Chapter 1 – Cherryred
Blake Manor, Crystal Cove, January 4, 2023.
7pm
Daphne read that line for the tenth time and she didn't understand the meaning of those words. She read it once more and… realized that she wouldn't understand it again. The content was not difficult. It was just fashion. It was Diana Vreeland. But she hated fashion college and Diana Vreeland, so her mind was purposely making those words less and less interesting. Finally, she gave up reading the book and grabbed her cell phone. Of course, just to check Instagram: Daphne Blake. 36 million followers, 1022 new followers in the last hour. About 10% of the country´s population paid attention to her life... but it was a kind of life that she herself preferred to ignore. It was a fake life, a beautiful and obvious mask, compatible with her beauty and her economic standard of living… but it was still a mask. And the real Daphne behind the mask was tired of it. So, in a spontaneous existential impulse, she opened her MacBook, typed in the search field: "True Crime Forum" and accessed her secret account: cherryred.
Fortunately, her secret identity was as popular as her real-life identity: her posts were eagerly awaited, commented and acclaimed by thousands of users. Her last post, "the moon pendant mystery", had received more than two hundred responses. There were testimonies from people who remembered the fateful day when a young woman's body was found inside the pool of an abandoned house in San Francisco, there were newspaper articles about the case, there were graphic testimonies describing the deplorable conditions in which the body was found , there were people celebrating that finally a photo of the pendant was published... and there were messages from Australian users saying the photo that Daphne had posted – a rustic pendant in the shape of a waxing crescent moon – showed a religious symbol of a tribe of local natives. Immediately, Daphne opened the Australian government's Missing Persons page and typed all the physical characteristics of the Jane Doe who was found in 1981 wearing only a necklace. In less than 10 seconds, the page revealed the end of a mystery that San Francisco police couldn´t solve in more than 40 years: Jane Doe was probably Allyra Mahon, who went missing in New South Wales in 1979 .
"Some Australian families lived in this neighborhood in the early 80s. I used to deliver newspaper there and I remember it well", was the post that appeared shortly afterwards, motivating Daphne to go deeper into her research on Allyra Mahon. In a 2020 video, Allyra's twin sister, now 60 years old, talks about the day an Australian naval officer offered Allyra a job in the USA – the morning after it, the girl disappeared. When the woman wiped her tears, Daphne could see that she was wearing a pendant in the shape of a star, pretty similar to Jane Doe 's pendant. "Do you remember naval officers living near the crime scene?", Daphne quickly typed, responding the user who had posted the last message. "No, but there was a crazy guy who lived three blocks away, he enjoyed wearing army uniforms. I think he wasn´t a real officer, he just dressed like that to impress girls and arouse respect. If I'm not wrong, his name was Joel. He had the reputation of being abusive to women, including his own mother", was the response that appeared after a few minutes. Then, Daphne posted the video of Allyra's sister and some links to articles that reported Allyra´s disappearance. "I'm not saying that Jane Doe is Allyra, but I can see a lot of connections between the moon pendant mystery and the Australian girl's disappearance. The pendant that Allyra´s sister wears is very similar to the moon pendant. I think the Australian community should report these coincidences to the authorities," she typed, and at the moment her message was posted, Jenkins opened the door, announcing the dinner.
Jenkins: Your parents are waiting for you, Miss. Blake.
The noise startled Daphne and she immediately closed her MacBook. Then, Jenkins apologized for it.
Daphne: I'll be there in a minute.
As soon as the butler left, Daphne opened her computer again to erase all online history and cover up all evidence of her secret actions. When she finished, she put on her favorite boots and left her room. On the way to dining room, she tried to approach slowly and silently, so that she could listen to her parents' conversation – and maybe listen to some precious information for a new post. Fortunately, Nan and Bart Blake were alone at the table that night, and prosecutor Nancy Blake was complaining out loud about her work.
Nan: …and to make things worse, Diane told me that Roy Keener died in his cell last week. Natural causes. May God never let the Beckers' lawyer know about it, or they will cause a scandal again and our credibility will be in pieces. God, this job is so stressful!
Bart: Roy Keener, the maniac of Redding? I didn't know he was a suspect in Molly Becker´s case...
Nan: He wasn´t. But in the end of 2021, Roy told a prison agent that he had information about Molly´s killer. He said it was her math teacher, because the bastard sold Roy photos of Molly´s lifeless body. Anyway, we didn't have time to set an official interrogation, and now we'll never know if it was true...
Bart: Or we'll never know that it was a huge bullshit. Honey, the FBI never found such photos in Roy´s freaky inventory. Usually, those sentenced to death penalty say anything to get a deal... Roy himself had already said and denied a lot of things in the last fifteen years...he just wanted attention…
Nan: Your point of view is comforting, dear, but try to explain this to parents who have been waiting for justice for 26 years… and after all the mess involving Ted Becker´s wrong conviction… God, this is such a shame! They don´t deserve to go through this!
Bart: Absolutely. Ted's conviction was absurd, but it wasn't your fault... nothing involving Molly's case is your fault.
Nan: The Beckers disagree, but I appreciate your kindness in trying to make me feel better.
Bart: Damn, Nan, it´s just a rumor! There´s no proof about it, it´s a waste of time and of resources... Plus, this information will never leave the department, the FBI itself is not aware of it, no way the Beckers will ever get to know.
Suddenly, Daphne heard footsteps approaching her, and when she looked around, she realized her sister Daisy was coming towards her. Immediately, she hurried and reached the table before Daisy. As soon as both girls sat down, the Blakes interrupted their conversation, as they always do to not let their daughters know the confidential details of their professional lives. As always, dinner was long and peaceful. Bart asked how was his daughters´ and his wife's day, then summarized his own day with some positive facts. Nan mentioned some news about her three absent older daughters, and Daisy spent more than half an hour sharing boring details about medical college.
Bart: You haven't talked much today, Daph. Got some news?
"I'm almost solving a 40-year-old mystery", she thought. However, as an excellent actress, she played the perfect daughter role that her parents expected.
Daph: Oh, sure, college is awesome! I think next summer I'll go to Paris with some friends... and work is incredible, I´ve got lots of new followers and lots of job proposals from interesting brands… I think I'm getting famous on internet... soon I'll need to hire another agent to help me with so many posts…
The three of them celebrated the youngest Blake's achievements, and Daphne soon gave an excuse to return to her room. Before going to bed, when most of the lights in Blake Manor had been turned off, she turned on her computer again and looked for information about Molly Becker´s case. She discovered that the 13-year-old girl was brutally murdered in spring of 1997 in Riverdale. In 1999, the girl's uncle, Ted Becker, was wrongly accused and convicted of the crime, just because he was a person who had problems with alcohol and drugs. Ted's innocence was proved only in 2010. Since then, several other men were investigated as suspects, but nothing was found. Without new evidence and new suspects, Molly's case was closed in 2014, but the girl's family has continued with unsuccessful private investigations.
"Roy could have made some difference in the Beckers´ lives", Daphne thought, and the photo of Molly's elderly parents holding an old photo of their daughter broke her heart. "On the other hand, Mom would freak out if they found out that Roy passed away before telling the police everything he knew", she mused, fearing for her own mother's career. After a few minutes of moral conflict, Daphne decided to benefit both sides: publish the prisoner's information without ruining her mother´s career. Then, shortly after 10 p.m., she logged into her True Crime Forum secret account and started a new thread titled: "Molly Becker Case – 26 Years Without Answers". In the post, after citing articles and basic information about the crime, she wrote: "In late 2021, Roy Keener, the maniac of Redding, told a prison agent that he had information about Molly's case. According to him, Molly's math teacher killed her. Then, he took pics of her corpse and sold them to Roy. Any Riverdale user here? To tell us the possible identity of this "math teacher"?" Before receiving a response, Daphne deleted all evidence of her virtual activity, turned off the computer and went to bed, with a feeling of mission accomplished.
Darrow University Campus, Crystal Cove, January 5, 2023.
1 am
Fred woke up from a light, dreamless sleep. An uninteresting sleep. For a moment, his mind suggested some probable causes for another sleepless night: stress, night shifts, too many subjects at college, several concerns about his career, his future, his internship and his future marriage. Finally, he concluded that the main cause of insomnia was his uninteresting life. His parents were doctors, his fiancée was a doctor, most of his friends were doctors, and soon he himself would be a doctor. Everything in his life was perfect, standard and… boring. After half an hour struggling to sleep again, Fred gave up. He put on the shirt that was lying on the side of the bed, grabbed a beer inside the fridge and turned on the computer. Without hesitation, he typed the coordinates that brought a little excitement to his routine: True Crime Forum.
Cherryred´s post about the moon pendant mystery had more than three hundred responses – 150 new ones since the last time he accessed the post. The final messages gave details about Joel Marlow – identified as the Jane Doe's killer – and showed the social networks of Elandra Mahon, a "probable sister" of Jane Doe. Before Fred could read all new messages, he noticed a new cherryred thread, "Molly Becker case – 26 years without answers", which had more than fifty messages. He preferred to read the most recent post first, because it was talking about a case that occurred in a city near Crystal Cove. Reading the messages quickly, he realized that users were poiting the math teacher James Arthur as a suspect – the same man who taught him math in 6th grade at Crystal Cove Middle School. "James was a good man, but he had the strange habit of inviting kids who liked maths to go to his house. This happened about 2013, when I was his student at Crystal Cove. Fortunately, I´m a math dummy, so I can't say what exactly happened during those meetings. I really hope Molly wasn't one of those kids. Anyway, he passed away a long time ago. In 2015 or 2016, if I remember right, but his house remains untouched, rotting due to time and abandonment. I don't think he had any close relatives", Fred typed.
In less than a few sips of beer, Fred's message received responses. "The website created by Molly's parents says that she won 2 national math competitions. I do believe she was one of those kids" , replied a user, including a photo of the girl wearing two gold medals. "I was his student in Coolsville in 2002 and he really invited students to his house. I never accepted!" , was the answer that came next. "I worked with him in San Rafael in 1992 way before you kids were born. My 3 children used to visit his house twice a week and they have learned a lot. It's a shame that you are accusing a good man", another user wrote. Fred read the new answers for almost an hour, until an user asked him: "Could you say where exactly is Arthur' s house?". No, he couldn't. "Never disclose addresses" was the number one rule of urban explorers. But he could do something much better: Go there and take a look. And he knew who could help him with this.
"Hey Shags, let´s explore tomorrow? I have a great suggestion for a place. Bring Velma too", was the message Fred sent to his high school friend, Norville Rogers. Then he sent him the link to cherryred 's post on True Crime Forum.
Alice May: True Crime Forum? Honey, aren't you too old for this kind of thing?
Fred´s fiancée Alice May startled him when she suddenly appeared and hugged him around the neck. Due to her sudden appearance, he was unable to hide the website he was accessing, but he managed to turn off his cell phone screen to prevent her from reading the message he had sent to Shaggy.
Fred: Oh, right, it's just... well... it's an interesting page to... learn forensic medicine ... and... also... learn... interesting methods for forensic examination... have you heard the recent news? This forum has solved many cold cases…
Alice May: Solved? It's just a bunch of idle teenagers spreading personal opinions as if they were the truth, Fred... if they really solved cold cases, the police would surely get involved...
Fred: Police got involved in some cases… I mean, at the end of them, after ordinary people shared their knowledge and did all the dirty work…
Alice May: Ok, it has brought closure to some cases, but was it a real closure? What if someone has invented a culprit just to finish an investigation? The police itself can do this to get rid of its bad reputation of not solving some crimes after so many years... or, perhaps, someone did it to fool the meddling kids and take all the focus off the real killer…
Fred: No! It was a real closure, all information was real! Confidential information was leaked, and due to it people were able to find the right answers… this profile here, called "cherryred", has already solved more than sixty cold cases… from disappearances to murders, some of them were even mysteries…
Alice May: Oh, Fred, not cherryred again, please! Honey, can´t you see you´re obsessed? Like I´ve said, it must be some nerd from police dept. pretending he´s an internet hero, so that he can sleep with a girl... or an old writer making some free marketing for her next fiction book, to get a publisher´s attention...
Fred: No, it´s really confidential! A few hours ago, cherryred published a photo of the pendant that Jane Doe from "the moon pendant mystery" was wearing… in more than forty years, no one had ever published a photo of it before, it was confidential. And people always asked why the FBI kept it in secret for so many years, and…
Alice May: Fred, nobody asks why, in real life nobody cares if crimes are solved or not! Plus, how can you be sure if it´s really the pendant? Anyone can take a photo of a necklace and publish it on the internet... it´s just a bunch of creepypasta, not a real crime investigation! And you shouldn't take it seriously if you want to have a career as a coroner. Soon this person will reveal his real identity and release a fiction book about this bullshit, and you'll feel stupid!
Fred: Look, there are photos of the death certificate too! The person behind this profile must be huge in the FBI…
Alice laughed, then looked at him seriously. Fred knew well what that laugh meant: it was time to stop being the real Fred, with an adventurous spirit and an obsession with strange subjects, and be the ideal Fred, serious, focused, standard and… not interesting. However, this time he didn't feel like contesting his fiancée's disdain. On the contrary, he found that laugh very timely to definitively end a kind of discussion he no longer wanted to have.
Fred: Yeah, I think you're right... sorry, honey, I'm freaking out… so much college stuff...
Alice May: Oh, honey, don't say that, no need to worry! You're doing great... and everything will be better when you start your internship. Believe me, you won't have time to think about anything else!
"I can't wait for that," he thought dejectedly, while he sighed and smiled resiliently.
Alice May: Now you need to rest. Come on, it's your birthday, I'm sure my parents will do something special for you during the day.
Alice returned to bed and invited her fiancé to join her. Fred obediently turned off the computer and walked towards the bed. Before putting his arms around her, he saw Shaggy's message on his cell phone screen: "Like, sure, man!"
Darrow University Campus, Crystal Cove, January 5, 2023.
3:50 am
Shaggy did something stupid in GTA V, and right after it, the message "Wasted" appeared on computer screen. He responded with a compound swear word and got up from his chair to get something to eat. His dog Scooby-Doo, a brown Great Dane, also got up and followed his owner, expecting to get some food. After a few minutes in the kitchen, Shaggy returned on a full stomach, and Scooby was chewing something. He sat down again in front of the computer and the dog climbed onto the bed, to the dismay of the other occupant who was sleeping peacefully in it: Velma. Annoyed, the girl angrily moved her legs to scare the dog and make him get out. Upset, Scooby made a crying noise and went to his own bed next to the window.
The bed was unoccupied, but something else irritated Velma and didn´t let her sleep: her boyfriend Norville's noisy game. She made some noises with her throat and faked some coughs to make him realize that he has bothering her, but he didn't care at all. Suddenly, something else irritated her: the sound of Norville's cell phone receiving messages from someone. It was the last straw.
Velma: Who the hell is texting you in the middle of the night?
Shaggy: Oh, like, Fred has invited us to explore tomorrow…
Velma: Us?
Shaggy: Yes, like, he´s invited you too… like, you can get some content for a new episode on your podcast…
Velma: How cute of him to think I'm interested... sorry, but I have lots of priorities before an amateur podcast…
Shaggy: Oh, come on, Velma, it'll be just like old high school days! We need to resurrect Mystery Inc.!
Velma: Like old high school days? It's almost 4 am, you have ketchup on your shirt, you´re playing games on your computer and your priority for a Thursday is taking photos of abandoned places to post on your secret YouTube channel... you´ve never left high school days, Norville…
Shaggy: Like, but I don't even have classes tomorrow! Why can´t I have some fun with my old friends?
Velma: History college has classes every day, Norville, and you have fun all the time...
Shaggy: Like, but it's an Ancient Egypt class, it's not so important! It happened, like, 5.000 years ago...
Velma: Actually, it happened 3.100 years ago...
Shaggy: …whatever! like, why should I care if no one from that time is alive?
Velma: Interesting point of view for a History student… anyway, my answer is no. I have to study for Lepkins trial on Tuesday, and abandoned places won't help me sustain my arguments…
Shaggy: Like, but abandoned places have a lot of history! See? Like, that's where a History student should be: where there is history!
Velma: And that's why you're going without me… send my regards to Fred and take your lazy dog with you...
Shaggy: Oh, come on, Vel! There might be something interesting for you too!
Velma: Like a trespassing crime and a vandalism lawsuit? No, thank you.
Shaggy: No, like a real crime! Fred wants to explore Mr. Arthur's abandoned house, because he thinks he's involved in Molly Becker´s case... like, you could make a chapter about this crime on your abandoned podcast…
Velma: Mr. Arthur? Our math teacher?
Shaggy: Yeah, like, True Crime Forum is saying that he sold pictures of Molly to the maniac of Redding…
Velma: Oh no, not True Crime Forum again, Norville! Will I have to make tin foil hats for you and Fred? These bastards do a real disservice to the courts and the forensics!
Shaggy: Like, but not for the community...
Velma: The community believes in anything they want… or better, in anything that suits them!
Shaggy: Like, the courts too…
Velma: Nice try, but this hint won't offend me...
Shaggy: Like, so I'll be more direct: YOU BELIEVE IN ANYTHING THAT SUITS YOU!
Norville raising his voice was a very rare phenomenon, so Velma knew that she had crossed a very dangerous boundary with her irony. She sighed and tried to think of something to apologize, but her ego insisted on formulating sentences to continue that discussion. Fortunately, Shaggy himself felt uncomfortable about losing his temper with his girlfriend, and quickly tried to fix what he had done.
Shaggy: Like, I'm sorry for that, but what I mean is: you were way more passionate about Law and Forensics when you were an amateur... like, when you were in high school, you wanted to solve mysteries, hunt psychopaths, help people... now that you you are a forensics graduate and a law student, seems like you…
He couldn't continue. He didn´t need to, since Velma understood the message quite well – after all, she herself felt it.
Velma: Look, dear, I agree with you, but I'm just being rational, ok?... this is dangerous, it may lead us to serious lawsuits and ruin our reputation... if police finds out, I´ll never be a judge…
Shaggy: Like, it's dangerous since high school and we never cared about it… not even about our reputation…
Velma: Maybe because we didn't have one?
Shaggy: Maybe because, like, we were so much happier…
Velma sighed. It was true. And because of that, a small smile appeared on her lips. Shaggy was happy to see the smile and continued.
Shaggy: Like, is that a yes?
Velma: That's an "I'll think about it". But just because Mr. Arthur was a strange man, with eugenicist ideas, who had a secret library in his house and invited child prodigies to visit it, so I think he's really a big suspect... there´s nothing to do with these stupid internet rumors…
Shaggy: It's not a rumor, cherryred profile posted it, so it's definitely true... like, this guy must be a secret FBI agent...
Velma: Another reason to trust my empirical convictions. This profile is hated in all law schools around the country, it has ruined the reputation of many judges and prosecutors... it is certainly a bored lawyer who decided to spread rumors to harm those who harmed him once... the law world is full of fragile egos like that…
Shaggy: Like, I realized…
Velma: Another nice try to offend me, but failed.
Shaggy: Like, but you're joining us, right? Like, think about your podcast!
Velma: Maybe I will… and forget about this podcast!
Shaggy: Like, think about Mystery Inc.´s YouTube channel! It's been a while since a new video was posted…
Velma: Maybe no one asked for a new video… who cares about abandoned places?
Shaggy: Like, then think about your passion for mysteries... I think it needs a new chance to be renewed.
Velma sighed and stared at Shaggy. He smiled caninely at her again.
Shaggy: Now it's finally a yes?
Velma: Now it's a "I´ll sleep and answer you tomorrow". Good night, Norville.