Daphne and Velma #2: The Dark Deception

“It’s the Burnetts!” I cried. “Or at least Taylor. It must’ve been her we saw in the Haunted Village! She left another ruby there to make us believe in the Lady Vampire. Think of all the ghost sightings this past week! It’s Taylor! She’s been dressing up and haunting the streets, just to cause chaos! And Noelle’s covering up for her! One or both of them clearly planted those jewels. It all makes sense, Velma.” My head spun as I ticked off the reasons one by one. “Taylor crafts a plan to get Shaggy’s attention and to make her mother famous by being quoted in the media. Jeepers, don’t you see? In fact, it’s possible Milford is in on it, too! He gets legitimacy by interviewing a jewelry expert. Her business grows every time one of the Howler’s posts about the Vanished or ghosts or whatever goes viral. And then Milford sells more papers. And Taylor gets the guy. Win-win-win.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Because it’s worth a lot of money! Because they can pretend to ‘find’ it and start a whole new news cycle, starring themselves! The reasons are practically endless.” I was so frustrated, so outraged, I wanted to throw something.

Velma nodded. “You’re probably right, Daphne. But what do we do now? We still don’t have proof. Some crushed costume jewelry on the floor of a jewelry shop? Your mom’s word against the expert jeweler’s? The police will just laugh at us. And I won’t let that happen. Not again.”

I paused, my thumb hovering over the Call button. I hated to admit it, but Velma was right. Two teenage girls trying to solve crimes? No one in Crystal Cove took us seriously. We knew that firsthand. We needed our case to be airtight.

While Velma watched, waiting for a response, I pulled up a new contact and tapped a few times. When I held my phone up to my ear, Velma’s eyes widened.

Ram answered right away, his greeting soft and welcoming, like he’d been waiting for me. It warmed me up inside. I didn’t dare look at Velma. I knew she’d be making a face, a classic Velma expression that would make me feel like an idiot, even though I knew I was doing the smart thing. We needed help, and we were out of time. The ability to delegate well was one of my best assets, and I was going to use it.

“Blake!” His tone was teasing, light. For a moment I wanted to escape into it, into him, as if I could reach through our phones, over the Wi-Fi waves connecting us, and just … be. “What’s up? Whose finances am I digging into this time?”

I laughed, feeling the heat of Velma’s glare and ignoring it just the same. I glanced at the piece of scrap paper I was holding in my hand, the one from a little notebook next to the cash register. “Not finances this time. Plastics.”

“Here’s the deal. The jewels were a diversion; the Crystal was always the target. In fact, we think the jewels are actually fake. And we’re pretty sure we have a lead on the company that produced them.”

“What?” Velma sidled up to me and snatched the paper from my hand. She’d been in the storage room when I’d first found it. I’d initially thought it was garbage; just a bunch of scribbled names that didn’t make much sense. My eyes had skated over the letters without really registering them. But something about the note bothered me. It was the last name on the list, I realized a few minutes after I’d put it back on the counter and moved on to searching the cabinet, its letters dancing behind my eyelids. I knew that name: Purple Sea Plastics. One of Mr. Rogers’ companies, its name an homage to the purple Crystal Cove Crystal.

“I’d call, but Velma and I need to get over to the Rogers house to make sure it’s safe. And then we need to find Noelle and Taylor. Can you call some plastics factories nearby and see what they can find out? Like if a local jewelry shop has placed any large orders recently?”

Through the phone, Ram whistled. “The jewels are fake? Milford is going to be so, so pissed. Yeah, give me the names. I can call around right away.”

I read him all the names, trying not to linger on the last one so as not to give him any hint that I had had a knee-jerk reaction to seeing a Rogers-owned brand on the list.

“As fast as you can,” I reminded him, thinking of Shaggy rushing to the Rogers house to protect it. Of the Burnetts, who were gone.

I lit up like a firework inside. It felt like now or never, like I needed to make a gesture of some kind to let him know where my head was at. I’d never asked out a guy before; they usually came to me. But Ram seemed to like it when I bossed him around.

My heart danced wildly in my chest. I ducked my head so Velma wouldn’t see my face flushed from hope, from embarrassment. “When this is all over, maybe we can … maybe we can see a movie or something?”

The line was quiet. The store was quiet. All I could hear was my heart throbbing and Velma’s quick breaths as she stood across from me, staring at me. I closed my eyes. Please, Ram, I wanted to add. Don’t leave me hanging like this. Not now.

I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. I almost laughed—Ram said yes! We were going on a proper date!—when I saw Velma and regained my cool. I cleared my throat.

“Now we find the Burnetts.” She sighed, a half smile curling up the side of her face. “And hopefully your lover boy finds some answers.”

Once again, I’d worn the wrong shoes for a ghost hunt. My boots pounded against the sidewalk as Velma and I jogged through the streets. The rain had stopped. As we ran, our feet kicked up splashes of puddles and debris, little twigs and leaves climbing up our legs. Velma dialed Shaggy and put him on speakerphone.

“Like, it’s all clear!” he said when he finally picked up. His voice was breathless, but it might’ve just been the speakerphone. “Nothing’s missing! I’m gonna head to the beach and see what’s up there.”

No sooner had we hung up with Shaggy on Velma’s phone than my phone rang, Ram’s name flashing across the screen. I answered it, realizing as I did that, with Shaggy’s intel, we no longer needed to hit up the Rogers place. Velma and I reversed course, taking a sharp turn back toward the beach. We really needed a vehicle, but I’d left my car at home. I briefly fantasized about reusing that old van we used as Mystery Inc. headquarters when we were kids.

“I got it,” he declared. I flipped Velma a thumbs-up and tapped the Speaker button as my heart soared. “Purple Sea Plastics confirmed they sold two separate shipments of a thousand fake gemstones over the past three weeks to a business in the town of Crystal Cove, though they refused to name the company, citing client confidentiality.”

“The police scanner just reported a suspicious figure at the Rogers place. I’m gonna head over there and see what I can find.”

We frowned at each other. “Shaggy just told us he’s home and everything’s fine.”

“Well, it sounded like they were taking it seriously. I figure enough reporters are down at the beach, so I’ll take the house and see if anything happens.”

“Sure. Oh, wait. I almost forgot.” I heard Ram flip through his notebook, the pages rustling over the phone. “Not sure if this helps you or not, but the guy I talked to at Purple Sea couldn’t confirm there was a Noelle or a Taylor involved at all. He says a man placed the order. Someone named Jack, no last name. Does that ring a bell?”

I felt my jaw loosen and drop. I met Velma’s eyes; her face held the same shocked expression as mine.

After a moment I realized Ram was waiting for a response. “Um, cool, thanks. Bye.” I hurriedly hung up.

We were mere blocks from the beach and in the far-off distance I could hear the hum of a crowd, the undercurrent of buzzing about whatever new jewels had washed ashore. Velma and I stared at each other. We’d come so far on this case, only to end up back at Jack. Shaggy’s mysterious cousin, who as far as we could tell had no reason at all to be placing an order for fake gemstones under the Burnetts’ orders.

“There are tons of people named Jack.” Velma broke the silence. Her face belied a skepticism her tone was hiding.

Still, we stood, unmoving, as the weight of the storm lingered in the air around us. My throat was tight, my stomach curdling. After a moment I realized what was setting my teeth on edge. “It will ruin Shaggy if his favorite cousin is somehow involved in this.”

Velma paused before nodding. Maybe, like me, she was afraid to talk. Like saying it out loud would make it true.

I allowed myself one minute, a single collection of sixty seconds, to worry about my friend. Shaggy, who only wanted good things in the world; who could never get his family to see him the way the rest of us did.

And then I exhaled, stiffened my spine, smoothed my hair, and grabbed Velma’s hand. “We should get to the beach.”

“Not the beach,” Velma said tightly. And it was something about the way she said it just then; it all clicked into place for me. Crystal Cove locals know about the way the tide pulls at the sea caves; how a kid’s toy bucket that’s dropped on one end of the caves winds up on the other side of the beach a few hours later. Those tides, that current, as predictable as the sunrise, as the weekend special at the diner.

It would be easy, I realized. Simple, really. For someone—a local—to pinpoint almost exactly where they needed to “drop” a bunch of items into the water on the north side of the caves in order to have them wash up on in a precise spot at the opposite end of the beach. To make the town gather, paving the way for a robbery that was so bold, so symbolic, it could shake Crystal Cove to its core.

The rain has let up, but the air is still heavy and thick with salt, with shame. She carries it with her, too. She always has. Her whole family has borne its weight for far too long.

Now they will be free of it. Now things will be as they should.

As she walks deeper, deeper than most have ever ventured, the sea caves slope upward and the sound of rushing waves heightens. How thick are these walls? she wonders. She reaches out to touch one—it is slimy, warm. She thinks she can hear it speak to her.

“Come,” it whispers. “Farther.”

She follows instructions well. Her arms ache. The Crystal is heavy now and growing warmer by the second. Its faint glow is the only light in the caves, and if she squints just the right way, she can believe it is guiding her forward, pointing a ray to the path it wants her to take.

Up, back, more. Beyond. The sea caves are endless. There is always another tunnel that breaks off into a few more, always another way forward.

She hears an unmistakable hiss: “Here.”

Her arms release the Crystal. She unwraps it carefully, lovingly. How honored is she to be the one who gets to do this. To right this wrong. How grateful her people will be.

“Are you sure?”

The unexpected voice makes her nearly drop the Crystal. That wouldn’t do. She tsks and ignores the question.

It is far too late for questions now.

Once unwrapped, she places the Crystal on the floor of the cave and pats some sand around it. To protect it. To welcome it home.

As if it understands, the ground heaves, as if breathing a sigh of relief.