Chapter 20

The sheriff and deputies took the two culprits away under the watchful eyes and phones of all of the looky-loos that poked out of every door in the apartment complex. Mr. Deedle followed right behind, leaving the four teens alone with Mr. Grimes.

As the four started toward the door of the apartment, Mr. Grimes spoke. "I owe you kids an apology."

That was unexpected.

He continued. "I knew from the beginning that you were all innocent. You see, I had changed our alarm system when it was being installed from the bargain basement version that was described in the manual."

Velma blurted out, "Like adding the motion-sensitive exterior cameras." As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized that she was not supposed to know that.

Mr. Grimes continued, unphased by the admission. "Exactly. And we started getting some funny alarms right before school started. I asked Mrs. Rastor to run some tests on the system."

He took a deep breath. "But then I let the Sheriff arrest you anyway. Norville, I'm very sorry that you spent a night in jail and that they coerced a confession out of you. That must have been horrible. It was my fault and, again, I'm sorry."

This burned through Shaggy's haze. "Why did you do that?"

"It's kind of technical. The alarm we were getting was a 'tamper' alarm which means that someone on the faculty or staff was most likely responsible. I believed that our best chance to catch them was if they thought they had gotten away with it. After you were released, you four seemed to be having more success in uncovering clues than the Sheriff, so I left my office door unlocked and my password in an obvious place so you could erase the evidence of your unauthorized school entries.

"I should have realized that I was putting you all in real danger and stopped all of the gameplaying. But I didn't and then you, Velma, went through the ordeal of being kidnapped. That, too, is my fault and I am so sorry for that, as well."

He walked out, leaving his professional fate in the hands of the four teenagers. After a moment of awkward silence, Fred said, "I guess let's go, then."

They left the apartment and descended the breezeway stairs to find everything quiet. The Sheriff's cars were gone, and the looky-loos had returned to their lives of quiet desperation.

Scooby was almost dancing in excitement. "Rell? How did rings turn out?"

Shaggy draped his arm across his canine compadre's shoulders. "Well, Scoob, old-buddy-old-pal, the bad guys got arrested and Mr. Grimes apologized to us."

Vema added detail. "He apologized for using us as bait and putting us in the middle of all of this."

Fred put a different spin on it. "We got to work with the police and solve a mystery!"

Velma turned to him. "Are you still on with this 'mystery' stuff. There has got to be a better word!"

"You didn't like 'case'."

Daphne waved toward the driver in her limo. "Well, I'm just glad that this is all behind us and we can get back to our lives. Can I give anyone a lift?" Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby could tell from Daphne's voice that the offer was not genuine.

Fred responded. "No, thanks, I've got to get back to school for practice."

"Like, I've got my bike." Shaggy said.

Scooby nodded. "Rye'm rith Raggy."

Velma was a little confused but saw the pattern. "My parents said to call them, and they would pick me up."

Daphne smiled. "Okay, then, toodles." She walked away to her bright, shiny limousine and her bright, shiny life.

xXx

The following morning, none of the four kids spoke to each other.

After spending the time before class apologizing to Mrs. Rastor for thinking that she was a villain, Velma arrived just before the bell to hear Sarah Handler whisper "geeklet" at her as she passed. She couldn't make out any further words from the mean girls, but Sarah and Daphne seemed to be having a whispered disagreement.

With Mr. Marcus gone, homeroom was being handled by a substitute whose name was unremembered and who was being ignored in the time-honored tradition of substitutes everywhere. When it came time for announcements, the substitute turned on the monitor and everyone was shocked to see Mr. Deedle on the screen sitting in his office next to Mrs. Stanford. He was wearing a football uniform, and she was wearing the cheerleader outfit in which they had seen her the other night.

Mr. Deedle started. "Everyone knows what coming up in two weeks?! It's homecoming!"

Mrs. Stanford squealed and Mr. Deedle continued. "So, let's come out to the big game and celebrate every time our Red and White Devils score a TOUCHDOWN!"

Mrs. Stanford squealed in feigned delight again. An actress, she was not.

Mr. Deedle finished. "And don't forget to get your tickets for the Homecoming Dance which will be the Saturday after the game. Tickets are available on-line on the school website. You can pay with your student ID cards. Go Devils!"

The video ended.

Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Velma all glanced at each other, remembering what they thought Mr. Deedle and Mrs. Stanford had been doing in his office that night. No one noticed they were all blushing.

Epilogue

Velma sat at her computer later that evening and looked over the script she had prepared for the second episode of the "Mysteries of Crystal Cove" podcast which she was doing for her parents. Episode One had been uploaded two weeks before and, so far, seven people had downloaded it and there were two comments: one was an advertisement for an artist and the other was obscene.

But it was free publicity for the shop/museum and she wanted to help her parents, so she hit 'record'.

"Listener, in Episode One I told you this would be a podcast about the different legends and mysteries surrounding Crystal Cove: The Most Mysterious City in North America. But, before I start that, I thought you might like to hear about a real mystery that occurred over these last two weeks right here in town. And about the four teenagers and one dog who solved it…"

WRITER'S NOTE: This ends the origin story for the version of The Gang that ended up in my 'Adult Scooby Gang' series. In that universe, each of The Gang wrote an autobiography in their mid-twenties after they had broken up. Next week, I will start posting "The Velma Chronicles". This series of stories will be excerpts from her autobiography (written when she was 26) where she tells what really happened in the early mysteries before the network bought the rights and changed everything in editing and post-production. It turns out that things weren't as neat, sweet, and petite as the final network versions would indicate. First up (in honor of the 55th anniversary of the show) 'What a Night for a Knight'.