Chapter 5 – part 2
The word "coffins" made me shiver. I hadn't thought about that possibility until Shaggy mentioned it, but after he did, I couldn´t think of any other function for those gift boxes. Fred looked at us and asked our opinion to proceed (something as rare to happen as finding coffins in the shape of a gift box).
Daphne: Freddie, this smell can be formaldehyde… and, you know, people use formaldehyde to embalm dead bodies!
Daphne was on the verge of tears when she finished. Unfortunately, I couldn't disagree.
Velma: Well, if it's not formaldehyde, it's bleach or some powerful disinfectant. And we all know killers use such things to wash blood off crime scenes...
When I said "killers", Shaggy hugged me tighter and also pulled Daphne closer, hiding his head on her shoulders. Daphne comforted him, but looked at Fred and me as if she needed some comfort herself.
Daphne: Gang, I'm leaving now. If poor Cho Sang-woo is inside one of those boxes, I don't want to see it!
Shaggy: That's it, I'm leaving too! Like, now it's up to you, captain! And you help him, Velma! Come Scoob! Let´s go, our work is done!
Fred grabbed Scooby by the leash and grabbed Shaggy by the collar at the same moment, so they couldn´t leave.
Fred: It's not over yet. The dog brought us here, so the dog will stay until the end! Scooby can sniff blood and dead bodies, can´t he?
Shaggy: Yes…
Fred: So he's goin…
Shaggy: What about the dog trainer, can he leave?
Fred and I both looked at Norville with the same reproachful look, showing that the question was so obvious that it didn't even need an answer.
Shaggy: Like, I just wanted to be sure, captain...
Daphne: Come on, Shags, let's go together until the end…
Daphne took our hands we walked together. Scooby was pleased to see that we were following him and started to point locations with his snout. I opened my briefcase to get some pins and put them at the places where the dog indicated blood or corpse smell. Fred was trying to find a false floor and almost stepped on my hand with his heavy boots, so I retaliated his carelessness with a pin in his ankle. Inevitably, we arrived at the pile of boxes and Daphne let us know that she would stay away. I took a deep breath and put on my gloves, and my team did the same. Shaggy held Scooby by the leash and gave him the usual commands. When he finished, Scooby pushed the lid of one box with his snout and put his paws inside it.
Shaggy: Yeah, there's something inside these boxes.
Daphne closed her eyes tightly and covered her face with her hands, and Norville groaned because he couldn't do the same. Fred took a deep breath and removed the lid of the first box. Fortunately, it was empty, and that made us feel some relief. Tension returned when Fred was about to open the second box – empty too -, then we had tense and relieving moments until all boxes were opened.
Fred: No victims, gang…
Shaggy celebrated quickly.
Velma: There are no corpses here, right now, but corpses could have been put inside these boxes before…
Shaggy groaned again. Considering Scooby's behavior, he knew I was right.
I started to spray luminol all over the place and lots of stains confirmed the presence of blood. When I finished, we saw a frightening scene: there were stains all over the floor and some splashes on the ceiling. The view certainly astounded everyone, since the only possible conclusion from that was "many people were killed here".
Shaggy: Like, let's think positive, this place could have been a fridge full of hamburgers! Like, it can be animal blood, you know?
Velma: I need to test if…
Fred: Yeah, just na old fridge that was disinfected after use, we're seeing just a reaction between luminol and bleach, right, Velma?
Velma: Well, the forensic team needs to test the…
Daphne: Is it possible to distinguish human blood luminol stains from animal blood luminol stains, Velma?
Velma: LET ME FUCKING COLLECT THEM AND TEST THEM, PLEASE?
Sometimes my voice is only heard when it is highlighted with a bit of rudeness, and after that, they realized that my message was clearly "get your asses out of here because I need to work". I felt goosebumps for being alone in that place, so I collected evidence and performed all the tests quickly and then left. When I reached the small refrigerator´s door, Fred took me by the hand and helped me out of that harrowing place.
Immediately, I called a meeting of forensics agents to discuss our findings. A colleague pointed that the K-9 was the one who had found the secret place while sniffing around, which means that place really had something atypical. I had to disagree, since the smell of bleach was everywhere around, and I thought that could confuse the dog´s sense of smell. We reached a consensus that we should take Scooby back to the crime scene one more time to get a better view of that clues, however, when we saw Daphne sharing a fifty-dollar-box of Swiss Basler Brunslis with Scooby-Doo and his tutor, we reached a new consensus: we would not convince the K-9 unit to get back to work before the last crumbs of that cookies were eaten. When Daphne mentioned the box had only one more cookie, Scooby Doo - like a good flat-coated retriever - took it for himself and ran away, and Shaggy – like our good, old Shaggy - ran after him. In the end, the dog ate the last one, but Shaggy could get the box back to lick all the remaining chocolate zests.
After the cookies, I asked Norville to go back to the crime scene with the K-9. He elaborated such a complex explanation to justify his fear (like: "Basler Brunslis interfere in dogs' sense of smell" or "according to the app, Scooby said its not necessary go back there, he has sniffed enough") that I decided to not force him to do that. Fred, as usual, gave his ̶u̶s̶e̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ captain's orders, like, "collect all the machines", and the only one who obeyed was Daphne, who – curiously - is the only one who doesn't work at NYPD. In the end, Daphne´s assistance was a big help of fate, because a normal person – including me, several times more intelligent than a normal person - would never notice a needle in a haystack. But Daphne is someone who notices if the color of earrings´ stones match the shoes´embellishments, so as soon as she tried to remove one of the slot machines, she saw something.
Daphne: Look! There's something here!
Inside that hole where the coins come out when the player is awarded, there was a small triangle made of a thin, brown cardboard. Daphne carefully tried to pull the object, since that was a little part of something larger, but her attempt made the small triangle sink further into the place where it was stuck, so she stopped. I approached with a magnifying glass to get a better look, and I realized it looked like a business card or something.
Fred: It's a $100, girls…
Daphne: Freddie, seems darker than a hundred note, and made of a different kind of paper…
Fred: Maybe a dirty, folded hundred bill…?
Daphne: No, Freddie, look, it's a lot smaller than a bill… plus, this machine doesn't give bills as a prize...
Daphne took Fred's hand and carefully put it in the place where the object was stuck, and after that, she took a while to take her hands off. However, Fred wasn't romantic enough to understand her action, he was too busy trying to convince us he was right.
Fred: Maybe a fake, dirty, folded hundred bill…?
Velma: Jones, I think Daphne knows $100s better than us, right? And I think its a little obvious that ITS NOT a hundred bill, right?
Ticked off, Fred opened my briefcase without my permission and took a pair of tweezers. He tried to pull out the small triangle, but failed several times until the initial triangle was reduced to a tiny point in the machine's dispenser. Daphne, again, took Fred's giant, ̶d̶u̶m̶b̶ uncoordinated hands and helped him until he fully took the object out: a thin cardboard business card with no information other than three geometric figures on the front and a sequence of numbers on the back.
Fred: Good job, Daph! But… I don't know if we can consider it a clue… This is a coin dispenser, maybe someone just used a random card to cheat and get more coins…
Velma: Yeah, I hate to say it, but Fred's right. Looks like someone tried to cheat and the card got stuck. Thieves don´t leave business cards.
Daphne: Don't you think it's a weird card? Business cards usually have some information like name, company, title, email, phone number… this one has only numbers and geometric figures! If all the numbers are a phone number, it´s not an US number… neither Switzerland, nor London, nor Milan, because Blake homes in these cities have ten digits long phone numbers… maybe… France? If I remember correctly, Blake Estate´s number in Paris has eight numbers, I need to confirm with Jenkins…
Daphne's remark was interesting, but Fred and I knew from our years of experience at the NYPD that the card had no relevance at all. Fred and I looked at each other and I realized he was asking me to spoil Daphne's little joy of finding a clue.
Velma: Daph, it can be a number, but… let´s think logically, which one is more likely? The person behind the theft, the sadistic games, and that freaky fridge left this card here, or that someone put a random card inside this machine to get a few extra coins? While gathering evidence, we find a lot of distractions, we can't let them take the investigation's focus away...
Daphne was visibly upset that Fred and I didn't consider that a clue. She put the card inside a plastic bag, proving that she totally disagreed with our opinion and she would investigate the card herself.
Shaggy: Hey, Daph! Like, what game store is this?
Shaggy took the plastic bag with the card inside and analyzed it. The phrase "I told you it wasn't relevant" inevitably came out of my mouth and Daphne got very angry.
Daphne: How do you know this is a game store card? And not a clue?
Shaggy: The symbols! Like, check it out, remember the Playstation controller? Look, the figures are identical! It's a typical game store card... it's not a clue... since it's not a clue, like, can I keep it? Like, I'd like to go there...
It wasn't very nice of my part, but I laughed at Shaggy's answer. Daphne got furious and held the plastic bag tightly, showing that no one would take that "clue" out of her hands. Shaggy realized he caused Daphne's rage and tried to fix what he said.
Shaggy: Like, you can come with me, Daph! Or… like… maybe I´m wrong and its really a clue, not a store… maybe the game store sold the slot machines, or the Frostbits machines that Velma and I found… don't you think?
Daphne didn't realize that Shaggy was just trying to be nice with her, so she hummed victoriously as if she had an ally. When all NYPD team finished collecting all the machines and evidences, we left the building. Outside, I arranged the samples with my team, Daphne walked away to take a call, and Fred gathered everyone to discuss forensic findings.
Fred: Well, looks like the initial suspicions of illegal activity and embezzlement were confirmed. Clearly, no business is operating here, this building is just a fake address to cover up illegal casinos and coin machines, so I think the first line of investigation is correct. However, the evidences found show that a murder happened here. The one responsible for the embezzlement, Mr. Cho Sang-woo, is missing, and he can be the victim. So, the forensics report will tell us if we need to change our line of investigation to homicide. Right now, our nexts steps are: check all the machines´ activities, analyze the all the blood samples and wait the cybercrime dept's report about Liberty's financial activities. We need to be sure if Alan Mayberry is telling the truth. All right, gang, I declare the end of our activities.
Shaggy suddenly raised his hand.
Shaggy: Like, the only thing I can´t understand, Fred, is why Scooby-Doo behaved so strangely here… he did the same thing at the restaurant… I've never seen him behave like that!
Fred: Shaggy, we can't rely on a dog's dubious behavior...
Daphne: Shaggy is right, Freddie. Scooby broke into that fridge in the same way he broke into that restaurant. Also, he attacked Alan, isn´t it weird? I confess I trust Mayberry less after that. Seems like Scooby is telling us that Alan has something to do with everything we found inside that secret place.
When Fred heard "I trust him even less", Fred perked up and changed his mind.
Fred: Well, I think you´re right. Scooby´s behavior must mean something is wrong… we have robbery, a missing person, then a suspicious crime scene where the robbery has occurred…
Daphne: And we have Alan Mayberry, who has lots reasons to wish Cho Sang-woo was dead…
Velma: Well, if this building isn't exaclty what it seems to be, maybe Alan isn't exactly what he seems to be…
Shaggy: Like, maybe Mayberry himself killed Sang-woo after the robbery, then forged this case to have a cast-iron alibi…
Fred: Right, gang, looks like we really have a mystery on our hands...
Thanks for reading!
This story is originally written in another language. I take some time to post the English version because I have to translate it. In fact, I literally have to rewrite the story in english, since my original language is very different from English and Google/other translators can´t help with a good/exact translation. Plus, the original version has slangs/expressions that have no sense in another language, so I have to adapt everything.
As I´ve said before, chapters are long and things take a while to happen. The story will be a bit slow til chapter 8, but after it things get more and more interesting.
