Haven’t Got A Clue
By: Salt*N*Pepper

Chapter 3

"It’s coming from the Billiard Room!" Gary cried. They quickly ran toward the room, finding Maid Joy, sitting on the pool table, looking very pale.

Brock rushed up to her.

"What happened?!?! Are you okay??!!?" he asked.

"I’m fine…" she replied. "It’s just that I was listening in on the monitor and I heard all these murders going on and I got scared…so I screamed…"

"It’s okay now, I’m here…" Brock said.

"What are we going to do?!" Misty said holding the side of her face. Small tears began to form at the base of her blue-green eyes.

"I – I can’t believe they’re dead!" Ash stared off solemnly into space, the corner of his mouth slightly twitching as the bloody image of Mr. Mime kept repeating itself in his mind.

Jesse, James and Meowth looked at each other worriedly.

"Alright, everyone, we have to stay calm…." Gary said, despite his own voice was quivering.

"Stay calm!?" Misty glared at him angrily. "You’re the one who got us into this mess!"

"Listen, if we just take the bodies and put them into the living room, we can figure things out from there, okay?" Gary replied, heading toward the kitchen.

Minutes later Gary, Ash, Brock, Misty, Team Rocket, and Maid Joy were carrying the dead body of Mr. Mime into the living room. Brock suddenly stopped.

"Where’s Professor Oak?!" he shouted. Everyone dropped Mr. Mime’s body, hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"Oh, my God!" Misty shrieked. "He-he’s gone!" The body was nowhere to be found.

"But that’s crazy! How can a dead body move!?" Gary cried.

Jesse and James grabbed each other in a tight fear-hug.

"I’m scared!" James screamed.

“Me too!" Jesse replied.

"No…" Brock said calmly. "He has to still be alive…"

"This is too much…" Ash thought to himself. He suddenly clutched his stomach and doubled over.

"Ash, what’s wrong!?" Misty cried.

Ash spun around, knocking Pikachu off his shoulder and raced to the bathroom. He stood over the toilet until he was finished being sick. Ash wiped his eyes and turned on the sink. He washed his face and mouth, then looked up at himself in the mirror.

"This- this can’t be happening…" he said aloud.

"What the hell is going on?!" Ash’s face softened and he let out a small whimper.

"Where are you, mom…" he sobbed. Suddenly Ash frowned."This is all Gary’s fault!" he cried angrily. Ash grabbed the bathroom doorknob and jerked opened the door.

In front of him was Professor Oak, lying dead once again.

Ash’s face turned a deadly pale as he saw the heap of lab coat and Oak’s dead figure sprawled out on the floor, his head open and bleeding. Ash screamed and screamed until he thought his throat would explode. Downstairs, everyone heard the screams.

"It’s Ash! I knew we should have gone with him!" Misty cried. They raced upstairs, and stopped short when they saw the scene. Ash was still screaming as he covered his eyes, and sank to the floor.

"It’s the body!" James yelled. "But how did it get all the way up here?"

Jesse opened her mouth to answer but found her self lost for words.

"Ash are you okay?!" Misty said, crouching down next to him.
"Just don’t look and everything will be fine…just don’t look…" Misty said quietly as she helped led Ash out of the corner, and away from the body.

Maid Joy looked down at Oak’s head wound.

"He was hit by something…hard," she said examining it.

"But I thought he was already dead!" Gary cried.

"He couldn’t of been…dead bodies can’t walk upstairs…he must have been just knocked out before…" Brock replied.

"Well then how come I didn’t hear a heartbeat?!" Gary demanded.

Brock shook his head.

"I don’t know…"

Suddenly a large object fell from above and hit James on the head.

"Ouch!" he cried, as he fell to the floor.

"James?!" Are you okay?!" Jesse cried.

"Yes, I’m all right, but it wasn’t very nice of someone to put this candle stick above the door where it would fall on someone…"

Everyone stared at James.

"Candle stick?! I thought you had the candle stick Jesse…" Brock said glaring at her. "Look who’s the killer now…"

"What?! That’s crazy, why would I kill him?!" Jesse yelled. "James, tell them it wasn’t me!"

"Jesse was with us the whole time! Someone must of taken it from her and used it to kill Oak!" James nodded.

"But I don’t understand!" Gary cried. "Why would anyone want to kill my grandpa?!" he covered up a small sob.

"Are you okay now Ash?" Brock said, as he saw Misty helping him up.

"Yea, I guess so…" he replied.

"Okay, I think we should get the body downstairs…" Gary said to Maid Joy.

"Right!" she replied. Ash watched as they dragged the body back into the living room.

"That must have been some scare for you, huh Ash?" Misty asked softly.

"I don’t understand it…" Ash replied. "Gary’s Grandpa just died…. and Gary seems so calm about it!"

"I don’t understand it either, but if we just calm down, I think we can figure out what’s going on…" Brock said. "Let’s go to the living room, that’s where everything started right? We can go from there…"

Misty, Ash and Team Rocket followed Brock back into the living room, stepping over the two bodies to get to the couches.

Gary took a deep breath. "All right, what are we going to do?" he asked.
Suddenly the doorbell rang.

"Mom?!" Ash cried excitingly.

"No, stay here!" Gary said sharply.

"Not on your life!" Ash cried. They both raced to the door, everyone following after them. Gary opened the door.

A man in his thirties stood there.

"Oh, my! Hello! My car got stuck because of the storm, the roads are pretty bad, and I was wondering if I could use your phone…" He stopped and looked around at everyone. "Uh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything…"

"No not at all!" Gary said, quickly pulling the man inside. "Why don’t you use the phone in the living room…" Gary suddenly remembered the bodies. "Ah! I mean the study, yes, Maid Joy will show you where that is, won’t you Maid Joy…"

Joy nodded, while Gary sweat-dropped noticeably. Joy led him down the hall and to the study.

"Here you go…" she said, opening the door. "Take your time." Maid Joy locked the study door and handed Gary the key.

"He won’t be coming out for a while…." She said, smiling sweetly.

"So wait, you’re just going to lock him in there?!" Jesse cried.

"Well what else can we do?! We can’t let him see those bodies!" Gary replied. "He might get suspicious!"

"Oh but locking him in a room will seem perfectly normal!" Ash said sarcastically. "Just like how you seem to be normal after your grandfather just died!"

Gary stared at Ash, his face not even two inches away from his own.

"The man tried to kill me, maybe I’m just glad I’m not the one dead…" he whispered.

Ash opened his mouth to say something back, but he was lost for words.

"Now someone in here is using the weapons my grandpa gave you, to kill other people! I’m going to put a stop to this once and for all!" Gary opened up a cabinet and put the candlestick and the knife found at the murder scenes inside of it.

"Everyone, dispose of your weapons here…"

Brock placed his gun inside, while Misty gave up her lead pipe. Ash pulled out his wrench and placed it inside, and James threw his rope in too. Gary locked the cabinet and placed the key in his pocket.

"Wait a minute Gary!" Ash cried. "We can’t get to the weapons, but you can, you have the key!"

"Fine! If you don’t trust me, the how’s this for honesty!" Gary flung open the front door that threw the key as far as he could outside into the storm. "Now, no one should be able to kill again."

"Well what should we do now?" Misty asked.

"I think we should break off into groups." Gary replied. "To search for any clues of course…"

"Clues for what?!" Ash screeched.

"The killer!" Gary shot back.

"I don’t trust you one bit, Gary Oak…I’m not taking my eyes off you for a second! Come on Pikachu, let’s go, we’re with Gary!" Ash said.

"Well I’m not being with a twerp so me and James will go together," Jesse said.

James nodded.

"I’ll be with Nurse-I mean Maid Joy…" Brock said, going into his trance again.

"Oh no you’re not, you’re coming with me!’ Misty said, grabbing him by the ear.

"I guess that leaves me with Meowth," Maid Joy said.

"Too bad youse don’t have any Pokémon I can steal from ya," Meowth replied.

"Brock and Misty, take the first floor, Jesse and James, you guys take the second floor okay? Maid Joy and Meowth, you take the basement, while Ash and I check out the attic." Gary said.

Everyone agreed and set off in different directions. Ash and Gary headed up to the attic. The silence and tension between the two was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

"Gary…" Ash said after a while.

"Yea, what is it?" he replied.

"What’s going on, why did Professor Oak go crazy and hand us all that stuff? And who’s doing the killing? And why are you blackmailing us?!" he asked extremely fast.

"Ash, slow down!" Gary said turning to face him. "I don’t know! Okay! I have absolutely no idea what is going on! All I know is that I’m out of a grandfather and your mom is out of a Mr. Mime."

"What will she say…" Ash looked down sadly. "She’s going to come here and find out that they’re…" he quickly wiped his eyes. "And I haven’t even seen her yet! How could buying a bottle of stupid champagne take so long!"

"She probably just got delayed by the storm – it’s pretty bad you know," Gary replied. Ash suddenly glared at him.

"You still haven’t told me why you’re blackmailing us."

Gary sighed. "To get you out of the way. Ever since you won in the top sixteen I knew that you’d always be better than me, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I trained, you’d always come out on top."

Ash stood there speechless.

"What?! Gary are you feeling all right?" Ash cried.

"I’m fine! I just thought that by exposing you and your friends you would have to stop training and I would be Pallet town’s greatest."

Silence came again as the two searched the dusty attic.

"Gary…you know Pokémon is my life, and that nothing you can do will stop me from loving it," Ash said quietly.

"I know, and that’s why I’m sorry I had this party. I told your mom it was just a fancy thing we were having tonight, but meanwhile I was really planning to tell all of you the bad news. She insisted on getting champagne for this "special occasion" and left moments before you came. Everything was going smoothly until my gramps went wacko and gave you guys all that stuff…I would never have done anything like this if I knew it would end up with people getting killed. Someone in this house is the murderer and I’m going to find him!"

Ash looked at Gary.

"Aren’t you…scared?" he asked.

"Extremely…" Gary replied.

Ash stared at him.

"Look, I think we can get through this together, just because we’re rivals, doesn’t mean we can’t be friends…" he said.

Gary smiled. "All right…. for now."

      Meanwhile Jesse and James were searching the second floor for clues.

"So who do you think could have done this?" Jesse asked as she opened a door.

"I don’t know, I never knew one of the twerps had murdering in them!" James replied searching under the rug.

"It can’t be one of them…someone else has got to be in the house," Jesse said.

James looked at her.

"I wish we never came to this party." He moaned. "You know, that’s the first time I ever saw a real live dead body," said James.

Jesse laughed at him.

James got angry.

"I don’t think this funny!! I’m petrified! What if he takes me next!?" He paused and his face softened. "Or worse, what if he takes you?"

Jesse looked shocked and just stared at James for a moment.

"If anything happened to you Jesse…" James trailed off.

Jesse blinked.

"I didn’t know you cared so much…in fact, I don’t know why you care at all…I’m so mean and nasty I don’t deserve to be cared about…" she replied. "And that’s why, like everyone else, you shouldn’t be concerned about me either." Jesse turned her back towards him.

James stood up suddenly.

"But I am! I don’t care what anyone else thinks about you! It’s just that…well, we’ve been friends for most of our lives and to lose you, my best friend, is like a death in itself. I can’t help it, even if no one else does I just…have to care about you," he replied.

More silence.

"You’re stupid for caring…" Jesse finally said.

James took a step back, feeling hurt.

"Well then, I guess I am…" he said angrily.

Jesse still had her back turned to him, and said nothing. James sighed and turned back around, continuing looking under the rug, and through various doors. Suddenly his eyes grew wide and his shoulders tingled slightly as he felt Jesse bring her arms around him, embracing him tightly.

"Thank-you…" she whispered.

On the first floor, Misty walked silently next to Brock.

"I can’t believe Gary has the nerve to do this to us!" she suddenly shouted. "If it weren’t for him, we’d probably be at Ash’s house right now, not even imagining people just dropping dead like that!"

Brock turned to her.

"Well if we don’t stay calm, we’ll never get out of this mess!" he said.

"It’s Gary’s mess! Let him clean it up!" Misty shouted angrily. " Why do we have to be apart of this?! I hate it! I hate it I hate it!!"

Her yelling eventually turned into sobs. "Why did Ash have to come home now… why couldn’t we just have stayed in Johto, where people don’t get murdered?! And how am I supposed to give up my training so I don’t get black mailed!"
Misty covered her face in her hands. "I just want to get out of here…"she whispered.

Brock sighed. He took Misty’s hands and pulled them away from her face.

"Listen to me Misty, if you don’t keep calm, you’re not going to be able to think straight…. calm down and try not to think about what’s happened before! Focus on figuring this thing out and getting out of here! If you can do that, then half the battle is already won…"

Misty sniffed and looked at him.

"You think…I can do it?" she asked, her eyes watery from tears.

"I know you can do it, you’re a strong person, Misty, and so is Ash…I’ve seen the way both of you have handled situations in the past, so this should be no problem!" Brock smiled.

Misty looked down.

"Do you think Ash is okay? I know this is probably the hardest on him…"

Brock smiled and picked her chin up.

"I’m sure he’s fine, and you should be too."

Misty finally smiled.

"Okay Brock…" she said moving away from him. "I-I’m good…"

Brock grabbed her wrist.

"You’re sure…" he said, looking straight into her eyes.

"Yes, yes, I’m calm now…" Misty replied. "Thank-you."

Brock let go of her and smiled mischievously.

"Because, you know if you’re not…" he leaned against a door. "You could always find comfort in – whoa!!!!"

The door Brock was leaning on swung open, resulting in Brock flying through a passageway.

"Brock!" Misty shouted.

"I’m okay, I’m okay…" He said, rubbing his bottom. "But look…I think we found a secret passage way!"

"I guess we’ll have to see where it leads huh?" Misty asked, helping him up. Brock and Misty walked through a dark hallway until they reached a small white door.

"Open it…" Misty whispered to Brock. He turned the handle and almost immediately lights shone in the hallway.

"It’s the kitchen!" he cried.

"So the passage we found in the Living room, leads to…the kitchen?!" Misty asked, surprised. "I wonder if they even knew about this."

"And look at this!" Brock suddenly cried. Behind a cabinet was another small white door.

"Another passage?!" Misty cried.

"Whoever is the murderer, must have been using these passage ways to get throughout the house without being seen!" Brock said pointing to the door. "This door is slightly opened and look, there’s no dust on the doorknob! That means someone had to use it recently!"

Misty frowned.

"Then I’m not going in that one!" she said.

"Why don’t you eat something while I’m gone then?" Brock suggested as he disappeared through the door.

"Fine, that’s just what I’ll do!" Misty yelled. She looked over at the freezer, remembering the lifeless body of Mr. Mime falling out of it, the knife in its back glistening under the lights.

"On second thought I’d rather go with you!" she cried, making a dash for the passage door.

In the dark, she slammed into Brock.

"Sounds like someone got a little scared back there," he snickered.

Misty hit him.

"Just keep on walking," she muttered.

"Look!" Brock said. "Another door!" He carefully opened it and peeked his head out. "It’s the library…" he whispered.

Misty pushed him aside to look through herself.

"I’m not going in there!" she said stubbornly. "Libraries are scary!"

Misty turned around. Brock was gone. "Brock! Brock where are you?!" she cried in a high pitched voice.

"Right here!" Brock replied. "You won’t believe this but…I found another door!" he said, almost excitingly.

Misty glared at him.

"Don’t do that!" she growled. Brock smiled apologetically and led her to the second door. He turned the knob.

"Looks like this one is to the billiard room…" he said. Brock was just about to close the door when all of a sudden he spotted something in the room. "I don’t believe this…yet another door!!!!"

He ran over to it and yanked it open. Misty followed close behind him.

"This is kinda awesome!" Brock gushed. "I wish I had all these passage ways in my house!"

Misty just rolled her eyes as the two stepped inside.

This place…it looks just like the library!" Misty said, surprised.

"It does, but it’s not. This is the study," Brock said, walking over to a desk. "This is probably where Professor Oak did his most profound thinking," he replied.

Misty sighed. "Well I think it’s time we start heading towards the others…there’s nothing in here." She turned to leave, when suddenly she tripped on a telephone cord.

"Ouch!" she cried as she hit the wooden floor. "Look at all this crap! Joy should really stick to being a nurse," Misty muttered. Suddenly she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

"Oh it’s okay Brock, I’m fine…" she said.

Brock looked up from behind the desk on the other side of the study.

"What’s fine?" he asked.

Misty turned white as she slowly turned around. Behind her was the man who has asked to use the phone earlier before, a bloody wrench protruding out of his head, his limp arm still hanging around her shoulder. A purple fear line streaked across Misty’s face and she grew even paler.

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!" Misty continued to scream louder and louder.

Ash and Gary heard her cries from the attic, and came racing down the stairs, crashing into Jesse and James on the second floor.

"What’s going on!?” Jesse cried. "Where are those screams coming from?!"

"It’s Misty!" Ash yelled. "She’s in trouble!"

He ran down the stairs, skipping three to four steps at a time, Pikachu racing at his heels. Gary, Jesse and James followed close behind. Ash stopped short as he came to the study door on the first floor. Maid Joy and Meowth came running from the basement, nearly crashing into him. Ash and Gary ran up to the door.

"Let us in, let us in, let us in!" they cried.

Misty and Brock pounded furiously on the other side of the locked study door.

"Let us out, let us out, let us out!" they screamed.

James suddenly felt brave and ran to try to knock down the door, but just ended falling backwards on his ass.

Maid Joy ran to the cabinet, and grabbed the lead pipe.

"Stand back!" she shouted.

She knocked the lock off with the pipe, and Misty and Brock came flying out. Misty fell into Ash’s arms, continuously screaming and crying. Ash took a step back, allowing her to fall to the floor.

"Misty! Misty, what happened?!" he cried, shaking her.

"In the study…. he asked to use the phone…Ash he had your weapon!" Misty let go of Ash, and pointed to the study.

"Brock, take her!" Ash shouted. Brock grabbed Misty as Ash went into the study with Gary to look at the body.

"The wrench…" Ash whispered. "Gary – you said you had all the weapons locked up!"

"I did!" Gary screamed. "You even saw me throw the key out the door!"

"Well then how was Joy able to get the lead pipe to open the door?!" Ash screamed back.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Gary ran to go answer it. He opened the door, and there stood Officer Jenny.

"Officer Jenny!" Gary cried. "What a...pleasant surprise!"

Jesse’s eyes widened as she saw Jenny.

"We have to close the doors!" Jesse hissed to Misty.

Misty nodded and got up to close the study door, while Jesse slammed shut the living room doors.

Officer Jenny looked passed Gary. "I heard some screaming before, what’s going on?" she asked.

"Oh, I’m just having a crazy party!" Gary answered quickly.

"I see…well do you mind if I use you’re phone? My motorcycle got a flat tire, and I’m stuck…"

Gary smiled.

"Oh! Why don’t you use the one in the Living room….uh, I mean study…wait no! I think the library’s free…." Gary sweat dropped noticeably.

"The library? Okay…" Jenny replied.

"Ash, why don’t you show Officer Jenny here to the library?" Gary asked, forcing a smile.

“Okay, it’s this way…" Ash said to her looking down. Ash brought Jenny to the library, and pointed to the phone. "There."

"Thank you Ash!" she said pleasantly.

Once she was inside the room Gary ran to the door and locked it.

"What are you doing?!" Ash cried.

"I have to, Ash, we can’t let her see what’s really going on!" Gary replied. He turned toward the others. "Go and hide the bodies, now!"

They eagerly nodded their heads. Jesse, James and Meowth ran into the living room, while Brock and Misty headed for the study. Gary faced Ash and was about to say something when all of a sudden he heard the phone ring. Officer Jenny picked it up and there was silence for a moment before she called,

"Gary, it’s for you!"

Gary unlocked the door and stepped inside.

"I’ll take it, thank-you," he said to her. Jenny walked out into the hallway and shut the library door behind her to give Gary some privacy.

"Ash, do you mind if I take a look around?" she asked, turning towards him.

"Yes, I mean, no…well yes if you really want to…." Ash stuttered.

"Great! I just want to make sure everything is legal at this party…you know what I mean." Jenny replied narrowing her eyes at him. Ash looked down, making sure his hair covered his eyes.

"Yes, of course.  I don’t think you’ll need to worry. Why don’t I show you the…um…uh…." Ash desperately searched his mind for a room that didn’t contain a body.

"Well it looks like to me the party is in the living room…" Jenny interrupted.

It wasn’t until now that Ash heard music blasting from inside the room.

That’s right! Gary told everyone to hide the bodies! I can show her the living room!  Ash thought.

"Oh, yea! Um, I forgot…heh heh, the party is in here!" Ash silently prayed everything would be all right as he turned the doorknob. He opened the door, and his eyes grew wide.

There on the living room couch, Jesse was sitting next to Professor Oak, pretending to be in an intimate conversation with him. She moved her head close to his face making sure her red hair covered his dead expression. On the other side, Meowth was pleasantly conversing with Mr. Mime, who dangled it's arms and legs wildly in quick motions thanks to James (from behind a curtain).

"Mr. Mime! Mr. Mime! I’m Mr. Mime!" James said, making the lifeless body dance.

"Well, it seems everyone’s having a good time in here…" Jenny said.

"Yup!" Ash replied.

Suddenly music started in the study.

"Is there another little party in there?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, uh…maybe…" Ash said, beginning to silently pray again.

Inside, Brock poured alcohol on the lips of the man who used the telephone, and put a hat low down over his eyes. He jumped onto the couch next to where Misty was laying and ruffled up her hair and his own.

Just then Ash opened the door.

Jenny walked in and up to the man.

"Is he okay?" she asked Brock, who was causally lying on top of Misty. He quickly got up, pretending to be embarrassed.

"Oh, yea, he’s just drunk!" Brock said.

Jenny sniffed.

"Oh you’re right! He’s dead drunk!"

Brock gave Ash a half-smile at Jenny’s not intended pun.

"You two won’t let him drive home tonight, will you?" Jenny asked.

"No, we’re all sleeping over…" Misty replied, pulling Brock down next to her.

"Okay good, I’ll leave you two alone now…" she said, closing the door.

"Well Ash, I guess they’re really isn’t anything wrong here…but why do you look so upset?" Jenny asked him.

Ash nervously wrung his hands.

"It’s just that…" he started. Suddenly Gary opened the Library doors, holding the phone.

"Officer Jenny, the police station called back," he said, handing her the phone.
Jenny walked in the library, and Gary shut the doors and locked them again.

"Why are you doing this?!" Ash asked. "Maybe she can help us!"

"What are you, crazy!?" Gary hissed. "The last thing we need is an outsider! Look what happened to the guy who needed the phone!"

Brock and Misty walked out of the study, and met Ash and Gary in the hallway.

"Let’s go back to the living room," Gary said. Jesse and James opened the doors to let them in.

"This is horrible…" Jesse said. "What are we supposed to do now?!"

"Wait a minute!" Brock cried. "Where’s Maid Joy!?"

Suddenly the lights went out. One long and solid scream came from the library.

"Officer Jenny!" Brock whimpered. Then another loud and painful scream came from the billiard room.

"That’s Joy!" Brock cried.

"Wait a minute! Where’s Gary?!" Ash hissed.

Suddenly the doorbell rang. The door opened to reveal Tracey. Tracey appeared smiling happily, holding a sketchpad in one arm and a pencil in the other. He did a gay little jig and then sang out loudly:

"I AM your traveling sketching man!"

BANG!!

A gun shot rang throughout the hallway.  Tracey dropped dead and the door slammed shut.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .