26Disclaimer: I do not own Scooby-Doo or any of the characters.
Author's Note: Hey guys it's been a while. I'm genuinely sorry for the heinously long absence, I've had a lot go on in my life since I last updated this, not to mention the lack of feedback for this particular piece but I've received a couple of reviews and private messages urging me to continue this so here it is. I hope that there are still people out there who remember this and would like to read it. Thank you to everyone who stuck around, reviewed, favorited and/or followed; you guys are amazing!
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Fred's idea of a plan wasn't exactly what Shaggy would have called brilliant but it had gotten them out of the Turner house and no one seemed to have noticed their absence.
No one had come after them yet anyway.
He missed Scooby, though. And Daphne.
Scooby'd had to stay behind to distract Officer Richards in the event that he come and check on them and Fred's idea of splitting up to search the library had included splitting Daphne and Shaggy up as well.
He didn't like the library at night. It was dark and scary and Velma made him feel immature and stupid to be afraid. He hadn't known her very long but he felt as though Daphne would understand that someone had died here just a few nights ago. There was still police tape surrounding the building for goodness sake.
"Find anything?" He whispered uneasily, shooting a careful look over his shoulder.
Velma looked up from the side entrance of the library, a deep frown creasing her forehead. "If there was something here, the police probably found it. It looks like everything has been wiped clean."
Shaking his head he motioned in the direction of the front desk with his flashlight. "You think the others are having better luck?"
"We can only hope," she began with a defeated sigh. "At this rate we'll never clear our names."
A shudder wracked his form at that, causing the beam of his flashlight to tremble violently. He didn't like the sound of that one bit.
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Daphne sighed as Fred popped his head out from under Ms. Sikes' desk and shook his head.
"Nothing," he grumbled, crawling out and righting himself. "Not one single bit of evidence left by the killer."
Daphne shook her head and paced beside the desk for a moment before turning toward the blonde with serious eyes. "Maybe there's not any evidence left from the killer," she began slowly, as though working something out in her mind. "But maybe there's something in her desk that could give us a clue as to why she was killed."
Fred cocked a brow and rubbed at his chin absentmindedly. "Because right now there's no motive."
She nodded, gesturing widely with her flashlight. "Because who would kill a nice lady like Ms. Sikes? But her flashlight went missing sometime between Shaggy and I leaving to search for you and us coming back and finding her, which could only mean one thing: that someone used her flashlight to look for something and ended up taking it with them."
"Which would explain why we didn't see an extra light from the back of the library. The light was trained at the desk," he supplied helpfully as Daphne grinned, gaining momentum as they continued to bounce theories off one another.
"If we can find a motive, we can find out who did this."
"Daphne that's brilliant," a voice chimed in from behind them.
The redhead in question jumped and spun around, the beam of her flashlight settling on Velma and Shaggy.
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Shaggy sent Daphne a small smile as Velma stepped toward the desk, she and Fred taking the lead in their investigation. Yes he had sorely misjudged the pretty redhead, she seemingly had an amazing thought process.
"People usually keep important items close to them," the younger girl began, adjusting her glasses and starting for the top drawer on the right side of the desk as Fred went for the long, thin drawer in the center.
"They also usually favor their dominant side," Daphne added as the pair quickly ran through the center and right side drawers with no luck.
He nodded and moved the beam of his flashlight to the other side of the desk. "Like, Ms. Sikes was a lefty."
Velma nodded and slid into the rolling chair. Swiveling it around and reaching for the top drawer, she gave the handle a swift, fruitless tug. "It's locked."
He laughed nervously and turned as if to abandon the search and leave. "Well we gave it our best shot."
A hand shot out and grabbed his arm before he could even think about making for the exit.
"Not so fast," Daphne said, releasing him to dig around in her pocket. "If that drawer is still locked, it means that whoever killed her couldn't get in it either and, call me curious, but I'm not leaving until I find out what's in there."
Shaggy sighed as she pulled a hairpin from the pocket of her jeans and passed it to Fred, who immediately set to work on the locked drawer. Quicker than he thought possible, the lock released with a tiny, almost inaudible but none the less daunting, click.
The four stood there for a moment, eyeing each other uneasily, wondering who was going to do the honors of rifling through the secrets of a dead woman.
After a moment, Velma sighed and reached for the handle.
"Hard candy, chocolate," she began to list off absently. "A well worn copy of Fifty Shades..."
Daphne groaned and rubbed at her forehead with her free hand. "Oh Ms. Sikes, I expected much better from you."
He and Fred shared a quiet laugh that was cut short when Velma suddenly went still.
"Guys, I think I may have found something..." Her voice trailed off into the darkened library, filling the air with a tense silence as she pulled a slightly smaller-than-average leather book from the depths of Ms. Sikes' secret stash.
He opened his mouth to inquire after what she'd found, but Daphne's cool fingers covered his lips before he could speak. He shot her a questioning look from the corner of his eye but she wasn't paying any attention to him. Her pretty head was cocked to the side and she appeared to be straining to hear something.
Without warning, the beam from her flashlight disappeared and, taking her lead, the rest of them quickly flicked theirs off as well.
Just as he was beginning to think she was imagining things, a rattle was heard from the direction of the side entrance to the library, directly behind Ms. Sikes' desk. He could feel Daphne's hand on his mouth begin to shake and, from what he could see of the others in the moonlight streaming through the front windows, they seemed to be just as unsettled.
Shaggy moved first, grabbing the hand that still covered his mouth and using it to pull Daphne behind him as he made for the nearest row of shelves. Velma and Fred were only slightly slower as Fred dove in the opposite direction, taking refuge on the student end of the return counter while Velma quickly shut the drawer and slid from the librarian's chair, settling under the desk and pulling the chair forward to cover her hiding spot just as the side door opened.
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Acutely aware that, between her shallow breathing and Shaggy's almost violent trembling, they were making entirely too much noise and would surely be found out by whoever was entering the library, Daphne placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on Shaggy's arm. He squeezed the fingers of the hand he still held securely in his own in response but the comfort of knowing that he was there with her, and just as scared as she was, couldn't slow her heartbeat as a dark figure, cloaked in black, moved toward Ms. Sikes' desk.
And Velma.
Daphne usually wasn't much on prayer but this was far from usual and, at the moment, all she could do without blowing their cover was pray.
Pray that Velma wouldn't be discovered.
Pray that they wouldn't suffer the same fate as Ms. Sikes.
Because this was their killer. She was sure of it.
She couldn't see more than what the moonlight allowed but she knew for a fact that the figure moving toward the desk and plopping down in poor Ms. Sikes' chair to search through her belongings with a flashlight like they had every right, was definitely who they were looking for.
Shaggy's grip on her hand tightened and the muscles underneath the hand she'd laid on his arm twitched sporadically as the figure produced some small tool and moved toward the left-hand drawer. After a moment of fumbling with the tool, more than likely a lockpick, with seemingly no luck in unlocking the stubborn drawer, the figure tried the handle.
She waited with baited breath as their mysterious guest suddenly looked up at finding the drawer unlocked, scanning the library with his flashlight before looking back down and shuffling through the items in the desk.
As seconds ticked into minutes, the shuffling grew more frantic before the figure eventually slammed the drawer closed, obviously unhappy with what he'd found...
Or didn't find.
Pushing back from the desk, the figure stood, dropping the flashlight that had more than likely been forgotten over the displeasure at the contents of the drawer.
Daphne watched in horror as he bent to retrieve the runaway flashlight, coming much too close to Velma's hiding spot for comfort. She shared a brief look with Shaggy; they had to do something to distract him.
Without really thinking about it, she let out a low cough as soon as the figure touched the flashlight. Shaggy went completely rigid beside her, his grip on her fingers tightening to point of pain.
On the other side of the bookshelf, the figure straightened immediately, not even taking notice of the young freshman hiding under the desk. Back stiff, the figure swept the beam of the flashlight in a wide arc before taking a cautious step toward their own hiding place.
Backing away very slowly so as not to draw any attention, she pressed her elbow into Shaggy's side, a hint to get him to move with her. If they were careful enough, they might just be able to make it to the next isle without incident.
The figure stalking them had other plans.
Gaining confidence and speed in his pursuit, he began to close the distance between them much too quickly and Daphne was soon coming to the realization that they were going to be caught by this dangerous being.
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Shaggy's eyes squinted shut as the flashlight beam grew brighter. This was it, he just knew it. They were going to die on an empty stomach with dirty names and the whole town believing them to be murderers.
The sound of a chair rolling across the floor halted the menacing beam of light, dragging its attention from their hiding spot back to Ms. Sikes' desk.
He warily watched as the flashlight staggered between the end of the isle he and Daphne hid on and the still rolling chair as though unsure what the bigger threat was: the cough or the chair.
The choice was made for him as a loud knock echoed through the spacious room from the return counter.
Shaggy took advantage of the confusion of a potential third threat and pulled Daphne with him to the next isle before throwing his voice to let out a cough that seemed to come from near the front entrance to the library. Seemingly catching onto his game, Daphne picked up a book and threw it a little ways down the isle.
Though he couldn't see the figure from his new hiding spot, Shaggy could only imagine his state of mind at being alone in the library at night and hearing so many noises from so many directions.
After another knock from Fred and a bump from Velma, the only sound to be heard was that of hurried, retreating footsteps. He chanced a peek around the corner of the isle just in time to see the side door open and the figure run out before the door slammed shut, once again leaving them alone.
Somehow they'd dodged a bullet, emerging on the other side surprisingly unscathed and Shaggy didn't even want to think about just how close they'd come to getting caught.
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