"And Fred did it! He actually made the pass and the guy scored and we won," Velma explained excitedly to her mother as she settled in at the dinner table of the Dinkleys home after the game.
"That sounds very nice dear," Susie nodded as she pulled her husband Dale's plate towards her and loaded it with string beans. "Will you be eating with us, Velma?"
"Uh, well, I'm not very hungry. We all ate at the game. But I can stay for a little while. Then my friends and I are meeting to... study...again."
"Again?" Susie said, setting the bowl down perhaps a little harder than she intended. "How big is this exam?"
"Well, we just, uh, ran out of time to study the last chapter. But I'll be back by curfew. I promise."
"What about that slumber party your friend asked about? Aren't you going to that?" Susie asked.
"Well, I want to...but you said no," Velma replied, her brow furrowing.
"I did not say no."
"Well you didn't say yes either," Velma muttered.
Susie sighed deeply.
"I just... I just don't want you getting... I don't want you to run into trouble. That's all... And the idea of you...you growing up and doing all this stuff out in the world it just makes me, I mean, us nervous. I hope you understand that," Susie said, a hint of pleading in her voice.
"I...of course I understand that. I've always understood that," Velma said. "I just also understand that I take pretty good care of myself and I have found frien- a group of acquaintances that I trust."
"You really trust them?"
"Very much so."
"Then I guess you can go."
Velma felt her heart leap into her throat.
"You're... you're serious?"
"Yes. Just... if you go when will, when will we see you next?" Susie asked slowly.
"Uh, I don't know. I guess... tomorrow after the vigil? I'm sure we'll probably get lunch and maybe study some more before the gathering."
Susie thought this through for a moment.
"Alright. Well if you'll be gone for a day, I suggest you'll probably want to go pack a bag," Susie suggested as she resumed ladling food onto her and her husband's plates.
Velma thanked her mother profusely, and rushed to her room to pack. Once inside, she dialed the phone number Daphne had given her onto the phone on her bedside table. The cord stretched across the room as she packed up clean clothes, pajamas, and anything else she could think of that would either assist in the gang's "studying" or the slumber party.
"Hello? This is Daphne Blake," Daphne answered on the other end of the telephone line.
"Hi Daphne. It's Velma. I got permission to stay the night tonight."
"Oh, that's wonderful. I'm with Fred at his apartment right now. He needed to eat and rest. I'll call Shaggy and have him come pick you up in a little while. Then we'll go over to the stadium to see what we can find."
The gate to the stadium creaked loudly in the quiet night as Fred pulled it open. One by one, each member of the gang crept into the empty stadium.
"Should we worry about cameras or anything?" Daphne whispered as she and the gang followed Fred along a wall.
"Nah. School doesn't care that much. Plus I'm a team captain, so technically I have permission to be in here after hours."
Fred led them along the wall until they reached a door. Fred pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket and inserted one into the lock and turned. The door opened to reveal a dark stairwell, lined with dark murals that could were only seen because they looked like dark looming shadows.
"One sec," Fred muttered. There was a small click, and light flooded the stairwell. Everyone recoiled, covering their eyes until they could adjust. Fred led them up the stairs. Scooby bounded up to catch up with him, with Shaggy, Daphne, and finally Velma in tow. Once up the stairs, Fred pulled out his keys again and unlocked the door.
The football center was surprisingly huge. Fred had led them into the lobby, which was full of more murals as well as glass cases holdng trophies, memorabilia, and more. Two large doors off to the left were marked with a sign that read Locker Room. A hall that branched off to the right led to what looked like offices, a laundry room, and equipment storage.
"Okay gang. Let's split up," Fred said, turning to the gang. Then he paused. "Wait... we're missing someone."
"I'm... here..." Velma called from the stairway. With one final heave, she came into the football center. Her forehead was glistening with sweat, and she was panting heavily.
"Sorry," Fred said slowly. "Uh... should we wait or...?"
"It's okay... just... go on..." she panted, leaning heavily on her crutch for support.
"Okay then. Well, let's split up and see what we can find. Daphne, you and I will go look in the head coach's office off to the right. Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby, you take Waters' office off to the left. When...whenever you're ready," Fred added.
"Like, sounds good man," Shaggy gave Fred the thumbs up. Fred returned it, and left with Daphne down the hall.
"You did really well today Freddie," Daphne beamed as she watched Fred shuffle through papers on the head coach's desk. "I've never seen you play that well before."
"Aww, thanks Daph," Fred said, returning her smile. He leaned back against the desk. "I knew you guys were out there trying to find answers. I was just doing my best to distract everyone else."
"Well you could've done that by playing poorly too," she said, raising an eyebrow. She stepped forward towards him, allowing him to hold her around the waist.
"But that wouldn't have been nearly as cool," Fred smirked. Daphne traced his cheek with her finger, leaning ever so closer until their lips met.
"Like you want to sit down?" Shaggy asked nervously as he, Velma, and Scooby entered Paul Waters' office. Velma was still breathing heavily, and was moving far slower than before.
She nodded stiffly to his question. Scooby nudged the coach's chair out from under the desk and Velma sat down.
"So," she said, focusing her breathing. "What exactly do you think we should be looking for?"
"Well, like I brought those papers over the other day but like we didn't find anything useful. Maybe a pro contract or like something else that might indicate why he died. I don't know, man. Like... something."
Velma nodded, and begun shuffling papers on the desk, much like Fred did in the other office. Shaggy and Scooby started opening drawers, first in the desk, then in the filing cabinets. For the most part, the room was silent, other than the quiet shuffling of papers and occasional slams of the cabinet.
Scooby put a paw around the handle to the bottom most drawer of the filing cabinet farthest from the door in the office. He pulled, but nothing happened. He clamped his jaws on it and tried again. Still nothing. He started whining, and scratching at the drawer until Shaggy and Velma turned to him.
"Like what is it, Scoob?" Shaggy asked, squatting down to try the drawer himself. Scooby whined again, and scratched at the bottom drawer. Shaggy gave it a tug. "Locked. Like I'd say that's pretty suspicious."
"Here. Hold on," Velma said as Shaggy started looking around for keys.
She pulled a bobby pin out of her hair, which fell over her face. She pushed the hair back behind her ear, and then started bending the bobby pin. She opened it up so it laid flat, picked off the rubber tip on one side and then bent that side up at a 90 degree angle. She scooted her chair closer to the cabinet, and leaned over.
For a moment, nothing happened. Velma wiggled the bobby pin around in the lock, tugging at the handle for a few minutes. Shaggy and Scooby watched silently as she worked. Shaggy's stomach growled while they watched, but he ignored it. He'd been ignoring it a lot lately.
Finally, with one final twist, the locked turned and Velma pulled the drawer open.
"Like wow man. That's pretty cool," Shaggy said, impressed, as he squatted down again to look at the drawer's contents. Velma smiled, and sat back in the chair to give herself a moment of repreive.
Shaggy shuffled through the drawers' contents. Several folders were marked 'contracts', but none of them contained more than one or two papers. Shaggy couldn't make out the names well, but he knew none of them said anything about Danny Snyder.
"Like what's this?" he said, pulling a small packet out of a folder marked 'legal'. He handed it to Velma.
"It's a Cease and Desist order," she read, frowning. "To C. Paul Waters regarding Daniel Joseph Snyder III."
"Like, that's Danny," Shaggy said, his heart gaining speed. He went back to the door and cleared his throat. "DAPHNE. FRED. LIKE GUYS COME IN HERE."
"Shaggy," Velma hissed, looking around. "Just because we technically have permission to be in here doesn't mean we should go broadcasting it."
It didn't matter in the end though, as the only footsteps they heard belonged to Daphne and Fred, who came running looking. Both of their hair were a little messier than it had been a few minutes ago, and both seemed out of breath though they hadn't run far.
"You guys find something?" Fred asked, trying to look casual as he leaned against the doorframe.
"Yeah," Shaggy passed the order to Daphne and then to Fred.
"A Cease and Desist order?" Daphne asked confused. "Why would a football coach have a Cease and Desist order filed against them?"
"According to this it's in regards to verbal harrasment and threats of bodily harm," Fred said, his finger following the words on the paper. "This order is to Clyde Paul Waters in regards to Daniel Joseph Snyder III. This order requests that Mr. Waters cease and desist all verbal harassment and threats against Mr. Snyder. This is in response to an occurence on 4 October 1969 between Mr. Waters and Mr. Snyder. This order requires Mr. Waters to cease the following actions or else face lawsuit filed by Mr. Snyder. Actions in violation of this order include, but are not limited to: verbal harrassment, physical harrassment, excessive correction, threats of bodily harm. Dated 5 October 1969. Please sign and respond no later than 4:30pm on 10 October 1969. Signed by Daniel Snyder II, Esq. and notarized by Betsy Newell Snyder."
"Like those are Danny's parents."
"What happened on the fourth of October?" Daphne asked Fred.
"It was an away game against some school from Indiana. We played terribly, and no one moreso than Danny. He got sacked four times, fumbled twice, and had three of his passes intercepted and returned for touchdowms. We lost 48-0. When we got back, Coach Waters laid into Danny, worse than I'd ever seen anyone do to anybody. He yelled and screamed, told him he better get his act together or he'd be off the time. Said he'd never seen a quarterback play so terribly in his life."
"So it looks like Danny went home and told his parents, and they wrote up and signed an order the next day," Daphne said, reading the order Fred had passed back to her.
"What woul an order like this do to a football coach, if it came from a player?" Velma asked. She extended a hand towards Daphne, who passed the paper to her.
"Well, it would really be at the discretion of the player," Fred said. "The terms are so vague it would be up to the person as to what constitutes such actions. And given Coach Waters' temper, anything that would be anywhere near his normal coaching style could be considered 'excessive correction'. So basically, any slip up, any shout or yell that Danny were to be threatened by would violate the cease and desist. It would severely limit Waters' ability to do coaching of any kind."
"And any slip-up, even accidental, would violate the order and could result in legal ramifications," Daphne said slowly.
"Look at this," Velma pointed to the signature line at the bottom of the paper. "There's a space for him to sign it and space for a lawyer to sign it. But he didn't have legal representation sign it, so he must not of argued it."
"I doubt he could," Fred said. "The coaches don't make very much. Even if he could afford to get a lawyer for this, he probably couldn't get one for any lawsuits if he broke it. Plus this was a private order. The university probably wouldn't step in on his behalf."
"So if Coach Waters were to do anything that Danny considered harassment, he could press charges. And it's in such vague terms that just about anything could constitute harassment. Waters could face big consequences like heavy fines or losing any chances of becoming head coach," Daphne concluded.
"But like guys Danny would never do that," Shaggy added quickly.
"We didn't mean to imply he would," Daphne said apologetically. "We just meant theoretically."
"If he signed it, its legally binding. He'd have to change his ways immediately or face punishment. And if he can't afford a lawyer, he'd have no chance to get out of trouble if he broke it. You guys," Velma said slowly. "This is motive for murder."
