Chapter 20: All is revealed and a brief hostage situation
As everyone looked at the former chemistry teacher, the officers unmasked the two zombies, revealing two sinister-looking faces.
"Why, I recognize those two men." The sergeant recognized the faces. "They're James Suckle and Peter 'Pistol Pete' Roven, two counterfeiters wanted for fraud and robbery."
"Those three people were using the school's abandoned underground bomb shelters to produce counterfeit currency." Fred began.
"Wait, there's an underground bomb shelter?" Mr. McDabble asked.
"Yes." Augie nodded. "It's connected to a secret passageway that begins from behind several bookshelves located on the far wall of the library."
"That area was also where the phantom appeared and warned us to stay away from it." Taffy added.
"Wait, how did you know that Ms. Christopherson wasn't behind the disguise of the Phantom, guys?" Reddy asked.
"Simple." Velma replied. "When she was speaking to us about that first librarian who is alleged to have practiced witchcraft and later disappeared, I noticed that she was holding her pencil with her right hand, and while we were in the bomb shelter room with the printing equipment, I noticed that all of the equipment were designed to be used by right-handed people."
"However, we do know that the real Ms. Christopherson is left-handed." Mark said. "While she may be able to operate many of the library's equipment with ease with her right hand, I noticed that she frequently writes with her left hand."
"The equipment we discovered in the bomb shelter are the type that can only be operated with precision by right-handed people, not something left-handed people can do unless they use it frequently." Henry stated.
"Given the need for precision while fast and efficient, it is obvious that Ms. Christopherson can't be involved in this." Brenda said. "In fact, if we were taking fingerprints from the equipment, we will not find Ms. Christopherson's fingerprints."
"I see." The principal nodded understandingly. "So, what did you kids found that pointed the finger of all of this to Mrs. Marcel?"
"Simple." Dee-Dee said. "Our first clue was the powdery luminous paint Scooby found on the library floor near where the phantom was standing at."
"It was the type that is commonly used in chemistry classes and adding to the mystery event we had at the Halloween party last year." Tinker said. "A type of chemical that a former chemistry teacher like Mrs. Marcel would be familiar with."
"Then, Skip discovered a counterfeit five-dollar Note on the floor of the bomb shelter." Shaggy said.
"Upon closely examining the Note, I noticed that the colourization of the Note is based on a certain type of ink used in conventional stationary instead of the ink that the Mint uses while printing the Notes." Velma added as she showed the police sergeant the counterfeit Note.
The officer nodded as Fred said. "However, the biggest clue will be what was in another room that we caught a glimpse of prior to our run-in with the Phantom."
"There were several costumes in the room, as well as the chemicals which Mr. McDabble mentioned to be stolen." Velma said. "Just prior to the encounter, I happened to have shined my flashlight at the dust-covered flasks and noticed several fingerprints on them. Now, I know that those flasks have been touched by the students and others before, but there were fresh ones that I know meant that they have been handled by someone recently, similar to the fresh fingerprints on the key and cash register."
"One thing to take note of is that Velma's got a sharp memory." Henry said. "She can remember any of the small details she has taken notice from a month ago."
"Yes." Velma nodded. "I did a quick comparison between the fingerprints I saw on those three items, and two different fingerprints were found on all of those three items. Now what's the probability of a chemistry teacher having access to keys that are only used by librarians? Similarly, what's the probability of a librarian handling dangerous chemicals normally handled by chemistry teachers?"
"As far as we know that chance is slim to none." Shelly said.
"Indeed, Shelly." April agreed as everyone else nodded at her reasoning. "That could only mean that the three equipment was handled by a former chemistry teacher posing as a librarian and her two henchmen."
"And with the legend about the first librarian floating around." Fred concluded. "They were able to work on their counterfeiting operations in the bomb shelter and took on the disguises to scare away anyone that may get suspicious of their activities."
"Brilliant work, kids." The police sergeant said. "Now where is this secret bomb shelter you kids were talking about?"
"And more importantly, where's Ms. Christopherson?" Principal Spears added.
Moments later, the group, the school principal, the rescued librarian, and the police were at the room in the bomb shelter where the counterfeiting equipment is housed.
"Well, Ms. Marcel, Mr. Suckle and Mr. Roven, you all are under arrest for fraud, kidnapping and robbery." The sergeant said before ordering the officers to secure the bomb shelter.
"I'm sure thankful that you kids had helped out when you did." Ms. Christopherson said to the gang. "If it weren't for you kids, I sure wouldn't want to know where I might be at or what I might encounter."
"Ah, no worries, Ms. Christopherson." Fred said. "We were just trying to help."
Just then, Alice Marcel managed to break free from the arresting officer's grip and grabbed his weapon.
"Curses!" The former chemistry teacher hissed as she grabbed the gun and aimed it at the gang. "You meddling kids ruined everything!"
"Jinkies!" Velma exclaimed as they saw the gun aimed at them. "She's going to..."
"That's right." Alice said as she disengaged the gun's safety. "You kids may have ruined my plans, but I'm not going down that easily."
She then pointed her gun at Shaggy, who was standing the closest to her, and continued, "Any false move, this boy dies!"
"Zoinks!" Shaggy froze as the others looked on in fear and the sergeant's hand remained on the radio.
Just as the sergeant's thumb hit the button, the former chemistry teacher shouted, "No more cops in here, or the boy's gonna get it!"
Shaggy glanced at the former chemistry teacher. The fury and desperation in her eyes coupled with the barrel pressed into his chest was one lethal combination, a combination indicative of someone with nothing left to lose.
Whimpering in fear, Shaggy's eyes darted towards his friends and Scooby. Like him, they were all frozen in fear.
"Ms. Marcel, please…" Mr. McDabble began, only for the former chemistry teacher to snap.
"Shut up!" Marcel snapped. "Shut up! Unless you get me a transport for me and this boy to get out, this will not end well."
Shaggy gulped as he glanced at Marcel. "L-l-like, what are y-y-you going to…"
"Okay, that's it!" Marcel suddenly snapped as she turned towards him and poked the barrel deeper into his chest. "Another peep outta any of you and he's gonna get it!"
Shaggy only whimpered as he squeezed his eyes shut and he awaited what's to come.
Please take good care of Maggie, Scooby, and my friends. Shaggy's mind whirled.
For what felt like forever, the air was tense and still and no one said a word. It was as if time itself has completely frozen. That didn't stop the dust that was kicked loose by the earlier footsteps to get too close to Daphne's nose.
The redhead can feel something ballooning in her nose, and she held it, fearful that any sneeze or cough could trigger a reaction from the desperate counterfeiter. Unfortunately, the pressure became too much for her nose and she involuntarily sneezed. She forced her mouth close, but the sneeze still came out like a muffled cough.
"Alright, you ask for it!" Marcel bellowed as she pressed the barrel deeper into Shaggy's chest.
"No, no, please, Ms. Marcel, the dust in here is too much-" Velma protested.
"Then, that's a problem for you all, isn't it?" Marcel said with her finger at the trigger.
"Shaggy, I'm so sorry." Daphne's voice broke as he felt as though he could feel Marcel's finger touching the trigger.
Just as Marcel was about to pull the trigger, however, something he couldn't explain happened. Out of nowhere, he felt as though he was starting to burn up from the inside.
From what Daphne and the others told him later, while they were still trying to put the words together, the consensus was that his hands suddenly grabbed the handgun at lightning speed, redirected its aim towards the ceiling just as she opened fire, and then his leg delivered a kick right into her groin.
By the time Shaggy opened his eyes, he saw Alice Marcel on the floor, her face completely with a mix of pain and shock, as the police sergeant and a couple of responding officers, those that have heard her briefly through the sergeant's radio, restraining and handcuffing her.
However, the bigger surprise was that Daphne's right hand was gripping the bullet Marcel had fired, the one that was meant for his chest had he not redirected the shot towards the ceiling.
But the biggest surprise was when he turned towards Scooby, he saw the Great Dane with the gun in his mouth, and whatever fear that was on his face earlier had all but disappeared and replaced by a furious growl as he was now facing the former chemistry teacher.
"Shaggy, are you alright?" Fred asked in concern as they quickly gathered around him.
Placing his hand on the back of his head, Shaggy turned towards his friends, then at Scooby and Daphne. He patted down to feel his chest and hips, then he said, "Like…I'm not sure…guys, just had…a weird…sensation…like my body was burning up from the inside and next thing you know…she's disarmed and Daphne's holding the bullet..."
He trailed off as their eyes turned towards the bullet Daphne was holding in her hand.
"How did you do it?" Henry asked.
"Actually, the better question is, where did you learn to do that?" Shelly added.
"Perks of having a police chief father is knowing some self-defence moves, like how to disarm a suspect, I suppose." Shaggy shrugged.
"That looks more than just purely self-defence and disarming a suspect to me." Clam quipped.
"I'll say." Tinker agreed. "Add in the bullet in Daphne's hand, there's definitely more to it than self-defence and disarming a suspect."
The other students murmured in agreement as the police officers escorted Marcel and her henchmen out of the bomb shelters.
"I think it's more to do with how often you guys watched the Green Hornet and reading any action-packed comics like the Blue Scarab." Mark remarked.
"Maybe, but again, this is a whole different level than what we saw on television and in the comics." Augie remarked.
"Not to mention Daphne doesn't watch or read anything action-packed to the same extent Shag and Scooby does." Fred added.
Later that afternoon, over at the headquarters of the Coolsville Police Department, Chief of Police Sam Rogers was preparing to head home and call it a day when his desk phone rang.
The police chief picked up the phone and answered, "Hello?"
"Chief Rogers, sir, we just completed a haul from Coolsville Central High School that you should know about." The lieutenant on the other end answered.
"Oh? Is this pertaining 'to Operation Slam Down'?" Sam raised an eyebrow, referring to the department's ongoing operation to combat counterfeiting across the city.
"Yes, well, long story short, we have three racketeers operating a counterfeiting ring using a disused bomb shelter in the school's basement as the base of their operations." The lieutenant explained. "But…"
When the lieutenant trailed off, Sam prompted, "But…what, Lieutenant Gorshin?"
There was a long pause before Gorshin got back on the line, "There were…complications in the leadup to the arrest."
"Complications, like how?" Sam asked.
Another long pause before Gorshin said, "I think…it's best that Sergeant Barson explain, as he was present in the bomb shelter when it went down."
Sam nodded. "Put the sergeant on the line."
A pause went by before Barson's voice came through, "Chief Rogers, sir."
"Sergeant, what happened?" Sam asked.
"Sir…" Barson trailed off.
Sam exhaled before he prompted, "Sergeant Barson, what happened?"
"It's your son, sir." Barson explained. "He, um, took down the ringleader after she, um, tried to use him as a hostage."
"How?" Sam was now intrigued.
"It…was a team effort, like your son suddenly redirected her aim towards the ceiling just as she opened fire, his redhaired friend caught the bullet, the dog disarming the ringleader, and he delivered a kick that took her down." Barson said.
It was Sam's turn to pause as a realization settled in.
"Sir?" Barson called out.
"Ah, yes, sorry Sergeant, I was just thinking about something." Sam said. "Was there any tactical planning involved in what you just described?"
"No sir." Barson shook his head. "It was…just random and unexpected, that's all I can describe."
Sam grunted as he thought about something, then he said, "Tell you what, Sergeant. When you and your men finish your report on this, have it sent straight to my desk before the end of the day."
"Yes, sir, will do, sir." Barson nodded.
After the police chief hung up, his eyes darted towards the family photo on his desk and the realization fully settled in. After what had happened today, it's time that his children be informed of the family secret.
He then reached for the phone and dialed another number.
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