Note: If any of you gave ever seen the show Psych then you will probably recognize that O'Connor is like Lassiter and James is like Shawn. That's pretty much what I based that whole scene on.

Chapter 2 A New Haunt is Introduced

Mystery, Inc. arrived at Mr. Marks' mansion a short time later. What they saw before them included flashing sirens, an infestation of officers, and yellow tape, discouraging any trespassers. The gang walked up to Detective William O'Connor, an uptight man who was obviously in charge. "What are you kids doing here?" the man barked. "This is a closed crime scene."

Shaggy frowned. "Like, somebody's in a bad mood," he muttered to Fred. Unfortunately, Shaggy wasn't as quiet as he'd hoped and O'Connor heard.

The man's dark eyes narrowed. "Of course I'm in a bad mood!" he shouted. "The medical examiner was supposed to be here by ten o'clock at the latest, but no one's heard from him. That means we're stuck here, unable to touch or move the body, with nothing to do."

Fred squirmed slightly in front of the scary detective. "You could look for clues or something," he said in a small voice.

"What do you think we did the second we got here?" O'Connor snapped. "Fom what we can see there are no clues to be found because his death was from natural-"

"Muuurder!" shouted a younger man, cutting off O'Connor. He wasn't dressed like a detective, though he seemed as though he were used to being at crime scenes.

"James," the detective growled. "Leave now."

James smiled. "I can't do that, Billy. The chief hired me for this one." He then turned to face the group of teenagers before him. "I'm Henry James, psychic for the Coolsville police department."

Most of Mystery, Inc. remained silent, terrified by the murderous look on O'Connor's face. Daphne was the first to regain her voice. "Nice to meet you, Mr. James," she said politely, holding out her hand.

"Call me Henry," the psychic responded, shaking her hand.

"This is Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby," Daphne continued, gesturing to each person in turn. "We're members of a group called Mystery, Inc."

"Oh yeah," Henry said. "I've read about you guys in the paper." By now, O'Connor had grown bored with the conversation. "Okay, I know you kids think that old man Marks was murdered."

Fred looked shocked. "But how did you-?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "Psychic, remember? Anyway, I don't think these cops are going to do anything at all. They're determined to believe that nothing like this could ever happen in Coolsville. That's where you guys come in."

Confused, Daphne asked, "But I don't understand. What can we do?"

"If I can get you in the house, do you think you'll be able to find something that'll make the police investigate this?"

Fred smiled confidently. "If course we can. It's what we do."

A few minutes later, the gang found themselves face to face with Mr. Marks. Seeing the body was more frightening than the imagined. Shaggy and Scooby had to leave and wait in the kitchen while Daphne clung to Fred's arm, feeling unwell. They looked around but found nothing out of the ordinary until Velma shouted, "Jinkies!" Shaggy and Scooby slowly came into the living room, where the body was lying on the floor. They made their way over to Velma, noticing that she was holding a half-eaten doughnut in her hand. S

cooby's face lit up as he tried to eat it, though something caused the dog to turn away in disgust.

"Like, what is it, Scoob?" Shaggy asked as he observed his pet's strange behavior. Scooby never turned down a free doughnut, never.

"Ruck! R'its rucky!" he replied, making a face and plugging his nose with his paw.

"That's what I was trying to tell you all," Velma said, dropping the dessert into a plastic bag. "This doughnut has been covered in some kind of poison."

"But how did the police miss that?" Daphne asked.

"They must not have looked hard enough," Velma replied. "I found it under here," she said, pointing to a cabinet near Mr. Marks deceased form."

"We have to show this to Detective O'Connor," Daphne told the others with a smile. "This should be all the proof he needs to start a real investigation." She looked around at her friends who were all acting a bit nervous. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Like, that guy gave me the creeps," Shaggy said. "I'm not going to talk to him again if I can help it." Velma agreed with the coward for once and Fred remained silent, trying not to appear weak in front of Daphne.

The red-head gave an exhasperated sigh. "I can't believe you're all freaked out just because O'Connor was a little intimidating." She smiled, enjoying the feeling of being the only brave one in the group. "Fine, I'll go show him what we've found." Daphne spun around and skipped away, leaving the others to stand over the body awkwardly.

Fred, who was blushing heavily, was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around to find himself looking at a well-built man of about twenty-three. "What are you kids doing here?" the man said, sounding rather unfriendly.

"We, err," Fred stuttered, not sure how to answer that question without getting kicked out.

"We were friends of Mr. Marks," Velma said calmly.

"Oh," their companion replied. "I'm Stephen, his son." For a man who had just lost his father, Stephen seemed remarkably undisturbed. He looked down at the dead body before him, still showing no emotion whatsoever other than annoyance that these kids were intruding.

"We're very sorry for your loss," Velma said, sounding more accusing than sorry.

Stephen gave her an odd look before Fred apologized, saying they had to be leaving. The group made their way to the front yard where they found Daphne and Henry engaged in some sort of argument with O'Connor.

"This is proof," Daphne shouted at the detective, shaking the plastc bag containing the doughnut. Fred smiled, impressed by her fiery attitude.

"For all I know, you could have brought it," O'Connor countered.

"Oh, so now I'm a suspect?" Daphne yelled angrily. "What do we need to get to prove to you that someone, not us, killed Mr. Marks?"

"A confession," he replied simply.

Daphne opened her mouth to argue but was immediately cut off by an eerie voice that seemed to come from every direction. "I murdered that man," it said. "This is my house and he trespassed, just as you are all doing at this moment. Leave now or you'll suffer the same fate." The doors and windows of the great house slammed shut simultaneously. After that, there wasn't another sound as an agonizing silence fell over the whole hill and everyone looked around, scared and confused.

Suddenly the sirens on every police car went off, shattering the quiet and causing Daphne to cling onto Fred and Scooby to jump into Shaggy's arms.

Detective O'Connor had his gun drawn and was searching for what had caused this commotion.

Henry leaned over and spoke in an self-assured voice. "That sure sounded like a confession to me."