A/N: Sorry it took a while. I had a lot of ideas for how to do this chapter, but I like this one best. WARNING: brief, mild language in this chapter. Special shout-out to Miss Tev who guessed the culprit right. Thank you to everyone else who guessed and reviewed. I was glad I was able to fool some of you. I would also like to add…ah…who am I kidding?! You just wanna find out who did it so I'll shut up now. Oh! One more thing, I do not own Scooby Doo.

Chapter 8:

Panic washed over her, like being submerged into a frozen pond. Her mind was racing and her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. Her eyes were wide with fear, too scared to say anything.

"So you're the one responsible for Matt's death, aren't you, Ella?" Velma accused.

"No! You don't understand it was an accident. I swear I would never kill Matt. I loved him!"

"You sure have a funny way of showing it." Velma snapped, glaring at her.

Ella started bawling. Curling her fingers over her eyes, sobs wracked her thin shoulders and tears poured over her cheeks.

"I can't believe you would push him over the railing for something so trivial…."

"No!" The girl shrieked through her tears. "Please! Just…let me explain."

Taking a deep breath, she stared at the floor and started talking in an eerily monotone voice. " I wanted to plan a movie with Matt, so I went up to the catwalk where I knew he'd be working to talk to him about it.When I did, he said he couldn't go because he already had something planned with that stupid friend of his. So we started yelling. I said he was committed enough and he said he just needed to spend some time with his friend. I guess things got a little out of hand because when I got closer to him he stepped back and fell and that's the truth."

"You expect us to believe that a six foot tall guy will plenty of experience inthe theatre just "fell off" a catwalk with a metal guardrail?" Velma probed.

"I know it sounds crazy. I don't even know how it happened, but it's the truth. I ran down to see if he was ok, but it was too late," choking out the words. "I was too scared to tell anyone because I knew they'd blame me!"

"So you let him lie there for someone else to find instead of calling an ambulance, you selfish little-" The gang turned around to locate the source of the familiar voice across the hall.

"Jake! What are you doing here?!" Fred asked, as the furious teenager, stalked towards them, his eyesdead set on Ella.

"I could here you guys planning your little stakeout the other day so I came here to see who it was that killed my best friend," he growled, his knuckles white from clenching them so hard.

"Jake! That's enough!" Fred had to hold one of the enraged boy's arms for fear of him physically attacking Ella. Jake's eyes were wide with hatred for the girl under the net. Ella shrank back, more tears pouring out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Please don't tell anyone. I swear it was an accident! Please don't tell..," she pleaded through her sobbing. Daphne took a step forward and crouched next to the net, staring at her evenly.

"Telling the truth is always the right thing. If you don't, you only end digging yourself out of a hole….the more you lie...the deeper the hole gets."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, even Jake, who for some reason found the floor very interesting at the moment. Velma was looking at Ella carefully, trying to find a crack in the girl's act.

She was pretty convincing. In their many years of sleuthing, they had been able to pick up when a person was lying; they could tell at the very least, truly felt remorse for what she did, not just for getting caught. Could she be telling the truth? It was an internal battle between instinct and logic. Neither one was really winning at the moment.

Velma sighed, breaking the awkward silence, "I'll call the police," she said taking out her cell phone, which made Ella cry even more. "Fred could you do me a favor and call Mr. Anderson and ask if he and Mr. Feldman can come too. We're going to put an end to this thing once and for all."

* * * * * * *

Fifteen minutes later Mr. Anderson, Mr. Feldman, and an officer from the Coolsville Police Department joined them in the hallway. Ella was now out of the net and into handcuffs, still choking back tears. Mr. Anderson couldn't look any prouder. You'd think he was the one caught the culprit. Mr. Feldman looked absolutely bewildered by it all.

"Well. I gotta hand it to you kids. You did it again, but what makes you so sure this young lady is responsible for this?" the policeman, who looked to be in his early 30s, asked.

"Well, our first clue was the agenda book," Velma said as she began counting off the pieces of evidence they had uncovered. "I noticed how practically everyday she had something planned with Matt, except for the week leading up to the murder. I presumed they might have been experiencing trouble in their relationship. The second clue was the angle at which he fell. When we searched the theatre the other day, I had calculated Matt fell at a 23 degree angle, which means he must have been pushed by someone light or not very strong. Ella was the one who best fit that description. And my final clue was the cell phone. Daphne mentioned Ella was frantically calling Matt when she didn't hear back from him, but when I checked it, there were no voice mails or missed calls."

"But like, how do we know any of these guys didn't have something to do with it?" Shaggy spoke in a hushed tone hoping no one outside of his group of friends would hear him. "I mean, they were acting pretty fishy too, ya know. Like, what about Mr. Feldman? He's angry all time and we know he was supposed to meet Matt right before he died. Maybe he and Ella were in this together."

"What?!" Oops…busted! Mr. Feldman looked absolutely appalled by such an accusation.

"Zoinks!" Shaggy grinned sheepishly and hide behind Scooby.

"How dare you suspect me of murdering one of my own students! I admit I can be a bit…temperamental at times, but I have such a passion for the theatre I can't help it sometimes, but I would never do anything to harm a student."

"Ok, but what about Mr. Anderson taking money from the school? We never were able to solve that part of the mystery." Daphne pointed out. All eyes turned to Mr. Anderson who gawked wide eyed, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"Yeah…what did happen to the money you were embezzling from the school? Putting it into your money personal retirement fund?" Fred questioned, crossing his arms with a knowing stare.

Everyone glared angrily at Mr. Anderson who held up his hands defensively and glanced nervously at the group. Looking to each face, searching for some kind of emotion other than scrutiny, he caved in.

"All right. If you must know I was putting it into an savings account towards the construction of an indoor pool for the school so our swim team won't have to waste there practice time traveling to the YMCA on the other side of town. It's ridiculous! Maybe now we can finally start placing at competitions," he ranted. "I already got permission from the superintendent so it's completely legitimate."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" the ever suspicious Velma inquired, rubbing her chin.

"You can call him yourself. Please, his number's in my office." The gang paused for a moment wondering whether or not to believe him. They looked at each other and nodded in agreement, letting it go for the moment, but maybe taking him up on that, once everything here was straightened out.

Velma spoke first, "All right I guess you check out. The only person we haven't questioned is…Jake. Mind if we talk to you in private?"

"Uh…sure I guess," he said, giving an uncertain glance at the gang, but followed anyway.

"We'll only be a minute," Daphne said, excusing the group as they walked down the hall and into an empty classroom.

"So what's up?" Jake asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"We know about the steroids, Jake," Fred said cutting right to the chase.

The boy visibly flinched at the statement."What?! You're crazy. I don't do steroids!" He sputtered uselessly, suddenly glancing at the door. Fred took a casual step to the left, blocking the exit for the time being. Calmly, carefully, he continued, using a neutral yet firm voice.

"There's no use trying to lie, we have proof the you took them."

"Have you guys been spying on me?!" He shouted angrily, glaring at them, and especially Fred, in betrayal. He backed away slightly, and the gang thought he might try to force his way out. Fred tensed and readied himself for a fight, but Velma's calculating voice punctured the tense silence.

"You might want to tell us the truth before the school board and your family find out about it," Velma all but ordered him sternly.

Jake seemed to be weighing his options, but he was outnumbered. So he exhaled deeply, running both hands through his hair, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"All right. I was doing it- but it was only for a little bit. My buddy have me some saying it would help me play better and…" He turned around and wiped his hand over his face, heaving a sigh. It was hard getting this off his chest. "….and I really need a baseball scholarship so I took it." His arms wrapped around his chest. "I ….I didn't think I'd get hooked."

"Did Matt know about this?" Fred asked.

He was silent at first, but nodded after a few seconds, "Yeah, he found it in my dresser when we were hanging out at my house."

"What did he say?" Daphne asked quietly, hoping he would continue to talk to them.

Jake shrugged, "He called me an idiot and said that stuff would just burn out my body and I was jeopardizing my chance to play college ball. Plus, if I got caught, I'd definitely be off the team. He told me he'd help me get my life back on track so we started hanging out more, spend everyday after school together, trying to get my mind off it so the withdrawal wouldn't be quite so bad. Matt was just that kind of guy, always willing to put down everything for someone else, especially a friend." He smiled bitterly, wiping at something on his face. "Anyway, It got easier each day and now I'm totally clean. I even took my whole stash to the dump yesterday, right after school. I don't think I could have done that without his help." His voice hitched slightly. "That's why I'm so determined to stay clean because it was what he wanted." Suddenly he spun around with rage in his eyes.

"And I come to find out that that bitch killed him! She friggin' killed him and I didn't even think about it until tonight! All because she was freakin' jealous of me spending time with her precious Matt…all because of me…Matt died."

Jake looked at the ground again, screwing his eyes shut to fight against the tears. Velma nodded to Fred, who walked over and tentatively placed a hand on Jake's shoulder as a means to both comfort him and save his machismo.

"Matt did not die because of you, Jake. There's no way you could have known Ella would do something like that."

Jake slapped the hand away, angry tears pouring down his face.

"Well I sure as hell didn't freaking help, did I?! If I hadn't been so weak, Matt wouldn't have been trying to help me and he'd still be alive! It's my fault that my best friend died!! He's dead and he's not coming back!!"

"You're right."

There was a gasp as everyone turned to look at Shaggy, who was staring at Jake in sympathy.

"Matt is gone, man. You're right about that. But d'ya really think he'd like to see you here bein' mad at yourself over it? You think he'd like to see you blamin' yourself for something you didn't even, like, have control over? You're insultin' your friend by blaming yourself, dude. If any of my friends died…" He subconsciously started scratching Scooby behind the ear. "I'd be pretty mad too, but I wouldn't sit around here feelin' sorry for myself especially if I knew it wasn't my fault. You gotta move on and remember your friend for the good things he's done, not for his death, which, like, you had nothin' to do with."

Everyone stared in disbelief at the words coming out of Shaggy's mouth. C'mon, this was Shaggy. Our Shaggy. Shaggy-who-can't-go-five-minutes-without-mentioning food-Shaggy. It was strange to hear him being so thoughtful. Had the situation not been so serious they all would have laughed at the words coming out of Shaggy's mouth. Jake just stood there in shock, not really sure how to react. Fred nodded in agreement with his friend, though, and turned to look at Jake.

"See, you have to look forwards and start living the way Matt would've wanted, remember?"

Something in Jake's demeanor changed suddenly, and he nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah…Yeah I do."

* * * * * * *

The case was solved. Another "bad guy" sent to jail. All in a day's work for Mystery Inc. But they were still left with a rather unsatisfactory feeling inside. Sure, they solved the case but it still wouldn't change the fact that Matt was dead. The only thing they got out of it was sending a scared eighteen year old girl to prison for who knows how long. It had left them with kind of an empty feeling inside. Velma pondered these things she and Daphne walked down the front of the school towards the parking lot so they could hit the road again. Daphne noticed she looked a little down so she tried talking to her, hoping to cheer her up.

"Well, we solved another mystery," she said cheerfully. "I'm surprised you're not more excited, usually through the roof after we solve a case. You were so excited earlier to break the news. What happened?"

"I don't know," Velma sighed. "I just can't stop thinking about it. My brain says she's guilty, but…there's still this nagging feeling that we missed something. I can't believe he just "fell back," but Ella doesn't really strike me as the murdering type. Maybe a little crazy-" Daphne gave her a look. "Ok, a lot crazy," she broke a smile. "But still, it seemed like she really did care about him. Maybe they were fighting and she pushed him or something. I'm just not sure anymore," she sighed, leaning against the brick wall of the school.

"I know you how feel," Daphne said, sitting on the bench beside her. "I was actually starting to like Ella. Sure, she could be controllingsometimes, but she was friendly too and I think she really did love Matt. I can't picture her doing something like this. Especially after seeing her today. I'm so used to 'And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids,' not screams and tears."

Velma didn't respond, lost in her own thoughts. Something about this didn't make sense. If Ella loved Matt so much, why would she kill him? The girl might have gotten angry, but there's no way she could have pushed someone his size over a metal railing so easily. There was a variable that she couldn't see, and Velma's intuitive personality was constantly reminding her of it.

"Ok, girls. "I got everything sorted out with Mr. Anderson and the others. Ready to hit the road?" he asked, tossing the keys is the air.

"Ready!" Daphne chirped.

"Me too. But can we like stop for dinner first. I'm starved." Shaggy whined.

"Re roo," Scooby whimpered and rubbed his belly.

"We just ate three hours ago," Daphne pointed out.

"I know," Shaggy cried, clenching his stomach.

"All right, all right. I think we could all use something to eat. Coming Velma?" Fred asked as the rest of the gang walked towards the van.

"Yeah. I'll be there in a minute," Velma said softly. Taking one last look at the theatre, she turned the other way.

Wait, what was that?!?!

Turning back, she saw something dashing by, out of the corner of her eye. When she turned, she saw a figure darting into one of the side doors of the theatre. It was too far away to get a real close look at it. She knew it couldn't Mr. Feldman, he saw his car pull away just moments before. But…who else would be here this late?! There was only one way to find out. She made a mad dash, heading straight towards the theatre.

A/N: Phew! Long chapter!!! And there's more :O Aw snap! Well hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review ;)