Chapter 4

Scooby was alone in the office which, technically, wasn't supposed to happen since he couldn't answer the phones, but they were rolled over to Daphne's cell. Fred was at his weekly meeting with the Jacoby and McTavish legal teams. That one firm was 30% of their business right now so there was no rescheduling. Shaggy, of course, was in Nevada, and Velma was at school (which was good since he didn't want to be alone with Velma right now). Daphne had to go home to meet an electrician that they had hired to replace their old electrical panelboard.

After The Gang had returned from their last trip to Los Angeles, Daphne had demanded that Fred explain to her the workings of the panelboard and the circuit breakers and the other stuff toward which she had previously been indifferent. He had excitedly complied and explained to her that their panelboard was original to the house which was built in the late 1950's and therefore was not grounded. That prompted her to ask a series of questions regarding what that meant. He answered them and a plan and a budget for updating the house electrical system to modern codes was created. Today, an electrician was coming to replace their old panelboard with a new one. The cost of that was going to delay the paving of the driveway but now that Daphne new what grounding was, she wanted it. She had gone back to her house to be there fifteen minutes before the electrician was scheduled to arrive. That had been two hours ago, and she was still waiting.

This left Scooby alone with his thoughts which was a confusing place to be right now. He understood that his position in the company was largely as a figurehead and that rarely bothered him since getting paid for being a figurehead was a sweet deal. But he did not have any reports to write or spreadsheets to fill in or work to do while he was trapped alone at the office. An attempted conversation with the letter carrier when they dropped off the mail had failed. As had a similar effort with the Amazon delivery person. Both were wanting to get their routes complete so had little time for gab.

So, Scooby was spending the afternoon trying to think about Amanda without thinking about the dream. Thankfully, it was getting easier as the day wore on. The thing with Velma was becoming just an unpleasant and embarrassing memory. The more he thought about it, the more he was becoming comfortable that Shaggy was right and Scooby was who he thought he was.

Back in Nevada, Shaggy stood as Ron Tedford entered the room, which was probably a mistake since Ron was almost a foot shorter. Shaggy stuck out his hand, "Mr. Tedford, I'm Shaggy Rogers."

"'Ron' is fine or 'Big Ron' as they like to call me around here."

Shaggy didn't know if the last was a joke, so he decided that he would go with 'Ron'. He started with the preliminaries about the recording and then got into the standard questions modified by the information that he had received from Kyle and Ralph.

"What do you do at the park?"

Ron thought for a moment, "Like most of us, it's an other-duties-as-assigned kind of place. Primarily I play Joe Dalton in the shows and then I manage the temporary summer and winter labor."

"So, did you know Jerry Pollack pretty well?"

"As well as anybody, I guess. He was a pretty good kid for a teen-ager. I didn't really know him well enough to say I liked him, but I didn't dislike him. He worked as hard as any of them. Showed up more-or-less on time and worked when he was here. I never caught him smoking pot behind the restaurant like some of the others. He missed the occasional day here and there. Like I said, a teen-ager."

"Do you know why he specifically was chosen for the performance?"

"Not really. After Billy said he needed a day off for his ankle, Ralph went out and came back about five minutes later with Jerry and Kathryn. Kathryn took Billy to the doc and Ralph told Jerry that he was going to be the bank teller."

"What's Kathryn's last name?"

Ron had to think again, "It's Harriman. Sunday is going to be her last day."

"When did Ralph go out and get Jerry and Kathryn?"

"After the 2:00 show. So probably around 3:00. We all said we would meet up after 8:00 and go through everything with him."

"After you got there around 8:00 what happened?"

"Ralph, Billy, and Jerry had gotten there early and they had Jerry dressed up in Billy's costume. It was pretty baggy on him. Emma Jean had just shown up when I got there, and Tommy showed up about ten minutes late. Ralph was a little ticked at him about it. We walked through the play and explained Jerry's part. There wasn't much to it. He seemed to be pretty into it. He even was trying to do a funny walk. It was cheesy but the kid was only going to be doing it for one day and he might as well have fun with it. We finished up with that somewhere before 9:00 and then Ralph brought out a light..."

Shaggy interrupted, "The noose was already in place?"

"Yeah, I guess Ralph did that before I got there. I really didn't notice."

"How did the noose-trick training go?"

"Pretty shitty, obviously. Billy explained everything to him and then Ralph yelled 'bang' from over by the Music Hall to simulate the gunshot, Jerry jumped up, I kicked the chair and then he dropped and just stopped. There was an awful popping sound. Loud as hell. I didn't understand what was happening until I grabbed him and tried to lift him up. The kid was a lot heavier than he looked. He was still trying to breathe and it was clear something wasn't right by the sound it made. It was wet and bubbly. Emma Jean got the chair, climbed up on it, and pulled the rope off the bolt. Ralph laid him down on the deck. That was when the breathing sound stopped."

Emma Jean Baker was next. She was taller than Ron at about 5'-7" with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing almost no make-up and most people would call her very pretty. With full make-up, she would be striking.

"What do you do at the park?"

"I play Averell Dalton in the play and run the retail and souvenir shops." She spoke with a slight rural or southern accent, Shaggy really couldn't tell the difference.

"Averell? Isn't that a man's name?"

"Yeah, in the original, the bad guys were the Dalton Brothers and the bank teller was the only woman. Before I got here, they had already changed that, but they couldn't afford new costumes which is why I look like a school marm with a gun and Billy dresses like a desperado without one. Changing times and gender roles, I guess."

"How long have you worked here?"

"About five years. I came to Vegas as a dancer but that didn't work out so well, so I had a choice between moving home and admitting defeat or trying to find something else around here. I found the park. That way, I can tell everybody back home that I'm in the business."

"You are. Aren't you?"

"Look around. Does this feel like show business to you?" She gestured toward the windows.

"I both started and ended in worse."

"I suppose."

Shaggy cleared his throat, "Back to the business. You run the retail and souvenir shops?"

"Yeah, that just means coordinating the sales staff to make sure that someone is there from opening to closing and counting the cash at the end of the day to make sure that everything balances."

"So, you go to every store at the end of each day?"

"No, once everything is turned in, I check the shift closure forms which are turned in at the end of each shift. If one is badly out of balance, I talk to the employee. If it happens regularly, I fire them."

"Have you fired anybody recently?"

"This late in the season? Nah. I always fire two or three at the beginning of the season. Some are lazy and others just can't handle the math."

"So, you buy the stuff that goes into the shops?"

"Kinda sorta. Kyle gives me a budget and I give him a list of what we should buy. I don't always get everything on the list, but we manage to have enough stuff for the tourists to get their souvenirs. Ralph does the actual ordering and then two people have to sign the checks."

"Are you one of those two people?"

"Not me. There's three on file with the bank. Two of the three have to sign any check. The three are Kyle, Ralph, and Billy. Kyle owns the place and Ralph and Billy have been here since forever. I'm the newbie at five years and Tommy's a douche bag that nobody trusts."

"Why does nobody trust him?"

"He's a pothead – no offense - and is completely unreliable." She hadn't mentioned being aware of Shaggy's television past, but she at least knew something of his reputation.

"No offense taken. If he's so unreliable, then why doesn't Kyle fire him?"

"Because he's Kyle's wife's son from her first marriage. We're stuck with the lazy schmuck until she's finished spending all of Kyle's money and leaves him."

"You're not a fan of his wife's?"

"Me? No. She was also a dancer in Vegas, but she was the clothing-optional kind. All the old guys' tongues drop out whenever she visits. The teen-agers call her a MILF. Sick little bastards."

Interesting information but not what Shaggy came for, "Do you know why Jerry Pollack was chosen for the performance?"

The abrupt topic change made her have to think for a second, "No. I wasn't there for any of that. They were in the men's dressing room. I was in the women's which is on the back side of the building. It doubles as the women's employee's restroom." There was a definite edge to her voice when she mentioned the facilities.

"But you were at the run-through that evening?"

"Yeah. When I got there, Billy, Ralph, and the Pollack kid were already there. Ron came in after me and Tommy was late, as usual."

"Then you did the walk-through?"

"Yeah, and the kid was trying something, or he had a hitch in his git-along, but he was walking funny. We walked him through it, and he seemed to catch on okay."

"Did he stumble or fall or anything?"

"It was hard to tell with it getting dark and the way he was walking. Maybe. I don't know."

Shaggy nodded, "Walk me through the accident."

"It wasn't an accident."

Shaggy felt his chance to get out of there that afternoon fading, "Why do you say that?"

"It was the ghost."

That chance was back on the rise, "Pretty sure that no one is going to accept a ghost as cause of death."

"Well, that's 'cause they never saw a real ghost. I've seen it and heard it and its real. It started up about a week before the kid got killed. Cause and effect."

'Cause and effect' was a phrase that he expected to come from Velma's mouth and it was unexpected coming from a former dancer with an accent.

"Cause and effect?"

"I watch lots of Discovery Channel."

"That sounds scientific and all except for the fact that ghosts don't exist."

"Then why are you so afraid of them?"

"Because I've been wrong before. But a ghost is not the most logical or defensible answer. That would be that it was an accident." And that's also the answer that got Shaggy home early and without dealing with any ghosts.

She settled back in her chair, "You haven't seen the ghost. I have. It's the ghost of Lucky Luke."

"The mascot? I'm pretty sure that imaginary characters don't have ghosts."

"No, Lucky Luke was real. Ask Kyle about it. He'll give you all the details."

Great. Details. Shaggy once again felt his early departure slipping from his grasp. Could he ignore the ghost on the basis of there being no such thing and consider his report complete? No. Darn it. No, he couldn't.

"Okay, let's hear about the ghost."

She immediately perked up, "Well, he's shorter than you, just shy six feet, and a little heavier. He walks kind of stooped over a little. He's dressed in jeans and a rough flannel shirt with boots and a cowboy hat. He glows pink and wears a colt on his right hip and…"

Shaggy looked up, "Wait. Glows pink?"

"I guess he's confident in his masculinity. I don't know."

"I don't think that ghosts are traditionally worried about their masculinity. I've never heard one discussing gender-correct pronouns."

"I didn't make him pink. I'm just telling you what I saw. He showed up about a week before the accident. We figured it was one of the teen-agers – they do stupid crap all the time – but when he started shooting, we ran."

"He actually fired at you?"

She closed her eyes as if picturing the event, "Not at us. There was a group of us sitting and smoking a couple of joints over by the loading doors of the main storage building and he showed up out of nowhere. At first, he seemed as surprised as we were. We started laughing at him and then he pulled out his gun and fired a couple of shots into the ground. We ran."

"Good call. When in doubt, always run. It never fails you. Is that the only time you saw him?"

"The ghost may not identify as a 'he'." She gave him an impish grin and pushed a strand of her blonde hair behind her right ear.

Shaggy shook his head and smiled, "Is that the only time you ever saw the ghost?"

"Yep. It was enough. I'm not fond of things I don't understand."

"Me neither. Now tell me about the rest of the accident."

"Right. Where was I? Okay. We walked the kid through the performance and he was doing okay. And then we moved to the gallows and Ralph brought out a light…"

"Where was the noose?"

"It was already in position on top of the gallows arm."

"Who got it ready?"

"I don't know. It was done when I got there."

"Did you notice anything before you started the trick?"

"Not really. We've done it a gazillion times. I just figured this would be a gazillion and one."

"Sorry for the interruption. Keep going."

"Everything was normal until Ron kicked the chair and then the kid dropped and suddenly stopped. At first, I thought he had landed on the deck like he was supposed to but then I saw that he kind of bounced. Then Ron grabbed him around the legs and was lifting him up and I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I grabbed the chair and climbed up to get the rope untangled."

"How was it tangled?"

"The half of the rope below the charge had somehow gotten looped around the bolt which holds up the half above it."

"It seems that being looped around the bolt wouldn't be enough to hold a person's weight."

"It was wound up pretty good. I had to pick at it three or four times to get it unknotted. It seemed to take forever. Then Ralph laid him on the ground, and we checked to see if he was breathing. He wasn't. Ralph called Kyle and we all stayed there with the kid's body until the ambulance and deputies showed up. It was a long time."

"Anything else?"

She was looking down at the ground now, "Just the sound of his neck popping. That's an awful sound."

Shaggy maintained the somber mood, "Thank you. I think that's all I need. Could you send in Tommy?"

"He's probably not out there, yet."

"Well, if he's not, then send in Billy."

Contrary to Emma Jean's projection, Tommy was waiting just outside and stepped into the door. In keeping with her opinion, his reddened and glazed eyes showed him to be obviously high and reeking of marijuana. Shaggy thought about her definition of the young man, a pothead and totally unreliable. Shaggy wondered for a second whether that was what everybody thought of him back in the day. The answer was easy and it was 'yes'. He had been a pothead and totally unreliable. But he had also been pretty successful both in the early years of the television show and with the restaurants. Had this been in spite of the drugs or because of them? What would his personality have been if he had been sober and clear-headed? How would he have reacted to a talking puppy? He had started smoking weed in seventh grade which was the same year Scooby said his first words – Rye'm rungry. What would his personality have been like as a sober person? Would he have clicked with Fred, Daphne, and Velma the way he did when he moved to Crystal Cove the summer before tenth grade? Or would he have clashed with Fred? Or maybe his life was a drug-induced hallucination and, in reality, he was still thirteen years old and sitting out behind Old Man Potter's barn smoking a bad joint? He had thought about this before and it was actually more believable than a talking dog. And if his life were some Allen Ginsberg poem, then that would probably be the answer. But it wasn't and here he was - talking dog and all.

Luckily, with Tommy being stoned, the young man settled comfortably into the silence of Shaggy's reverie and jumped into one of his own. Tommy was the youngest of the crew and appeared to be in his early twenties.

"Hi Tommy. Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah, you're the insurance guy."

"Right. My name is Shaggy Rogers."

"Okay."

"Are you able to answer my questions?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Because you're stoned out of your gills."

"Oh… that." The younger man pondered the issue, "Well, if you want to catch me straight, then we need to talk while I'm asleep." This was followed by a Beavis and Butthead laugh.

"All right. Then we'll just see how this goes. How long have you worked here?"

"Since my mom married Kyle."

"How long is that?"

That apparently was a stumper, "I don't know. I was seventeen, I guess."

"And how old are you now?"

Another poser, "Maybe, twenty-two? Hold on." He pulled out his wallet and handed it to Shaggy. Shaggy assumed the logic was that there was a driver's license in there which there was. Tommy's guess as to his own age proved correct. He was twenty-two. Shaggy handed the wallet back.

"So, you've worked here for five years."

"Really? Damn. That's a long time."

Shaggy wished that he could tell himself that he had never been like this. He couldn't. "What do you do here?"

"I'm, like, in the show."

"What else do you do?"

Another challenging question, "I don't know… Smoke weed?" This was followed by a repeat of the laugh.

"Where do you get your weed?"

"You want some? I'm the main connection here. I can set you up."

"Where do you get yours?"

"From a guy." Tommy's fogged brain was used to not answering this question.

"What guy?"

"Are you some kind of a narc?"

"Me? No. I just have some experience being you and the far side of where you're at can go one of two ways – good or bad. It would be best if it went the good way."

The laid-back attitude disappeared, "If you think you're, like, my dad now, then… that's stupid. Who do you think turned me on to weed in the first place?"

"With me it was a school mate's older brother."

"Like I said, I can fix you up."

"No thanks, dude. That's all sort of behind me now."

"Sucks to be you."

Shaggy remembered having this same conversation from Tommy's side with several people, including Velma, on many occasions. He was young and things were going well, and he had a job that seemed like it would last forever. Everything was cool. Why give up the drugs? He also knew that he was not going to accomplish anything with this kid's drug habit and got back to business.

"Did you know Jerry Pollack?"

"No. He was like all straight-laced and stuff. I think he even went to church. Who still does that? He didn't hang with anybody here."

"He didn't have any friends on site?"

Tommy thought about this, "Well, there was that ugly chick he hung around with."

How many ways could this guy be a loser? "Ugly chick?"

"Her name was Carolyn or… Kathryn. I think it was Kathryn."

Shaggy checked his notes, "Kathryn Harriman?"

"If you say so."

"I don't think you're getting the drift of how this works. It's what you know that I need. Was her last name Harriman?" Shaggy couldn't keep a slight edge out of his voice. It was maybe made a little harsher by his seeing his younger self in this kid.

Tommy felt the emotion and sulked down into his chair, "I don't know her last name. She was another goody-two-shoes, like Pollack. Back off."

Shaggy calmed himself down, "Sorry. Were you there when Jerry was selected to be in the show?"

A moment's pause, "Maybe. I don't remember."

"What do you remember about the rehearsal that night?"

Another moment's pause, "I was pretty wasted. We all got here and walked around some. It got dark."

"What do you remember about the accident?"

This answer came immediately, "The noise."

"The noise?"

"The popping sound when the rope snapped and then the kid dangling there. It was…" The words came out coherently without the slurring that had been there just a moment before. The horror of the memory burning through the fog in his brain.

"It was what?"

"It was bad. Really bad. Can I go now?" He obviously wanted to replace the fog which had just been burned away.

"Yeah sure." Shaggy made no effort to relay a message through Tommy and followed him to the door. He looked out and Billy Tripper was sitting there. "Hi Billy. Come on in."

Billy was the tallest of the Dalton Gang cast and had probably been a very attractive man in his youth. But that youth was now a couple of decades in the past. He walked with a slight limp and waited for Shaggy to sit down before taking the other chair.

Billy volunteered, "I can tell by the smell of the chair that you've spoken with our Tommy."

He had also just seen Tommy walk out of the office so the statement was a planned jab. Shaggy smiled, "Not a fan?"

"Can't say as I am. Ralph and I have been doing this a long time and we are trained actors. I have a BFA in Theater from Winona State University and he has one from Fairleigh-Dickinson University. This isn't Broadway but we try to make it professional theater."

Shaggy nodded sagely and remained silent as Billy seemed to want to talk.

Billy continued, "But then Rachel comes along and marries Kyle and dumps her kid on the show so she can suck the money out of the place that much faster. It makes the whole thing feel like some crappy community theater."

"I take it that you're not a fan of Rachel's either?"

"Don't get me wrong. She's hotter than a summer day in Death Valley and we all enjoyed it when Kyle, Ralph, Ron and I would go and see her show. Nobody ever expected Kyle to up and marry the woman. And she seems to think that, because he owns the place, he's got money to burn. Let me tell you, I do the books around here and the place does okay but he's not raking it in. At least not as quickly as she's pushing it out. I don't know how they stay afloat."

"You do the books?"

"Yeah. That's my second job. I keep the books."

"For the whole place?"

"Yep. Kyle goes through them every month, of course. He's the boss."

"Ever any issues?"

"With my books? Hell no. They're tight as a drum. Why do you ask?"

"Because I represent an insurance company and they would fire me if I didn't."

It was Billy's turn to nod sagely, "Makes sense. What else you got?"

"How long have you been working here?"

"I started about a year after Ralph, so 16 years or so."

"That's a long time."

"The first ten were rock solid. The show took place in the arena rather than out here on main street and it had its own stage. We had professional rodeo cowboys and we would make all of our entrances on horseback. It was something special. But receipts began to go down and the show got smaller and smaller until it was a cast of six. The arena made it look really small and Kyle moved it to Main Street so the people could sit in the restaurants and watch. I played Lucky Luke in the old arena shows because I was a little better looking than Ralph. But I put on a few pounds and we swapped out when the show moved off the arena. The audience was too close to see an old fat bastard playing the star. That was about six years ago. Tommy got hired that same year and then Emma Jean started the following year."

Shaggy waited to see if Billy would add anything else. Then he got back to the standards, "Do you know why Jerry was selected for the show?"

Billy answered immediately, "As far as I could tell, Ralph stuck his head out the door and Jerry was the first person he saw that would fit the costume. I wasn't in on any follow-up discussion. Kathryn drove me to the insta-doc right after that."

"But you were back for the rehearsal?"

"Yeah. I got there a little early. I even washed my spare costume. They get pretty rank if you don't wash them after every use. I was there at maybe 7:50. Ralph was already there. Jerry showed up right after me."

"Where was the noose at that time?"

"Already in place. Ralph said he had put it up."

"Did you check it?"

"Check it? Why? Ralph's set that up hundreds of times. It's not rocket science. It's all one piece. You hang the end of the rope around the bolt and then coil everything else up on top."

"So, there's no policy about double-checking the noose before a show."

This one had a long pause, "Shit. There probably is somewhere. We had to write a bunch of safety protocols a few years ago for the insurance. That sounds like the kind of stuff which we put in those."

"Do you know where they are?"

"You should have them at your insurance company. But Kyle probably has them around somewhere. He keeps the files."

"Were you involved in the walk-through?"

"No. I wasn't doing much walking. The pain-killers they gave me were weaker than aspirin and my ankle hurt like hell. I sat over at the restaurant and watched until they were working on the gallows scene."

"Did you notice anything during the walk-through?"

"Not really. It seemed to go pretty smoothly."

"Go through what you remember of the accident."

"After the walk-through, I got up and joined the folks at the gallows. Climbing the stairs hurt too much, so I stayed on the ground and explained everything to Jerry from there. They went through it once without the noose and everything went fine. I then went back to the restaurant to sit down and Ralph went over to the Music Hall. He yelled, "Bang", Jerry jumped off the chair right on cue, Ron kicked the chair, and then… well, and then."

"Do you remember any details?"

"Mainly the sound of the kid's neck popping. I knew he was dead as soon as I heard it. But it started out okay. The kid got on the chair and put the noose around his neck. I was on the far side and couldn't see the bolt. The gallows arm hid the bolt from the restaurant. When the kid jumped, everything looked wrong. The kid bounced and then started to swing. Then Ron grabbed him around the legs and Emma Jean picked up the chair, got up on it, and loosened the rope. Ron laid the kid down. By then, Ralph and I were running and when we got there, Ron said he didn't think the kid was breathing. That's pretty much all I remember."

Shaggy nodded again and wrote himself some notes, "Anything else?"

Ron shook his head, "No. I think that's it."

"Okay, thanks. That's all for now."

Kyle's head popped into the door as soon as Billy exited, "Am I next?"

Shaggy shook his head, "Not right now. I'd like to talk to you later. But could you please get the cast together at 8:00 tonight at the gallows? I'd like to do a re-enactment of the events of that night."

Kyle looked perplexed for a moment and the forced a smile, "Sure, no problem. Everyone will be there. Um… can I have my office back?"

"Oh. Sure, sorry. Can someone show me where I can put my stuff? It looks like I'll be spending a night or two."

"Just grab the first member of the cast you see, and they'll take you to it. It's Jerry's bunk."

Shaggy sighed. Of course, it is. He left the office and started looking around for a guide. Any hope for his getting home early was gone. Shaggy was no longer sure that Jerry Pollack's death was an accident.