A/N: Thank you so much for all the people who have taken time to review. I appreciate your encouragement and critique. You guys are the greatest! Another special thanks to my awesome editor Lady Tev. Once again, I do not own Scooby Doo, but I wish I did J
Chapter 4:
It was Daphne's last period of the day. She and Ella were in English together and had still not spoken a word to one another since the incident. Daphne figured she's have to break the silence sometime or else she's never get any information, but she decided to wait until after class, she didn't want to risk another outburst, especially on her first day.
She silently followed Ella to the restroom. The other girl put her books on the floor and started reapplying her light layers of make up with a strangely blank look in her eyes. Daphne set her backpack on the floor as well, sighing slowly. "I'm sorry for bugging you earlier. I didn't mean to upset you," even though I didn't really do anything wrong and shouldn't be the one apologizing you little priss, but she didn't day that part out loud.
Ella stopped working on her make up and looked straight at Daphne. "I'm sorry too," giving Daphne a weak smile. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I've been a little on edge lately. My boyfriend just died in a horrible accident."
"Oh, that's awful. What happened?"
She stared at Daphne thoughtfully, wondering if she should tell her or not. Finally, she closed her eyes for a second, drew a deep breath and told her story. "Well, he and I were supposed to see a movie after school last Thursday. He said he just had to stop by the theatre across the street to dust the lighting fixtures for his tech teacher and then he'd meet at the movies…but he never showed. I must have called his cell phone six or seven times before calling his house number. His mother answered and told me he fell from the catwalk and…" her voice broke off, …"he died," she choked tears forming in her eyes.
"Wow. I'm so sorry," Daphne said rubbing the crying girl's shoulder. She paused a bit, wondering if Ella would be stable enough to question, she thought she might as well try. "So He fell, huh? That's weird. Usually those things are pretty safe and they don't let people up there unless they know what they're doing."
"Are you saying he was stupid or something?!" Ella practically exploded at her, outraged that she would suggest such a thing.
Daphne held up her hands in defense, realizing she was treading on thin ice, "No! I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying it's weird that someone with so much experience would just fall off like that….."
Ella paused for a moment, appearing to consider what "Vanessa" had said.
"You're saying….that someone pushed him?" An odd look passed over her face as she asked, but Daphne couldn't place it.
"Well, do you think that's possible?" Carefully now…
Ella's lip quivered, and she suddenly started sobbing.
"No! No one would want Matt dead. He's sweet and smart and is friendly to everybody. Everyone loved him," she whimpered, clearly upset about having to think about it. "He was so wonderful," she bawled and buried she face in her hands.One thing was for sure if, she really did kill Matt, she deserved an academy award.
Daphne put a hand her shoulder without saying a word.
Ella began to calm down and dried her tears, "Thanks for the talk. I haven't really cried since the day he died. I didn't know I had anymore tears left," Ella said gathering her books and walking out. When Daphne was reaching for her backpack she noticed a small, purple notebook that must have slipped off Ella's stack on books. She flipped through it and realized it was an agenda book. She looked at a few of the entries.
Wednesday, April 22: 3:10-5:00 Movie with Matt
Thursday , April 23: 3:30-5:30 Picnic in the park with Matt
5:45-7:00 Movie at my house
Friday, April 24: 3:00-7:00 Going to the mall with Matt
7:15-10:00 Dancing at Club Crab
Saturday, April 25: Matt has to help his grandma around the house until 2:00, maybe meet up for a late lunch.
Almost everyday there was an entry that had something to do with Matt.
"Wow. This is a little freaky. She's with him 24/7. It's like her whole life revolves around him. I better show this to the rest of the gang."
* * * * * *
Fred's 7th hour started off with a rousing game of dodge ball. The young sleuth had always considered himself to be moderately athletic and he was eager to be back in P.E.,which had always been one of his favorite classes. As he picked up the ball he felt a surge of adrenaline flow through him.
When the whistle blew, the gym was like a battlefield. Balls were zipping through the air and nearly took off the coaches head a couple times. Fred was by far the strongest person on his team and just kept chucking one after another. He was in a personal war with a bulky, dark haired teen who seemed to be the leader of the opposite team. It wasn't supposed to be aggressive, but things got out of control quickly. They were relatively equal so they both kept missing each other. Fred held the ball tight in his hand and waited for the right moment. He dodged all his opponent shots with ease. Suddenly one of the adversary's teammates was hit hard in the shins with a ball and fell to the ground. As his foe turned his head and ordered his teammate to get up Fred threw the ball and hit him right in the gut. The kid fell to his knees, having all the wind knocked out of him.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to throw it that hard," Fred apologized sincerely.
The teen just glared at him and moved to the side to sit out, waiting for his turn to be back in. After a few minutes he was back, shooting Fred dirty looks.
Then when Fred bent down to retrieve a ball, he was hit in the head with a hard, rubber dodge ball.
"Stevens, you're out. You know hitting above the neckline is against the rules," the slim, but muscular gym teacher ordered. The cynical teen just looked at Freddy and snickered.
"You all right, kid?" The middle aged gym teacher asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine," Fred mumbled, "He just kinda surprised me there."
"Well, I'm going to give you a pass to the nurse just to be safe." the teacher said writing a pass.
"No, really I'm ok," Fred insisted, holding his head sorely.
"Listen, just get some ice and lie down a bit, you don't want to start feeling light headed during class, all right?" The well-built man said, handing him the pass.
"Ok, thanks," Fred said.
Fred walked down to the basement rubbing his aching head, "Man that really hurt," he moaned.
He changed back into his normal clothes and grabbed his backpack, when something caught his eye- Jake's bag. Hmmm…should I search it? he thought to himself. It's not right to look through other people's stuff…but then again I might not ever get this chance again, something in that bag could wrap up this whole case.
His curiosity got the best of him, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was around, then carefully began rummaging through the bag. He slowly unzipped the largest part of the backpack, he bit his lower lip, and slightly closed he eyes, acting like he was disarming a bomb instead of looking through someone's bag. He began to relax and carefully felt through the backpack, looking for anything that could link Jake to Matt's death. The papers he found were all notes or assignments. The juiciest thing he found was a Post It that said "Pick up mom's ointment."
Finally he came to the small pouch pocket on the left side. He pulled out a small plastic Ziploc bag with several white pills in it. Being on the football and wrestling team in high school, this was something Fred was all too familiar with- steroids. He had seen a few of his teammates use these to "boost their game." Fred let out a low whistle. "I wonder if Matt knew about these," he muttered to himself.
Just then, he heard the footsteps above him stop, he glanced at the clock. "Aw Jeez! They're coming down. I better get out of here." He put the bag back and flew up the stairs.
* * * * * * *
After school, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby met at Manny's like they did the night before. They were excited to share their information with each other.
"Guys, I think I solved the mystery," Daphne shouted with glee.
"Me too. It was Jake," Freddy declared.
"Jake? Like, it was that crazy tech manager," Shaggy corrected. Velma remained silent. She knew it was to soon to accuse anybody.
"Ro, rit's Rister Randerson," Scooby said.
Soon everyone was yelling and talking over each other, trying to prove themselves right. It was like watching a political debate.
"Just look at Ella's notebook, she's clearly obsessed with Matt. Maybe she found out he was cheating on her."
"Uhhh…guys," Velma interrupted quietly.
"Are you kidding- killing someone over THAT! It's obviously Jake. Matt figured out Jake was doing steroids and was going to turn him in in order to protect him. He would be kicked off the team for sure and probably ruin any chance he had at playing in college. He freaked out, lost control, and killed him." Fred evaluated.
"Guys," she said a little louder, but still no one heard her.
"No way man, who kills their best friend?! I'm telling' ya, it's that crazy tech manager. He almost lost it when a guy sat on a wand. I'd hate to see what he's like if someone really messed up."
"EVERYBODY QUIET!!!!!" Velma screamed at the top of her lungs and the whole group whipped their heads around and stared at her.
"Thank you. Now, it's clear that each one of our suspects has a reason for wanting Matt out of the picture, but we don't have any solid evidence to incriminate any of them.
So tomorrow, I think we should go to the school early and search Mr. Anderson's office as well as Mr. Feldman's booth in the theatre. We can see if we can find any evidence linking them to Matt's death. Then we'll see who really did it."
