Chapter 6

Brad said, "Easy, I disguised myself as the janitor." Judy said, "I fooled the lunch lady with a movie projector." Shirley said, "I fooled the gym teacher by making a shadow of my car with my hands." Cassidy said, "I tricked the librarian by closing the doors with invisible wires and knocking over the shelves." Ricky said, "And Jake and I fooled the music teacher by setting a timer on the piano so it would play when the timer ran out." Brad said, "But how did all this happen, and what were they after anyway?" Cassidy said, "Simple, this mystery doesn't have a culprit; it has a conspiracy. And maybe if we remove these costumes, we'll find out who's behind this."

Cassidy removed the music teacher's hat and wig, and The Clue Crackers recognized him when she did. The Clue Crackers all said, "John!" Cassidy said, "Yes, John. One of the aliens we faced in Kansas who tried to find oil and sell it for a profit with his girlfriend, Clara." Cassidy took off the lunch lady's head, and Shirley recognized her. Shirley said, "Sherry!" Judy said, "You know her?" Shirley said, "She pretended to be a real detective, set up her crime for herself to solve, and kidnapped herself, but I stopped her before she got away with it." Cassidy took off the gym teacher's face, and Shirley recognized him. Shirley said, "Rex!" Ricky said, "Him too?" Shirley said, "He used me to throw me off his trail, and he pretended to be in love with me while he used all my past villains, including Sherry, to put on a circus and profit off crime. He used hypnosis belts he invented to hypnotize my past foes into forgetting me and thinking they're circus performers, but I fought all of them again and saved them before Rex could get away with his plan." Cassidy said, "That means this is no librarian." Cassidy removed the librarian's head, and The Clue Crackers recognized her. The Clue Crackers all said, "Lydia!" Ricky said, "Lydia. You helped Hazel pull off her lake monster scheme." Brad said, "Who knew there'd be a conspiracy to destroy us?" Sherry said, "Are you kidding? Everyone you ever busted wants revenge." Lydia said, "We found each other on the anti-detective network. You wouldn't believe how many hits it gets daily." Judy took out her phone and looked up the anti-detective network and found pictures of them, Shirley, and other detectives with red lines through them. Rex said, "Then we devised this plan to destroy you guys forever." Brad said, "But how'd they pull all this off?" Cassidy said, "Simple."

Cassidy started to explain the villains' plan and how it happened. Cassidy said, "First, the villains invited us over to decorate the school for Christmas. Knowing how well we were, they knew we wouldn't refuse. Once we arrived, Sherry flew down on a hovercraft, kidnapped Judy, and took her to the ice palace. They used her as the bait to bring Shirley into the picture because they knew we would need a fifth member. Once we started the mystery, they took the liberty of adding the tree monster. They kept switching back and forth to throw the trail off themselves. They also dressed up as mysterious figures who were always out to get us. The next victim was Shirley. Lydia used the explosives and dynamite to blow up her car. And Sherry used a fishing line to steal her backpack while investigating. And when we came back to the school to investigate, I dropped my glasses. Once I did, Steve replaced my real glasses with fake ones that would give me clues and make me see things only I could see. That way, it would look like I was crazy. Brad then went undercover as a gym teacher and met up with Rex in disguise. Rex then put a special pin on him and used a remote control disguised as a pager to control Brad's emotions. Once Shirley found those notes in the basement, she thought she recognized the handwriting because it was Rex's." Shirley snapped her fingers and said, "That's why I recognized that handwriting and the data. It was the same handwriting and data I saw on the blueprints of Rex's hypnosis belts. Rex must have invented Brad's pin and changed the data on one of his hypnosis belts to change what it does. That's why Ricky did a bunch of random things." Shirley reached into Rex's pocket and found a remote. Shirley said, "He used this remote to make Ricky obey, become brave and afraid, change his emotions, and make him do things he wouldn't rely on. That means Rex was dressed as the tree monster because he used related belts on my past villains to hypnotize them when he did his crime." Brad said, "And Sherry was probably dressed as the mysterious figure when we ran into the basement." Ricky said, "And before we all returned to normal and got our stuff back, they planted explosives in the ice castle because they knew we would find Judy there." Cassidy said, "And once we got inside and freed Judy, they hit the button and were hoping to blow us up with the castle like they did with Shirley's car with all the dynamite and explosives we found." Lydia said, "We would have destroyed all you meddling kids." Sherry said, "If it wasn't for you meddling kids." Then, the police handcuffed all four of them and took them back to jail.

Shirley and The Clue Crackers celebrated Christmas together at their hotel the next day. Shirley said, "Well, the villains are defeated, and we're having a Merry Christmas." Cassidy said, "By the way, we have a surprise for you." The Clue Crackers took Shirley outside, and she saw two cars outside. One was a van with their group name on it, and the other was a car that looked just like Shirley's car, which exploded. Shirley said, "You guys replaced my car and got your own?" Judy said, "It's the least we can do after all you did to help." Shirley said, "Thank you. Maybe we'll cross paths again someday." Brad said, "Maybe. But until then, let's all have a Merry Christmas." Shirley laughed, and then all six held hands and sang around a Christmas tree that Jake was standing in front of.

The End