Chapter 17: An update and at the library
February 13, 1969
In the month since Velma was transferred to Coolsville Central High School, she has frequently hung out with Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, and Daphne, whether be for after school study sessions as they work on their homework together or getting together to socialize at the usual hangouts.
In time she befriended her new schoolmates, and as she become involved with the school's science club, and with the support from her new friends, she gradually started to open to her peers
With support from Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, and Daphne, Velma started to offer help to her peers in their homework, which led to a significant departure from her time at Withrow High School in Cincinnati, where she normally got along with the adult school staff, particularly math and science teachers.
Naturally, given her presence among her peers, it was also only a matter of time before Velma founds herself crossing paths with Alice Carswell and her gang, and just like Daphne before her, she took good note of Shaggy and Fred's advice about dealing with them.
One such opportunity to deal with Alice came when Velma was asked by her to "provide some inspiration", as Alice puts it, for an in-class assignment in English class. Come to think of it, it didn't take Velma any considerable effort, not when she has at least a dozen handwriting styles at her disposal. It was with that in mind that she casually shrugged at Alice's suggestion and deliberately wrote her answers that, while decipherable, was nonetheless hard to read.
Suffice to say, Alice never got over the subsequent humiliation when she smugly volunteered to take the lead in the discussions, only for her lack of familiarity in cursive writing to leave her stumped while taking up the answers in her "assignment", in turn subjecting her to laughs from the class.
It was under that backdrop that Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne were making their way to history class, during which Velma recounted how she served a cold dish to Alice in English class.
"It sure speaks volumes how someone like Alice keeps playing these sorts of stupid games, even though she has won the resulting stupid prizes time and again." Fred remarked.
"No kidding." Daphne agreed. "Not sure if I mentioned this before, but the private schools I went to before I was enrolled in Central, they are full of people like Alice, minus the part of them picking on me."
"You never fit in with them, Daphne?" Velma asked.
"No." Daphne shook her head. It was at the tip of her tongue to add something else when they saw Principal Spears ahead of them.
Upon seeing the four kids, the principal beckoned them over. "Fred, Norville, Velma, and Daphne, just the people I was hoping to see."
Exchanging looks with each other briefly, the quartet walked over to the principal and Fred asked, "What's up, Principal Spears?"
"You best split up to find April, Augie, Biff, Debbie, and Mark and have them come over to my office." Spears said as he led the way.
Fred, Shaggy, and Daphne turned towards each other with the former arching his eyebrows before they promptly split up, though Velma quickly followed Fred.
"Seems like you guys know something the principal wants to discuss about." Velma noted.
"You'll soon find out what it is about." Fred said.
In no time did they found the five the principal wanted to speak with and promptly headed straight for his office, and as soon as they arrived at the principal's office and Shaggy closed the door behind them, Biff asked, "What's going on, Principal Spears?"
"Remember when you kids came to me after the Halloween party with how you retrieved the ledger containing the student council finances and how the most-recent entry is missing?" The principal began.
"Yes, we did." April nodded. "Did you find something related to what we discovered, Principal Spears?"
"Well, the first thing you'd would want to know is that two days after the new student council and class presidents took office, the student council closed their existing bank account with the funds deposited into a new account that was opened at Crystal Pacific Bank." Spears began. "Officially, the reason for the switch is that the Crystal Pacific Bank offers better rates and returns for the deposit."
"And unofficially?" Mark asked.
"I'm afraid that's a question you would have to dig deeper for, provided your families had accounts at the Crystal Pacific Bank." Spears said.
"Crystal Pacific Bank…." Velma was deep in thought, prompting the others to turn towards her.
"Does your parents or any relatives have accounts at the Crystal Pacific Bank, Velma?" Debbie asked.
"No, but my Uncle David had looked into them in one of his cases." Velma answered. "He is a forensic accountant who is frequently consulted by police on financial crimes."
The others in the office all arched their eyebrows as Augie asked, "Was there a specific case he worked on that saw him looking into the bank?"
"Yes, and while he didn't disclose the exact circumstances behind the case for obvious reasons, he did find something about the bank that's…gotten him raising his eyebrows, to put it mildly." Velma said.
"As in the bank's practices and policies?" Shaggy asked.
"Yes, particularly with its promises of low risk, yet high yield through its investment portfolios." Velma nodded.
"That certainly sounds too good to be true." Biff remarked.
"That's because it is." Velma stated. "Off the books, he has been trying to reproduce the returns the bank's signature portfolio has promised, but he couldn't replicate the numbers. The same thing happened when he tried to replicate the returns of the bank's other investment portfolios, again, he couldn't reproduce the numbers. He consulted a few other forensic accountants on the matter, and they all agreed with his assessment."
"Sounds like something fishy is going on at the bank." Daphne remarked as the others all nodded.
"Like, Principal Spears, besides the student council finances, do we have any other school funds that are deposited in accounts opened at the Crystal Pacific Bank?" Shaggy turned towards Spears.
"Reserve funds for the school library." The principal responded.
"Hmmm, I wonder if there was some promotion going on at the bank at the time of the account opening for the student council finances." Augie wondered. "Some rewards that comes with the promotion, perhaps?"
"That could be it, Augie." Daphne nodded. "But accounting for what Velma just explained, it doesn't sound good if something goes wrong at the bank that topples the house of cards of success it is presenting and thus leading to the loss of funds for the school."
There was silence in the office as the kids and the principal stared at one another, then April quipped, "It would seem we have stumbled upon something big, guys."
"Yes, but unless we have access to the bank account to go through its figures and find the missing page from the ledger, we cannot know for sure what transactions have been going on since they moved the student council finances there." Biff pointed out.
"That's right." Shaggy nodded. "And it's not like we could just confront Alice, Ethan, or Gary point blank on what had became of the missing page from the ledger, not when we don't want them to become wise that we're aware of what they're up to..."
He trailed off when he realized something and turned towards the others. "Like, wait a minute, Alice's dad is a bank president. What are the chances that he is the president of the Crystal Pacific Bank?"
"That would explain a lot." Augie said as the others all nodded. "On why Alice, as the student council treasurer, had the funds moved to a new account at the Crystal Pacific Bank."
"Then the real mystery is why risk it all, given what Velma said about the bank?" Debbie asked. "Or whether there were kickbacks involved in all of this."
"A lot of good questions indeed." Principal Spears nodded.
Later that afternoon, after final period of school, the group met up with Scooby in the school library to do their research for their history assignment, although getting started on their assignments wasn't exactly on their top of minds.
"So, where does all of this leave us?" Biff asked as they grouped together at a table.
"I'm very certain that we have stumbled onto something big after that Halloween party." April said. "Something that will definitely raise a lot of eyebrows on how the student council has been operating ever since Gary and Ethan took office and Alice appointed as the student council's treasurer."
"And mind you, the state of the student council's finances wasn't even the only thing that we stumbled upon during that mystery event." Augie noted.
"What else did you guys stumbled upon?" Velma asked.
"The voting process for the costume contest did not exactly add up." Daphne explained. "As in how Alice was able to make it to the final round even though the reach of her and her gang only goes so far."
"That sure is curious." Velma remarked.
As the group were discussing, the library door opened and in came Henry, Skip, Tinker, Shelly, Taffy, Clam, Brenda, Dee-Dee, and Bubbles. Noticing them coming into the library, Fred and Biff promptly waved them over.
"What's all the excitement, Fred?" Henry asked as they gathered.
"Remember the mystery we stumbled upon at the Halloween party, guys?" Biff asked.
"Of course, how could ever forget about that ledger for the student council's finances in Gary's locker?" Shelly said.
"Principal Spears provide an update onto his discreet investigation into the matter." April said. "Mind you, it wasn't much on the voting process or where the missing page from the ledger is at, but two days after the new class presidents took office and Alice appointed as the student council treasurer, the existing bank account for the funds was closed with the funds deposited into a new bank account opened at the Crystal Pacific Bank."
"That a fact?" Skip asked as they arched their eyebrows. "Was there a reason given for the transfer to the CPB?"
"Officially, Crystal Pacific offers better rates and returns for the new deposit, probably to do with a promotion going on at the time in the bank for new customers." Fred explained.
"And unofficially?" Taffy prompted.
"The principal couldn't say, but we suspect some inside favours may be involved." Debbie spoke. "After all, who's dad is a bank president?"
"Alice." Henry answered. "That in itself wouldn't be unusual if the bank's offers are as good as they say."
"Yes, and that's a problem." Velma said. "When things offered at the bank are too good to be true."
While Velma was speaking, Shaggy glanced around the library and noticed something unusual about the bookshelves on the wall on the far side of the library.
From his previous trips to the school library, he noticed that the books were always arranged in a particular order and that they were never borrowed by the students or faculty.
"Shag?" Daphne asked, noticing that her friend was staring at the bookshelves on the wall at the far side of the library. "Is something bothering you?"
"Huh?" Shaggy asked as he turned and saw others looking at him with puzzled looks on their faces.
"You okay, Shag?" Augie prompted.
"Yeah, I just noticed something unusual." Shaggy replied as he nodded towards the bookshelves he was staring towards. "Like, I don't know why, but I feel like there's something unusual about those bookshelves over there."
"Unusual, like how?" April asked.
"I don't know, just the way the books on there are arranged." Shaggy replied. "And that's accounting for how I hardly notice anyone checking out the books there."
"Hmmm…that's an interesting observation, Shag." Clam said as they all looked at the bookshelf. "And now that you mention it, yeah, I normally see those books in the same order on that bookshelf, but something seems off about them today."
"You guys seriously can't be discussing another mystery?" Shelly said.
"No, we're not, Shelly, just an observation, that's all." Skip said.
"It could be something, but it can also be nothing, guys." Dee-Dee said. "Especially when we're kinda on a timeline on figuring out what's going on with the student council finances before Alice, Gary, and Ethan graduate."
"Like, given what Velma had said about her uncle's discovery from one of his cases, surely it's also worth mentioning that the reserve funds for the library are also deposited in Crystal Pacific." Shaggy said.
"Maybe, though for now, we should keep the discussion simple instead of opening up a can of worms." April advised.
"I know." Shaggy said as he leaned back on his chair. "Just trying to see how all of this fits in the big picture."
"It is good keeping that in mind, Shag." Daphne said as the others all nodded.
"Anyhow, for the purpose of discussion, say Alice's dad is indeed the president of Crystal Pacific, what does Alice get in return for recommending the student council to deposit the funds into her father's bank?" Debbie asked.
"Good question." Skip offered. "And let's not forget about the betting receipt from the casino resort found at Gary's locker."
"Betting receipt from a casino resort?" Velma raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, it was dated a week after Gary and Ethan took office, and from a luxury casino resort, no less." Dee-Dee explained.
"And we found it sticking out from the bottom of the locker door at Gary's locker." Brenda added.
Velma frowned. "But assuming that the receipt was indeed for Gary, wouldn't he be too young to be in the casinos?"
"That is correct." Biff nodded. "And add in the receipt indicating that he had won 5 grand, it does bear asking if he was simply very lucky at the casino or if there were some strings pulled behind the scenes."
"The house always wins." Henry stated.
"Exactly." Biff said.
"And accounting for the missing page containing the most-recent entry of the ledger, all of that doesn't pass the smell test." Taffy offered.
"They must've gotten some scheme going on." Brenda said.
Dee-Dee nodded. "Perhaps winning that 5 grand was his way of making up for the lost money."
"Or launder the missing student council money that they pocketed for their own use." Shaggy said.
"Hence the missing page from the ledger that contained the most-recent entries." Daphne pointed out.
The others all nodded as Debbie said, "Exactly."
As if on cue, the lights in the library suddenly went out.
"Zoinks! Talk about the lights going out just as we are having our lightbulb moment in all of this." Shaggy quipped.
"It's not even that late, what's going on with the lights?" Clam wondered out loud.
Clam's question was answered in the form of a ghostly cackle, prompting everyone to exchange confused looks with one another in the darkness.
"What now?" Shelly demanded as Scooby leaped into Shaggy's arms, or at least what he thought was Shaggy's arms.
They didn't need to wait long to find out, for a glowing figure was standing, or rather, hovering, at the far side of the library.
"Jinkies! Look!" Velma exclaimed.
"Students of Coolsville Central High School, stay away from the library or you will suffer from the wrath of the Phantom of the Library!" The phantom bellowed.
"Beware!" The phantom hollered once more before it disappeared in the darkness.
For a while, there was complete silence in the library.
Then, someone managed to find the light switch and the lights were back on.
Scooby found himself on Fred's arms, and the blonde looked like he couldn't hold him for much longer.
"Scooby, do you mind getting off my arms?" Fred asked the Great Dane.
"Rorry." Scooby shrugged apologetically as he licked Fred in the face before getting off his arms.
While Scooby was getting off Fred's arms, Tom and Jerry were walking into the library with Ruff and Reddy to return some borrowed books.
When they walked by the front counter, Tom glanced towards the cash register holding the money received for the fines for overdue books and noticed something peculiar before he whistled urgently.
"Tom just whistled!" Ruff said. "He must have saw something!"
"Indeed, he must have." Reddy nodded as the librarian walked over.
"What's the matter, Thomas?" The librarian asked.
The cat responded by pointing to the opened cash register.
The librarian looked in and gasped.
"The money!" The librarian said. "It's gone!"
The gang walked over to the front counter and leaned over to look.
Sure enough, the register holding the paid fines for overdue books is empty.
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