Chapter 7: The recap
While Detective Vicars and Captain Yoon briefed Strickland on their progress on the case, the parents were gathered with the gang with Sam taking lead.
"Okay, this is how it will go, everyone." Sam began. "Before you all tell me how all of this started, it will be necessary for us to introduce ourselves."
The parents all nodded, then Sam placed his hand on Shaggy's shoulder as he continued, "My name is Sam Rogers, and this is my son Norville."
Gesturing towards himself, the lieutenant colonel continued, "As you can tell, I am an officer of the United States Marine Corps. I've been on active duty for twenty years, started out enlisted before earning my commission. Currently Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves and recently retired from the Los Angeles Police Department as a Captain after almost twenty-five years of service."
Then, Sam gestured towards George and continued, "George Blake and I knew each other from our service in the Corps."
"Indeed we do." George nodded as he stepped forward and introduced himself. "As everyone already likely knew by now, my name is George Blake, Daphne is my daughter, and I served in the Corps for twelve years, meeting Rogers, and worked finance before I started Blake Investments."
The other parents all nodded before the mayor stepped forward and introduced himself. "As you all know, my name is Fred Jones, Senior. Junior here is my son, and before I was elected Mayor, I was in the Navy JAG Corps, worked for Butler and Avery Partnership at Law and served a few terms representing Coolsville in the State Assembly."
While Fred, Sr. was introducing himself, Shaggy turned around and noticed George lightly scoffed when the mayor mentioned serving in the State Assembly.
Undaunted by George's scoff, Fred, Sr. placed his hand on Junior's shoulder and continued, "It is a great pleasure for me to introduce your future mayor and possibly your future State Senator, Governor, Senator or even President."
As Senior patted Junior in the shoulder, Junior turned towards Daphne with an uncomfortable look on his face.
Daphne only nodded sympathetically as Angie stepped forward and said, "And last but not least, my name is Dr. Angela Dinkley."
Gesturing towards Velma, Angie continued, "This is my daughter Velma, and I am the Associate Dean of the Department of Forensic Pathology at Darrow University, as well as the senior assistant medical examiner at the Office of the Medical Examiner of Crystal Cove County. Before I got my degree in pathology, I was a hospital corpsman in the Navy."
"Excellent, Doctor." Sam nodded as he gestured towards the coroner's van and two assistants loading Principal Deedle's corpse onto it. "The police are definitely going to require your expertise for this one."
"I'm sure they do." Angie agreed. "Which is why I will have to excuse myself and meet with my assistants."
Sam nodded, prompting Angie to break off from the group and headed her way to the scene.
"So going back to starting from the beginning." Sam turned around. "You kids are going to need to tell us how this all started."
Looking specifically at Shaggy, Sam continued, "That will mean you, son."
Shaggy gulped but nodded. "Yes, sir."
"So how did all of this started?" Sam prompted.
"As I've said, Dad." Shaggy said. "Like, it started with that Monday night when Maggie and I took Scooby out on a walk."
"You said he was scared out of his wits." Sam nodded. "What about it? Did you two find out what caused Scooby to be scared out of his wits?"
"At first, no." Shaggy shook his head. "Fast forward to this afternoon, I was in the library working on my English essay, and given the lack of sitting space in the library, I ended up sharing tables with them."
"The four of you were all working on your assignments, same table but separately." George prompted.
"Indeed, Mr. Blake." Velma nodded in confirmation. "But then, in came Vice Principal Grimes with three students to serve detention in the library. One of them was busted after he hacked into the school website to replace Mr. McDabble's portrait with one of a pig."
"Sounds like one devil of a prank." The mayor remarked.
"It was." Daphne agreed. "But again, due to the lack of sitting space in the library, we had to leave while those three served their detention in the library."
"So what happened next?" Sam prompted.
"We were walking down the hallway when the lights began to flash." Fred, Jr. explained. "Well, it surged first before it began to flash."
"And then the temperature inside dropped dramatically." Velma continued. "Mind you, the air conditioning has malfunctioned before, but never had it caused a dramatic change in temperature."
"By dramatic, how much the temperature dropped?" Sam frowned.
"Cold enough that you are practically exhaling fog, like the inside of a freezer." Shaggy explained. "And that's also on top of the wind blowing heavily like a hurricane going through the school."
"Objects began flying around uncontrolledly, including from the neighbouring lockers." Daphne added. "And I'm certain there was no tornado warning."
"Not in these parts was one issued." Fred, Sr. quipped.
"The lightbulbs above broke, and before long everything calmed down and it became dark, except for this lone light above us." Velma continued.
"That was when this thick, massive book dropped down right in front of us." Shaggy said. "And it flipped open before stopping and shook violently."
With a gulp, Shaggy said, "That was when...like...they showed up."
"They?" George asked.
"Two ghosts." Daphne explained. "They...emerged from the book and growled at us."
"We took off running." Fred, Jr. said.
"And he must've split up from us in the process." Velma added as she nodded towards Shaggy.
"Just trying to...get as far away from those two...ghosts as I can." Shaggy said, his face pale.
"And that's when you stumbled by the main office and spotted the principal's dead body." Sam interjected.
Shaggy was at a loss of words that he only nodded, prompting the former police captain to turn towards the others, who all nodded in confirmation.
"We all managed to hide from those two ghosts." Daphne explained. "And it was when the coast was clear from our hiding spot did we found that he wasn't with us, and so we went to search for him."
"And you found him by the main office, which is when you found the principal dead." Fred, Sr. said.
"That's right." Fred, Jr. nodded.
Sam grunted as he turned to look at Strickland, Yoon and Vicars, then he turned back to Shaggy.
"Then, how did this tie into what caused Scooby to be scared out of his wits from his walk this past Monday, son?" Sam asked.
"Like, since encountering those two ghosts and running away from them, it had occurred to me that there is a cemetery by the park." Shaggy said. "Not to mention there were a couple of lightning strikes before it began raining when we got back."
"So you're saying that those two ghosts you saw raised from the graves in that cemetery." Sam said.
"That would indeed be the case, sir." Shaggy nodded. "And explaining why Scooby was scared out of his wits."
"And you are absolutely certain that you spotted two ghosts." George prompted as he addressed the others.
"No question about it, Mr. Blake." Fred, Jr. nodded.
It was then that Chief Strickland joined the group and beckoned the mayor over.
"Excuse me for a moment." Mayor Jones said before he broke from the group.
Upon joining Strickland, the mayor asked, "What do you think, Lou?"
The police chief sighed and shook his head. "At this stage, it will appear that the victim has ingested something. Forensics have recovered the glass he was holding, and while the medical examiners have yet to schedule an autopsy, it's safe to say that the victim was likely poisoned."
"That is also the preliminary findings from Dr. Dinkley?" Fred, Sr. asked.
"Yes indeed." Strickland nodded. "What did those kids say?"
"Only that they were running away from ghosts when they stumbled upon their principal's body." The mayor responded.
"Ghosts?" Strickland asked skeptically, and the mayor nodded.
With an exhale, the police chief said, "Sounds way too convenient for me to cover up the fact that they may be the last to see their principal alive..."
"You don't know that." Sam suddenly turned around and walked over to the duo, prompting Strickland and Mayor Jones to turn towards him. "Have any of your men interviewed the school's faculty?"
"I'm sure Detective Vicars has already done her due diligence in interviewing everyone in the school." Strickland asserted.
Seeing Detective Vicars and Captain Yoon conferring, Sam frowned as he said, "Does Detective Vicars have a partner assisting her in this investigation?"
"No, and unless the mayor here does something about my department's budgetary constraints, she's on her own." Strickland responded.
As the chief made the remark, Sam overheard the mayor scoffing lightly.
"On her own?!" Sam exclaimed in disbelief. "Shouldn't there be at least two detectives-"
"Hold your horses, Lieutenant Colonel." Strickland cut in. "We do have three investigators on the team, but one is on sick leave and the other investigates property crimes only."
Sam blinked. "What's your department's strength?"
Strickland thought up the top of his head before he responded, "45 sworn officers."
"In a city this size." Sam folded his arms, clearly not impressed.
"Hey, if it wasn't for those budget cuts, we'd be having an extra body to go out knock on doors in the neighbourhood and interview the faculty." Strickland defended.
Sam nodded, though he didn't unfold his arms. Something about Strickland's demeanour was putting him off.
"But enough about that." Strickland continued. "Cuts or no cuts, we can manage this case, there's no need for you to butt in, Colonel."
"Well, he was LAPD as well, Lou." The mayor spoke. "And retired as a Captain, no less-"
"That's even worse." Strickland scoffed. "I say he and those kids are covering for his son, since his whereabouts were unaccounted for between leaving the library and discovering the principal's body-"
"What was the time of death?" Sam cut in.
"You'll have to ask Dr. Dinkley on that." Strickland responded. "But even if the time of death was well outside the period your son was unaccounted for, that doesn't answer all the questions we have about these alleged 'ghosts' they saw."
"And what makes you d*mn sure that they were the last to see the principal alive?" Sam demanded.
"You surely can't be serious considering ghosts to be their alibis, can you?" Strickland asked.
"Well, there hasn't been any evidence to link them to the victim's death now, is there?" The mayor asked.
Strickland was about to say something when the mayor's words prompted him to pause and think, then he shook his head as he conceded, "No, there isn't."
"Now isn't that easy?" Fred, Sr. asked with a smile. "I'll say that you should wait on what the autopsy report has to say on the principal's cause of death now before deciding your next moves, eh?"
Strickland only grunted before he broke off to join Vicars and Yoon while Sam and the mayor looked on.
George and the gang soon joined them as the former asked, "So?"
"It will seem that the kids are free to go." The mayor observed as Vicars and Yoon nodded at Strickland's words.
"Good." George nodded as Angie emerged from the school building.
As Angie made her way down the stairs, Strickland flagged her down.
"The minute you're done with the autopsy, have the report sent straight to my desk." Strickland instructed.
Looking at Yoon, he added, "And Gracie, media blackout on the ghost sightings."
"Yes, sir." Yoon nodded before she and Vicars went their separate ways.
Watching the interaction, Sam's frown only deepened.
As Yoon walked over to the kids, George walked over to Sam.
"I don't like this one bit, Rogers." George spoke as he watched the police chief drove off.
"You and I both, Blake." Sam agreed. "Just what is motivating the police chief to have this one an open-and-shut case?"
"Forget about the idiot chief." George said. "I don't like the mayor's motivations one bit in pushing the chief to release the kids."
"Always an opportunist, I'm certain." Sam said as he turned towards George.
"There's gotta be something we could do to get to the bottom of this." George said. "After all, there is no such things as ghosts and with the kids insisting that they have spotted two in the leadup to the discovery of the principal's body, it doesn't bode well."
"The autopsy will tell how he died." Sam said. "But I don't like the way Strickland asked that Dr. Dinkley have the autopsy report sent straight to his desk."
Seeing Velma nodding at Vicars, George asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Rogers?"
"Yes, I am." Sam nodded. "But it will have to be discreet."
"Don't worry, Daphne's good in persuading people, plus I'm sure she knows that the stakes in this one couldn't be any higher." George said.
Sam murmured in agreement as he and George watched Vicars finish advising the kids that she would be in touch if she has any further questions.
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