Sponge: Welcome back! The previous chapter, "What Comes Next?" is a song from the musical Hamilton, famously sung by Jonathan Groff. Congratulations to wolfie45 for giving the correct answer! Now here's chapter 6! Warning: language and dog peril. Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Scooby Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera. It's been more than ten years since I last visited Chicago, so thank you to funlovingfangirl and Google maps for refreshing my geographical memory. That said, Velma's Chicago and Navy Pier facts come from Wikipedia. I have no idea how the Roosevelt University campus is laid out and where certain academic departments are, and their website wasn't particularly helpful in that regard, so I made it up. Also, I would highly recommend listening to the High King's self-titled debut album while reading this chapter.
Chapter 6: Chicago
"But Fred, I thought you said you didn't want to talk to the mayor," said Daphne, confused.
It was the next morning, and the two of them were out in Heavy Meddle's driveway, putting their sleeping bags back in the Mystery Machine. Fred had just explained to Daphne the conversation he'd had with Velma last night, and their desire to get Brad and Judy's CD from the mayor's office. Velma herself was back in the house, brushing her teeth, and Scooby and Shaggy were packing breakfast for the road (with Julie's permission to raid the fridge).
"I don't," Fred assured her, sliding his sleeping bag into the van. "But I think Velma's right – the CD has to be important somehow. We'll stop by now, while he's at City Hall, and that way we shouldn't run into him."
Daphne frowned thoughtfully. "Okay…if you're sure."
"I am," Fred replied. "We'll have Scooby go in and grab it – he'll be the quickest."
"We should park down the street," Daphne suggested. "Just in case any neighbors notice the Mystery Machine and tell the mayor."
"Good plan, babe," Fred agreed, leaning in swiftly to kiss her. Then he gave the van a once-over before getting ready to shut the rear doors.
"Wait!" exclaimed Velma from behind them, rushing out of the house carrying her messenger bag and toiletry kit. "Here's my stuff!" She tossed it into the Mystery Machine.
"Thanks, Velm," said Fred, closing the doors.
"I ran into Shag and Scoob in the kitchen," Velma told him. "They're in on the plan."
"Great, I just told Daph about it," Fred replied. "She thinks we should park down the street, so no one sees the van."
Velma nodded. "That's a smart idea," she said.
Scooby and Shaggy exited the house just then, arms laden with breakfast fixings. They were followed closely by Julie and Joey, who each carried a mug of coffee.
"Like thanks again for feeding us," Shaggy called to them over his shoulder.
"And for letting us stay," Fred added, walking up to approach them.
Julie smiled. "Of course," she replied, reaching out to envelop him in a one-armed, sisterly embrace.
"You guys be careful, all right?" said Joey, clapping Fred on the shoulder. "We'll keep an eye on Leon to see if he makes any more comments about the accomplice's identity, and we'll help Tony and Marcie comb through your files."
"Thank you," Fred said earnestly. "We really appreciate it. All of it."
"Good luck with Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves," said Julie as she let go of a three-way hug with Daphne and Velma. "Keep us posted on how that goes, okay?"
"As soon as we know more, we'll tell you," Velma promised.
The gang loaded themselves into the Mystery Machine and with one final wave to Julie and Joey, drove off towards Fred's neighborhood. It was a lovely, mild morning, so they rode with all the windows down to enjoy the balmy air.
"Okay Scooby," Fred said to the dog. "Focus."
Scooby, who had been face-first in a plate of chocolate-syrup-covered bacon, looked up alertly at the blond boy.
"You'll need to sneak around the back of the house to get to the window of the study. It should open from the outside," Fred told him.
"I saw the CD on the desk," Velma added. "Of course, that was three days ago, so I'm not sure if it's still there."
"Rye'll sniff it rout," Scooby promised, pointing to his nose.
When they arrived on Fred's street, they parked down the lane from his house and let Scooby out.
"Rye'll be rack," Scooby said, jumping out of the van.
He returned a few minutes later, the album clenched in his teeth.
"Rot it!" he announced, leaping back into the Mystery Machine. Velma took the CD from him immediately and began turning it over in her hands.
"So Velm, what do you think the clue is?" Daphne wanted to know.
"Honestly, I'm not sure," Velma admitted. She studied the front of the case. The band's name, "The High Kings," was printed in the top right corner. Below it was a photograph of four men sitting on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. Two of the men held guitars, and a third held what Velma thought was a Celtic flute. Frowning thoughtfully, she turned it over in her hand to look at the track listing.
"Track one," she read aloud. "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore."
"Sounds Irish," Shaggy quipped.
Velma kept reading the song titles. "Track two is called Will Ye Go, Lassie? Then there's Galway to Graceland, The Black Velvet Band, The Rocky Road to Dublin, Marie's Wedding –"
"Actually," Daphne interrupted. "That's pronounced 'Mah-ree.' I know that song – it's a classic Scottish folk tune."
Velma rolled her eyes, annoyed at being interrupted. "Okay, Mah-ree's Wedding. The next song, track seven, is Fields of Glory. Track eight is something Celtic that I won't even try to pronounce. Then there's The Little Beggarman, The Beggarman Jig, The Auld Triangle, The Parting Glass, and The Wild Rover. It's thirteen songs total."
She opened the CD case, and a folded slip of paper fell out.
"Hey!" exclaimed Fred, surprised. "What's that?"
Velma reached out to unfold the paper, which had fluttered to the floor of the van, and studied it. "I don't know," she said, frowning. "It looks like a chart of some sort."
The chart was twenty-six columns wide and twenty-six rows long, each square in the chart labeled with a different letter of the alphabet. The alphabet repeated itself – each row or column began with the next chronological letter. There was nothing else on the paper.
"It must be another clue," said Velma. "But I have no idea what it means."
"Should we pop in the CD?" Daphne suggested. "Maybe there's a clue in the music."
"It's worth a try," Velma agreed, handing her the CD.
"We should probably hit the road anyway," Fred said as Daphne slid the CD into the player. "It's almost ten, and it's a seven-hour drive, right Shag?"
"Like yep," Shaggy confirmed. "If we leave now, we should get in right around five o'clock."
"Actually, it'll be four," Velma corrected him. "Chicago's an hour earlier than Coolsville, remember? Different time zones."
There was a brief silence as this realization weighed on everyone. Just the phrase 'different time zones' made the seven-hour drive from Coolsville to Chicago seem infinitely longer. Shaggy didn't even want to think about the distance between Chicago and Stanford.
"So, fare thee well, my own true love,
I'll think of you night and day."
The music had started, and this was the ironically fitting opening line of the first track.
Fred and Daphne shared a look, and so did Shaggy and Velma.
Scooby didn't miss all the wistful glances and rested his head on his paws sadly. He wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye any more than the rest of them.
Finally, Fred cleared his throat and squeezed Daphne's hand. "Let's go," he said, putting the Mystery Machine in drive.
The journey to Chicago wasn't nearly as fun as the journey to New York had been, simply due to the gang's somber mood. It didn't help that the CD only lasted a little more than forty-five minutes, and was mostly full of slow, sad, ballads. There were only about three upbeat songs on the whole album.
Ironically, everyone really liked the album – the singers were talented and the music, though sad, was good. But three hours later, as they crossed the border into Indiana, Daphne had had enough.
"I know we're trying to listen for clues," she said tentatively. "But can we put on something else? I don't know how much more of those fiddles I can take."
"No, you're right," Velma replied, tossing the strange chart aside. "We should take a break."
But they were dismayed to learn that the radio was out.
"I guess we shouldn't be surprised," Fred sighed. "We're kind of in the middle of nowhere. But I'll turn off the CD."
He did so, and everyone gave a sigh of relief.
"I like, thought I was gonna go crazy if I had to listen to The Little Beggarman one more time," Shaggy moaned from the back seat.
"Re too," Scooby agreed.
Fred chuckled. "Once we're somewhere a little more populated, we can stop for lunch, how does that sound?"
"Like, fantastic," Shaggy replied.
Daphne leaned back in her seat. "What should we do when we get to Chicago? Do we want to see Roosevelt first, or check out the White Sox stadium?"
Fred and Shaggy shared a glance in the rearview mirror.
"It's like, up to you, dude," Shaggy told him.
Fred shook his head. "No Shag," he said. "This is the city where you're going to live – we should do what you want."
"I think we should check out the stadium first," Velma spoke up. She was eager to put this mystery to rest, and she wanted to test her theory about the White Sox having a connection to Brad and Judy.
"But it might make more sense to see Roosevelt before that," Daphne pointed out. She didn't think Fred was ready to search for Brad and Judy more, even if he'd said he was.
"It like, really doesn't matter to me," Shaggy insisted. "We should do what Fred wants."
"No, we should do what Shaggy wants," Fred countered.
"Ret's flip a roin," Scooby suggested, eager to stop an argument before it began.
Everyone glanced at him.
"All right," Daphne agreed, plucking a dime out of her purse. "Roosevelt is heads, White Sox is tails."
She placed the dime on her thumb and tossed it in the air. Everyone watched as it fell into Daphne's waiting palm, and she turned it over onto the back of her other hand.
"Heads," she announced. She glanced as Shaggy. "Roosevelt first, then."
Fred breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Scooby glanced at Velma, whose face was impassive, but he could tell she was frustrated. She wanted to solve this mystery so badly. He put a comforting paw on her knee, and she scratched him absentmindedly between the ears.
x.X.x
Even though the gang were gloomy, Shaggy still felt a sense of excitement as the skyline of Chicago came into view. He and Scooby stared out the window at their soon-to-be home.
"Like hey Velm," said Shaggy, still gazing awestruck at the city. "Read me off some facts about Chicago?"
Velma chuckled and opened her laptop. "Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than a hundred thousand people homeless, the city rebuilt. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than thirty years after the great fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. It's now the most populous city in the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States after New York and Los Angeles."
Fred found a garage near the university and parked (for six dollars an hour) and the five of them walked towards the building.
Exploring Roosevelt was much the same as exploring NYU had been – a much needed respite from the worry and anxiety the gang had faced the last few days. Shaggy enjoyed wandering these halls, imagining himself heading to classes or chatting with other students. They spent at least a half hour in the culinary arts department, poking their heads into classrooms. Everything was so state-of-the-art – the equipment, the appliances, even the workstations were shiny and gleaming. Even though he knew the beginning of college would mean the end of the gang, Shaggy couldn't help but feel an eagerness for the school year to begin as he explored his future home.
Evidently, he wasn't the only one. In one of the culinary classrooms was a girl who appeared to be about their own age. Her golden curls tumbled down her shoulders, and her chocolatey brown eyes grew wide when she noticed them.
"Oh, sorry!" she apologized, turning away from the oven she'd been inspecting. "Am I not supposed to be in here?"
"Uh…we don't know," Fred admitted, glancing at the rest of the gang. "Are we not supposed to be in here?"
"Like I don't know," Shaggy answered, looking back at the girl. He entered the classroom, Scooby and the gang following close behind. "Are you like, a student here?" he asked.
"Almost," said the girl, flashing him a brilliant smile. "I just wanted to check out the classrooms one more time before I start in the fall."
"Oh, hey like, me too!" Shaggy exclaimed, returning the grin.
The girl stuck out her hand. "I'm Mary Jane," she introduced herself.
Shaggy shook her hand. "Shaggy," he replied.
She giggled and wrinkled her nose. "That's an interesting name," she said.
Shaggy shrugged. "Well like, my real name sucks, so I just go by Shaggy."
Mary Jane smiled again and let her hand linger in his for a half second longer than a normal handshake.
Velma, watching this interaction, felt her skin grow hot.
"And like, this is Scooby Doo," Shaggy continued, gesturing to the huge dog beside him. Scooby stepped closer to greet her properly.
"Oh!" Mary Jane stepped back, surprised. "Sorry," she said, looking apologetically at Shaggy. "I'm pretty allergic. I better stay away."
Scooby looked affronted.
Mary Jane looked up at the rest of the gang and smiled again. "Are you all new students too?" she asked them.
"Not us," Fred replied, shaking his head. "We're just friends of Shaggy's. I'm Fred Jones. This is Velma Dinkley and Daphne Blake." He put an arm around Daphne as he spoke.
"It's nice to meet you," said Mary Jane, enthusiastically shaking their hands. Then, back to Shaggy, "I can't wait to start college."
"Like are you a culinary arts major too?" asked Shaggy.
Mary Jane's eyes sparkled as she gazed at him. "Yeah!" she exclaimed, nodding eagerly. "I'm so excited. I want to open a vegan bakery one day. I love making all kinds of food, but I'm partial to baking."
"Me too," Shaggy replied. "Well not like, baking specifically, but I know what you mean about loving to make all kinds of food. My dishes tend to get like, pretty creative. That's the part about cooking that I like. I mean, baking is cool, but there's like, not a lot of room for experimentation, you know what I mean?"
"Oh, I disagree," said Mary Jane, leaning against a counter and crossing one long leg over the other. "Sure, you have to make sure your ingredients are measured out perfectly, but I think you can do a lot with different flavors."
"Well like, that's my point," Shaggy said to her. "With cooking you can still make a great meal even if your ingredients aren't measured out perfectly. But like you can't do that with baking."
"You know what they say," Mary Jane giggled. "Cooking is an art – baking is a science." She playfully shoved Shaggy in the chest.
Velma's entire body felt like it was on fire, watching this beautiful, bubbly girl flirt with her boyfriend. Her stomach roiled with jealousy.
Thankfully, the empathetic Daphne took a sidelong glance at her and immediately understood what was going on.
"You know," she said to Mary Jane. "Speaking of science, Shaggy's girlfriend Velma is a really brilliant one."
Velma noticed the subtle way Daphne emphasized the word girlfriend and shot her a grateful glance. She also noticed Mary Jane's astonished, not-so-subtle eyebrow raise.
Shaggy himself noticed none of this. "Like yeah," he agreed, nudging Velma. "She's like a genius. She got into every Ivy League school, and she's going to Stanford in the fall." He smiled at her, and the pride in his voice was enough for Velma to cool off. She returned his smile and reached out to squeeze his hand.
"Oh, wow!" Mary Jane turned back to Velma, impressed. "You know, I think the heads of the biochemistry department here went to Stanford. I'm pretty sure that's where they got their PhDs. I met them briefly on my prospective student tour last year. You should ask about them! Their names are Thad and Trudy Sternum."
It was as if a switch had been flipped. The gang gaped at each other, and then stared at Mary Jane.
She looked back at them, unnerved by their sudden intense expressions. "Are…you okay?" she asked.
"What did you say their names were?" asked Velma.
"Thad and Trudy Sternum," Mary Jane repeated, still looking confused.
Fred felt his stomach turn to ice. The names Thad and Trudy were awfully close to Brad and Judy. It couldn't be them…could it?
There was only one way to find out.
"Where's their office?" he asked Mary Jane.
"Uh…in the science hall," she replied, less nervous now, though looking more confused than before. "I don't think they'll be there, though – they're not teaching summer classes."
Fred ignored her. "Thanks for your help!" he exclaimed before turning back towards the door.
"Like see you when school starts!" Shaggy called over his shoulder, following the rest of the gang out of the classroom.
"Fred…do you really think it's them?" Daphne panted as they raced down the hall.
"I don't know," he replied. "But I'm sure we'll find out."
It didn't take them long to find the office of Sternum and Sternum, but the door was locked.
"I guess we won't have to visit the stadium after all," Velma mused while Scooby used his sharp nail to pick the lock.
"Well, we might," Daphne pointed out. "If we don't find anything in their office."
"I can't imagine that we won't, though," said Fred, even though his heart was twisting in his chest. Surely today, he'd come face to face with Brad and Judy at last. "They must have something in their office with their home address or phone number, right?"
Shaggy kept glancing down the hall, nervous about getting caught. He felt as though being discovered breaking into a professor's office was not a great way to start his collegiate career.
"Rot it!" Scooby exclaimed triumphantly as the door swung open. From the doorway, the gang took in the office. Two desks faced each other in the center of the room, and each desk had dual monitors. Shelf units had been built into the walls, full of textbooks and medical literature. A chiming clock hung on the wall opposite the shelves. Various experiment materials – microscopes, beakers, and the like – were spread out neatly on a table beneath the large window.
Fred swallowed. "All right gang," he said. "Let's search for clues."
Velma beelined for the table of science equipment while Fred and Daphne made their way towards the two desks. Shaggy and Scooby examined the bookshelves.
"Like nothing interesting over here," Shaggy announced. "It's like, all science books."
"Reah," Scooby agreed, though he had to admit a few of them had interesting titles. There were plenty of texts on biology and chemistry and medicine, but there also seemed to be several on cryptography and alchemy and numerology.
"It's weird that they don't have any photographs," Fred mused as he combed through the objects on one of the desks – plenty of paperweights and staplers, but nothing very personal. "Even my d – the mayor had photos on his desk."
"And all the equipment is labeled with the university's address, not their home address," said Velma.
"There's a calendar over here," Daphne said, picking up a large planner from the desk she examined. "I think this is Judy's desk – this looks like a woman's handwriting." Suddenly, she gasped. "Jeepers!"
"What?" asked Velma, abandoning the table and dashing towards Daphne.
"Today's the eighth, right?" asked Daphne. "June eighth?"
"Yeah, why?" asked Fred.
Daphne pointed to the calendar. "She's written, 'Navy Pier Observation Deck, 5pm,'" she replied. "It looks like they go every Tuesday, according to this calendar."
Shaggy and Scooby joined the others at the desk. "Like what time is now?" he wanted to know.
Velma glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Four fifty-eight," she read aloud.
Daphne took her phone out of her purse. "Navy Pier isn't that far from here," she told the others, checking the GPS. "It's only about a six-minute drive."
Fred stood rooted to the spot, feeling all sorts of mixed emotions. Was he ready for this? They'd had so many false starts when it came to Brad and Judy. But he was ready for it to be over. He was ready for answers.
Daphne noticed his hesitation and gently touched his arm. "What do you want to do, Freddie?" she asked.
Fred swallowed. "Let's go find them," he said resolutely.
x.X.x
"So Navy Pier is pretty big," said Velma, reading from her phone. They were in the Mystery Machine now, wending through the streets of Chicago more quickly than the speed limit technically allowed. "The pier itself is more than three-thousand feet long. And it's sure to be crowded, since it's one of Chicago's top attractions."
"Well like, it sounds like they're only going to be at the observation deck," Shaggy pointed out. "Hopefully that'll make it easier to find them."
They had driven all the way down East Grand Avenue before realizing that there was nowhere to park.
"I'll have to turn around," Fred sighed. "I think I saw a garage back there. Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, why don't I let you out here. Daphne and I will park the van, and we'll meet you in a minute."
"I hope we're not too late," Daphne fretted.
"What riff re are?" asked Scooby.
"Let's just cross that bridge when we come to it," said Velma. She opened the rear door of the Mystery Machine and leapt out, followed closely by Shaggy and Scooby.
"Roh boy," moaned Scooby as the smells of food from the restaurant stalls up on the pier descended upon his nostrils. They hadn't eaten since they'd stopped for lunch in Indianapolis, and he was starving.
"Don't get distracted," Daphne ordered.
"That's why they're with me," said Velma, taking Shaggy's hand. "We'll call you if we find them."
"Sounds good. See you in a bit," Daphne promised. Fred turned the Mystery Machine around and drove back towards the west parking garage.
Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma hadn't gone two feet before they were stopped by pier security.
"That dog needs to be on a leash," the cop informed them, nodding his head at Scooby.
Shaggy frowned. He couldn't remember the last time Scooby had been on a leash. He wasn't even sure if Scooby had a leash.
"Of course," said Velma, reaching into her messenger bag and pulling out a long blue cord. She attached one end of it to Scooby's collar, and handed Shaggy the other end. She grimaced apologetically at the cop. "Sorry about that."
"Not a problem," the cop replied. "Have a nice day!" He waved as he headed off.
"Sorry Scoob," sighed Velma, patting his head. "I think you'll have to wear that leash while we're on the pier if you don't want to get in trouble."
"Rokay," he agreed, even though he hated it.
Shaggy was staring at Velma incredulously. "How did you know to have a leash for him?"
She shrugged. "I packed it before we left, just in case we went someplace where they had leash laws for dogs."
"That was like, a good call," Shaggy told her. She really did think of everything.
Scooby, trying to ignore the leash, glanced around at the faces of the humans on the pier. There weren't many, in spite of the lovely weather. But still, how were they supposed to recognize Brad and Judy? They'd never met, and that photo that the mayor had given them was almost twenty years old at this point.
Just as he was thinking he might ask Shaggy and Velma, he was distracted by a small commotion.
At the end of the pier was a cluster of benches near a low chain rail, facing out into the waters of whatever lake this was (Scooby thought that Velma had said Lake Michigan, but he couldn't remember for sure). The waters were relatively calm, except for a small splashing several yards away. Squinting, Scooby peered closer.
His heart turned over when he realized what was causing the splashing.
A small dog.
Scooby stopped stock still, causing Shaggy to also halt abruptly.
"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Like what's with you, Scooby Doo?"
Scooby barely heard him – he only had eyes for this other dog that was struggling in the water. Acting only on instinct, he began straining down the length of the observation deck, dragging Shaggy along with him.
"Scoob!" Shaggy cried, gripping the leash with both hands. "Like, what are you doing?"
"What's going on?" asked Velma.
"Like I don't know!" Shaggy said. "Help me!"
"Scooby, cut it out!" Velma exclaimed, also grabbing the leash.
But he proved too strong for both of them. With a mighty yank, he jerked the leash from their hands and bolted down the pier.
"Scooby!" Shaggy and Velma called, their voices laden with panic, dashing after him.
But he was on a mission. There was a dog in trouble, possibly drowning. He couldn't just stand by while that happened.
He dove under the guard rail and disappeared into the water.
Sponge: Thanks for reading! It's an even numbered week so no clue tonight. I'll be back next week. In the meantime, review if you please and don't forget to guess where the chapter title comes from!