Impotent Death: A Paranormal Mystery

Chapter Five

     "WHAT?!" I'm sure my shriek could've been heard halfway across the world it was so loud. "What are we waiting for? Let's open the chest!"
     I crouched down beside it and started banging on the padlock to get it open. I tried lifting it, but it was too heavy. Probably because of all that money inside!
     "Ruth, aren't you gonna help me? There's a million dollars in here, and you're just standing there? Come on, look for a key or something!"
     "Um, Makayla..." Ruth said uncomfortably.
     "What?" I snapped.
     "You know... it would be stealing from Kevin."
     "Ruth! He's a ghost, for crying out loud! He doesn't use money anymore!"
"I know, but... you're trying to steal it right in front of him," she said.
"Well, I can't see him! And it's not like he even cares!"
Ruth looked at the wall. "Would it be okay if... really? Are you sure? He says we can have it—"
"Yes!!"
"—if we promise to keep trying to prove his innocence."
I shrugged. "Okay. We were gonna do that anyway."
"You heard her, we promise to keep trying. Can you tell us where the key is? Oh."
"Where is it?" I pressed.
"He says he'll show us where the key is after we prove him innocent," she said.
"WHAT?" I screeched. "No! That's so not fair! But what if we're never able to do it? This is stupid, he doesn't even need the money!"
"Makayla, he's practically stuck in hell," Ruth said bluntly. "Wouldn't you do the same thing?"
I wanted to scream so badly right now. Why couldn't we just get the money and then help him? One million dollars! There were so many things you could buy with that kind of money; a trip to Paris, a gigantic swimming pool, we could move houses and stay somewhere permanently, I could get my own car, I could get whatever new outfits I wanted whenever I wanted, I could get myself a lifetime supply of Twix bars, I could have a dozen new pairs of Vans, I could buy Liam his heart's desire and he would want to marry me... ugh!!! This was so unfair! But...
I heaved a sigh. "Fine. But he has to promise that if we do all we possibly can to help him and we're still unsuccessful that he'll let us have the money anyway."
"Is that okay?" Ruth asked Raymond. "He says it's okay."
I stared at the chest longingly. One. Million. Dollars. I was so close to it, yet I couldn't have it. I had never been so frustrated in my life.
"Let's start looking through some of these papers," Ruth said, interrupting my selfish thoughts.
"Oh, um... okay..." I slowly got to my feet and helped Ruth shuffle through papers, organizing them into overflowing piles.

Knowing that I would get one million dollars as a reward gave me much more energy to search for Raymond's framer. I'd never had more motivation to do something than I had now.
     After we'd been searching through papers for nearly an hour, Ruth and I heard a faint noise coming from the direction of the tunnel. It sounded like someone was calling our names.
     Ruth and I exchanged a look of horror.
     "We better get back to your room," I told her in a whisper.
     She gave a nod. "Good idea."
     I got a horrible feeling in my stomach as we abandoned the desk of papers and crouched down by the tiny door. We'd been in here forever, of course the rest of our family would be wondering where we'd disappeared to.
     "Wait, we need the flashlight," Ruth reminded me.
     I rushed over to grab it off the desk, when a tiny envelope caught my eye. It was a letter addressed to Kevin Lee Raymond from—Anthony Green. The words were written with fancy green ink. How had I not noticed it before?
     "Hurry, Makayla," said Ruth.
     I stuffed the letter into my pocket and joined her once more at the entrance of the tunnel, clutching the mega flashlight in my hand.

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     "Makayla, tell me again what you and your sister were doing in the attic?" my mom questioned during dinner later that evening.
     I averted my eyes downward at my plate of green bean casserole. "Oh, just finding a place for all the junk we don't want to keep in our rooms."
     Right after Ruth had figured out how to close the entrance to the secret passageway, our mom had found us covered head to toe in cobwebs and filth. We quickly came up with the excuse that we'd been in the attic, but I had a feeling she didn't buy our story.
     "Well, you were in there for a very long time. And why did you ruin your new outfit from Aunt Susan? It was very expensive!" my mom scolded.
     "Sorry, I just wasn't thinking, I guess," I said.
     "Yes, you obviously weren't! How did you two get so ridiculously filthy just by going up into the attic?"
     "Is that even a question, mom?" asked Benjamin. "Attics are super disgusting, anyone should know that."
     "It's true," agreed Cameron, taking a mouthful of casserole.
     "Oh, be quiet, you two," my mom snapped. "Anyway, no more climbing into the attic, you hear me? There are rats in there... I don't want you getting rabies or some other freak disease..."
Ugh. If our mom knew we'd found a million dollars in "the attic", she might not be so upset with us. I grumbled to myself as I though about it.
     For the remainder of the night we discussed the murder. Our dad went over the same details we already knew about it. It was starting to get frustrating hearing people talk about it so ignorantly. Nobody seemed to have the slightest idea that Raymond was innocent. Not even our dad, who was writing an entire book about the incident.

     That night, I used the giant copper bathtub in the bathroom next to my room to take a very relaxing bath. I though about the details I knew about the murder from Raymond's perspective.
     He'd gone to the party, come home drunk, and fallen asleep. Next thing he knew, his previous lover was hanging dead on his stair balcony and the eyewitness saw and ran home to call the cops.
     Raymond had said that pretty much everyone knew he would be at the party. But had Robyn been at the party? Or was she already missing before? I remembered my dad mentioning how everyone thought Raymond kidnapped her.
     Something else... the article I found online said that, according to the autopsy, Robyn died from strangulation. But what if she was killed in some other way first and then hung?
     What if Anthony Green had figured out a way to fake the autopsy? He was one of the forensic analysts who handled the case. Could he have murdered his wife and then rigged the evidence in order to frame someone else? His best friend?
     My heart was beating really fast all of a sudden. Maybe I'd actually figured it out. Perhaps Anthony was upset at his wife for some reason, so he killed her and blamed his bestie. Except... what reason would there be to frame Raymond?
     I slumped down in the bath and made a small splash. There's no way Anthony would do that to his dearest friend. I remembered how Raymond had described their relationship. Even though Anthony's marriage to Robyn caused them to drift apart, they were still extremely close.
     But I decided I couldn't drop Anthony as a suspect so soon. There had to be something else Raymond wasn't telling us about him. Something still felt very fishy. And there was also that letter from Anthony addressed to Raymond that I'd found in the secret office. I'd almost forgotten about it until now... I had a feeling it was very important.

     After draining the soapy water that remained in the tub, I changed into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and hurried out of the bathroom to find Ruth and share my thoughts about Anthony Green. I burst into her bedroom to find... someone else.
     "Benjamin, what are you doing in here?" I said.
     My obnoxious brother walked around the perimeter of the room and examined the walls, as if deciding where to hang a painting.
     "Hello? Can you answer my question, please?" I asked impatiently.
     "Mom found you guys in here after you went into the attic," he said quietly, and I instantly knew what he was up to.
     "I'm not gonna show you it, if that's what you're doing in here," I snapped. "Get out!"
     He raised up his hands as if surrendering. "Holy cow, Makayla! You don't have to get all violent on me!"
     "Stop overreacting and go away."
     "But this isn't even your room."
     "I'm sure Ruth wouldn't want you in here, either," I said as I ushered him into the hallway.
     "She wouldn't even care!" Benjamin shouted. "Why the heck are you guys being so weird? You've been spending the entire day together, don't you have better things to do, like homework?"
     I got a dreadful pit in my stomach. I'd completely forgotten about the pile of homework I still had to do. When I say I completely forgot, I mean completely forgot. I'd been so caught up in solving Robyn's murder that I forgot school was even a thing.
     "What are you guys up to?" he demanded. "You've both been acting so... strange. It's like you've seen a ghost or something."
     How ironic. "What? Ben, be serious. Ghosts don't exist."
     He shook his head. "Whatever. But you know what I mean. It's like you're both in on a secret or something."
     My hands were starting to sweat like crazy. How on earth had our brother caught on so fast? He knew we were hiding something. I guess it was only a matter of time before he found out.
     "Look, we..." what was I going to say? Should I just spill it all right now?
     "You what?" he asked.
I sighed. "We're just both having a hard time adjusting to the new house. We've been talking about it a lot. You know, you and Cam have each other, so that kind of leaves me and Ruth. We understand each other somehow. I know it might seem like she's broken off from the family in a way, but she isn't. We have this bond, and it's really special. We both know how to help each other, it's kind of confusing but it's very real—"
     "Okay, okay! I didn't ask for a monologue!" Benjamin said before I could keep talking. "Apparently sisters have some kind of—sisters are just plain weird," he decided, and headed downstairs to his room.
     I realized my body was tense and relaxed it. Wow, that was close. But I'd found a way to keep him from finding out about our secret. I really have a knack for talking my way out of things, I realized and laughed to myself. But was what I told Benjamin actually true? Did Ruth and I really have a sacred, sisterly bond that no one could ever break? No. We certainly didn't. And that thought bothered me for the rest of the night.