characters on television. As such, he was accustomed to people staring at him and assumed that it was with positive emotions.

When they were together in public like at the park or at Scooby's restaurant, Amanda noticed that people were looking at them. Her anxieties told her that these people were somehow angry or upset. Scooby clearly assumed they were just fans recognizing him from the show. She hoped and prayed that he was right.