The Great Mystery Of Darwin Doore

09:"he's like our velma"

chapter nine:
"he's like our velma"
***

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"No. Would you like me to say it in Spanish? Nõ."

Quinn narrows her eyes at me. I'm tempted to take a step back, but since she is a foot shorter than me, I'm not very intimidated. She couldn't have waited till tomorrow? I was kind of in a certain situation that I would be perfectly okay with going back to. "Paige Vermillia Smith, I need your help solving this mystery and you're just going to say no?"

I nodded and shrugged my shoulders. I didn't want to get caught up in this investigation crap. Stapling papers to a desk is enough excitement for me for a whole year.

"Maybe you should help her," says Roman. I turn to face him and he scratches the back of his head. If looks could kill, he would have been dead a while ago. "I mean, this guy, I think he deserves some kind of closure."

I roll my eyes when Quinn says, "Would you look at that? Your boyfriend agrees with me." Both Roman and I protest at the same time and she laughs. "I was kidding, but seriously, Paige. Come on. It's just a bit of sleuthing around to look for some answers. I'm curious and I know you are, too."

"Curiosity killed the cat," I say as I link my pinky in Roman's belt loop. It's something I always do. I don't know why, but it brings me comfort and he doesn't ever protest. Maybe, he never wanted to. This thought makes me shiver.

"But satisfaction brought it back," she says, looking down at my hand. "Look, if we don't find something more useful by Tuesday, then you and Roman can forget about it, but if we do find something, then maybe we can find out what happened."

I sigh. "Something tells me you're going to find exactly what you're looking for before that time."

"Yup!"

Roman steps forward. "So we might as well get a guy with the munchies and a talking dog and we'll be the mystery gang."

"We are not the mystery gang!" I breath out, slapping my forehead with my hand.

"Aw, but we need someone nerdy and we can use that German Shepard or even the gremlin cat to shake things up. Please, Paigey," sang Quinn.

"Fine," I snap and Roman hugs me. He lifts me up into the air and then I realize how close we are like face wise again. He abruptly sets me down and we both step away from each other awkwardly. "So who exactly do you have in mind for our nerd?"

"Well, his name is Aiden."

***

"What?"

Aiden looks at Quinn like she is crazy. Undoubtably, she is, but his reaction is toward her question. We decided to wait till Monday so Quinn could find her Shaggy at school, and we caught him at the library. "I need you to look for heroine overdoses in the surrounding area of Garfield Community College. It isn't really that difficult."

His dark eyebrows lower over his eyes and his glasses slide down his nose a bit. "Why exactly do you need me to look this up? There is such a thing as Google."

I roll my eyes and say, "Because we don't need an automated machine to tell us. We need someone who is good with computers who can give us the full story, not one the whole world wants us to see instead. Can you do that?"

Aiden narrows his eyes at me, glances at Roman and Quinn, and turns around to open his laptop. His fingers start flying over the keys rapidly. I can't keep up with all the words he is typing in. About two feet away, since we are in the library, a printer starts letting paper fall out.

Roman goes and picks up the papers. They have graphs and police reports. "There. That's what you're looking for."

"Dang, you must be pretty popular during projects," says Quinn, looking over a report about a senior in college. "And you're cute."

Aiden blushes at her words and starts to pack up his stuff. "Hey, where are you going?" asks Roman grabbing another paper that fell out of the printer.

"Um, I'm going home?"

"No, you're not. You're our Shaggy."

"Technically he's like our Velma."

"Your what?"

I sigh. "Long story, but at the moment, it's best if you just go with the flow."

He stands up. "What the he-"

"Hey!" I cut him off. "There will be no cussing as long as I am around. We need your help figuring out what happened to our neighbour since you seem to be the only one who is good with electronics and actually has half the sense you were born with. I don't care if you think this is stupid because trust me, I'm way ahead of you, but we just need your help for a bit, okay?"

Everyone seems shocked by my outburst. I am just overwhelmed with the thought that my neighbour is most likely dead and I might like Roman even though I vowed that I wouldn't when he (unknowingly) broke my heart when he dated Kylie. Everything is just so aggravating and complicated.

He sits down in the wooden library chair and pops open his laptop again and starts typing. "What did you say your neighbour's name was?"

"I didn't, but it's Darwin Doore. With an 'e' at the end of Doore."

Aiden keeps typing and more papers spill out of the printer. When they finally stop, he turns towards Quinn with a small smile. "That's everything the whole entire internet has on Mr. Doore."

"Does this mean you're in?" asks Quinn, popping her hip.

"Well, I want to be Forensic Pathologist and solving whatever this is will be a good thing to put on my resumé," he replies and Quinn rushes over to hug him from the side. He blushes and his eyes widen. Is that what I look like when I get hugged? She finally lets go and he straightens his glasses. "So now that we have the information, what do we do now?"

Quinn looks at me and smiles deviously. "Ryan's party got floated to tonight."

"No," I say, shaking my head. "I do not party."

She rolls her eyes, still smiling. "You do now."

_________
Hey guys! We just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this book.

We know it's a little odd and maybe a bit too sarcastic, but we are (1) working on it and (2) still getting into the beginning of the mystery.
Sorry for all the Scooby-Doo stuff.

-River and Captain