Chapter 5

"One Panicked Mouse"

The facts were more than clear…we had a cold case on our hands in addition to a mystery. I am usually a guy who doesn't get easily freaked out, but when I got close to that bone that I found to be a human bone, that's a whole different ball game. To Mickey and his friends, however, just the idea of someone dying on their property was more than enough to draw up the anxiety.

"I can't believe this, ha ha," Mickey said as he paced back and forth in front of us. "20 years…a guest has been dead for 20 years?! How could this have happened?! Walt is probably going to be rolling in his cremated grave when he hears about this! My brothers are going to make me the laughingstock of Disney!"

Mickey then turned his sights on me, seeing that I was the leader of Mystery, Inc and the one who seemingly in his mind, had the most answers to which I didn't have.

"Can you solve that mystery, huh?!"

"Mickey, take it easy," Goofy replied. "After all, they are trying to help us, aren't they?"

"Who asked you, Goofy?!" Mickey snapped, causing the playful simpleton to fall on his back. "Don't you see that everything we have ever worked for is at stake? Carrying Walt's dream of expansion with this, a dead guest for 20 years, ha ha! This isn't one of your practical jokes, you know!"

"He's lost it," Donald sighed, muttering to himself.

"And you!" Mickey further thundered at Donald. "You should be the one who loses his temper in this situation in the matter! I mean, aren't you the one who gets stuck with all the bad luck?!"

"Yes, Mickey."

"Some Vice Presidents, you are, ha ha. Can't even share the pain that the President of Disney World is feeling right now."

Knowing that I needed to diffuse the situation, I decided to give Mickey some hopeful reassurance.

"Look, Mickey," I tried to say. "Sure, this isn't the best time to say it, but…"

"Then don't say it, ha ha," Mickey sneered, glaring at me.

"You know we specialize in mysteries and I can say for myself and the rest of my team that this will be solved."

"Fred's right," added Daphne, walking up next to me. "You have our word."

Having heard this, Mickey walked over and sat down at one of the wooden picnic tables, placing his head on his gloved hands.

"Do you think that is going to change my mind, Ms. Blake?" Mickey asked, looking over at Daphne and me. "I could end up losing money if this gets out to the public. Besides, what do you know besides looking pretty all the time, ha ha, even in environments like this?"

Coming from a rich background, Daphne could understand Mickey's worry. Sighing, she sat down next to Mickey.

"Mickey, I want to tell you something," Daphne sighed, choosing to ignore the insult Mickey had made about her feminine nature. "Have you ever recited the rosary?"

This made Mickey glance over at Daphne with a wide eyed expression, for he never even heard of the stuff we people practice.

"The what?"

"It's really great and it helps me out when I get anxious," she answered, reaching into her suit jacket pocket and pulling out a set of rosary beads. Still confused, Mickey studied the rosary beads to get a sense of what he had just been given. "And don't worry, if there is one thing I always carry aside from a change of clothes is rosary beads."

Mickey took another deep breath, contemplating what Daphne said to him.

"Walt never had these with him, ha ha," he said. "Then again, he wasn't…whatever you humans call it."

"Religious."

"Yeah," Mickey said, getting off from the picnic table with the rosaries in his hands. "Come on, let's get back to the office."

Getting in their car, Mickey, Donald and Goofy headed back to Team Disney while we went about investigating more of the park.

"All right, here's what we'll do," I briefed to the team as we studied the map of River Country. "Daphne, you and I will check out the Upstream Plunge and Slippery Stream Falls. Velma, you, Shaggy and Scooby take a look at the beach. If you see any clues, you know what to do."

"Right Fred," Velma said and as we split up, I couldn't help but feel like Velma saw a ghost. She had that look of seeing ghosts that all of us were accustomed to by now.

"You guys gonna be okay?" Beau asked Daphne and me. "We'll cover the campgrounds and the nature trails."

"Thanks, Beau."

He then gestured for Clarice to come forward along with Agent Gordon.

"Clarice, can you be on hand to detect any spirits along the trail?" Beau asked, but Clarice could already detect spirits in the direction we were heading in. "Clarice?"

"I detect spirits where you are going," she said to me and Daphne. "I shall accompany you."

Although it was against our better judgment, Clarice was granted her request to join us by Beau.

"Very well," he said as Clarice took our side. "No use arguing with the FBI specialists."

So, we all split up to cover every square inch of the water park. Little did we know that at that very moment, Reverend Kane was standing over one of the pools with a sinister grin. Bending down, he placed his finger just above the water line.

"Hungry for life, I see?" he chuckled. "Well, my friends, you won't be hungry for very long."

Just then, several blob-like creatures, small to the human eye, began to swim as water seemingly began to form at Reverend Kane's will.

"They won't even know what hit them," he laughed sinisterly as he disappeared to leave his little friends to do their work on us.