Impotent Death: A Paranormal Mystery

Chapter Four

The moment I got home from school, I ran up to my room, sat on my bed, and Google searched the murder.
The first thing I came across was a black and white picture of Kevin Lee Raymond. My first impression looking at him was that he was not a bad person. He had dark hair and handsome features. He looked friendly overall, and now it was easier for me to understand why Ruth had trusted him so soon after seeing him.
     There was also a picture of the victim, Robyn Weller. She had shining blonde hair and a beautifully flawless face. She looked like a model. I read about Robyn and learned that she was an interior designer.
     I discovered that the eyewitness' name was Gloria Heller. There was a picture of her as well; she had high cheekbones and unnaturally thick eyebrows. Her dark hair was set in a bun, and she had a tart expression. She didn't look the friendliest, but also looked like the kind of woman who wouldn't harm a fly.
    Reading about the case, I learned the basics of what happened that night on September 5, 1933: Gloria Heller had claimed to be dropping off a friendly neighbor gift for Mr. Raymond. She knocked on the door, and while she waited she'd impatiently peeked through the window to see Kevin in the act of hanging Robyn Weller from the stair balcony. She'd instantly rushed back to her house, called the cops, and told them the location of the horror she'd just witnessed.
The police broke through Raymond's front door, arrested him, and secured the crime scene. Forensic scientists performed an autopsy on Robyn and confirmed that she had indeed died from strangulation. One of the forensic specialists was someone named Anthony Green, this super tall guy with a pointy nose. He was coincidently Robyn's husband and Raymond's best friend.
During Raymond's trial later, he persistently claimed to have been framed, but no one would believe him. He was sentenced to life in prison, which was unfortunate because he owned a popular hotel called The Grandeur Hotel. Being in jail for the rest of his life, he was forced to abandon it.
Before I could read any more, Ruth and the twins arrived home from school. I waited for Ruth to come upstairs and find me.
She entered my bedroom. Her normally pale cheeks were flushed from being out in the cold, and her soft blue eyes were lit with excitement.
"Did you find out anything from your friends?"
"There was an eyewitness named Gloria Heller," I said, "and Robyn's husband, Anthony Green, was one of the people who investigated her murder. But no one at school told me that, I read about it myself."
"Interesting, Makayla. But guess what? Kevin's gonna show us the surprise now!"
I frowned. "Um... what surprise?"
"Remember? I told you this morning," she said excitedly, which was so strange. My sister hardly ever got giddy about something. She was a very emotionless person.
"Okay, I think I do remember. But can't I ask Raymond some things about the murder first? I need to hear it from his perspective."
     I hadn't been thrilled when Ruth asked for my help yesterday, but somehow today I was more motivated. I've always enjoyed reading murder mystery novels and trying to figure out who the killer was, so wasn't this the perfect opportunity to test my sleuthing skills?
"But—well, okay. Kevin, can we do the same thing we did last night where you tell me and then I... okay, great."
     "He's already in here?" I asked, glancing around the room.
"Yes." Ruth cleared her throat and began speaking slowly, repeating after Raymond. "That night I took a late nap after coming home drunk from a party at my brother's house. We had been drinking for hours, so it was b—bew—how do you say that word? Oh: be-wild-er-ing—that I even made it home at the time I did."
I laughed to myself at Ruth's confusion with the word "bewildering".
"I woke up very dis—dis-oriented to find my ex-girlfriend, Robyn Weller, hanging dead from my stair balcony. I instantly realized I must have been framed, but I didn't know who would have done such a thing. I tried to lower Robyn from the balcony, but I was almost so dizzy I couldn't move. Before I had time to really do anything, the police arrived at my house and arrested me for murder.
During my trial, I kept in—in-sist-ing I was innocent, but no one believed me, of course. It was the eyewitness' word against mine."
"Why did you try to move Robyn's body? How come you didn't just call the police yourself, that was stupid!" I said.
"I was still a little drunk so I couldn't think straight. Yes, it was rather foolish on my part."
I wanted to yank out my hair. Why didn't he just call the police? Argh!!
"Maybe whoever framed you knew you were going to the party so they knew you'd be drunk when you got back," I said. "Who did you tell about it?"
"Mostly everyone knew I would be at the party. I was the most social person in the neighborhood, I always told everyone everything."
Well, this didn't help at all. "Um, who else was at the party? And why was your brother holding a party that night?"
"It was his birthday party. And there were plenty of people there who I knew. James Howard, my old colleague, Sarah Dallas, a good friend of Robyn's, the Keller brothers, oh, I miss them both so much—"
"Was Anthony Green there? He was your best friend, right? He had to have been there."
Ruth waited for a moment for Raymond to think. Finally she said, "No. I don't recall seeing him there. Then again, it was eighty years ago, and there were dozens of people there. There's a chance he was present."
"Then I don't think he was there," I said. "You definitely would remember your best friend being there."
"Well, we weren't always the best of friends. Anthony and I sort of... drifted apart after he married Robyn. I was jealous of him."
     I frowned. "Well, then wouldn't you have more of a motive to kill Anthony instead of Robyn?"
     "I would never have killed Anthony! Although he could be tact—tact-less at times, he was—can you repeat that? No, before that. Okay. Un-doubt—un-doubt-edly—my dearest friend. Everyone knew how close we were. No one could have suspected me if Anthony was the one killed."
     "What was Robyn like?" I asked suddenly. "Why would someone have reason to kill her?"
     Ruth's eyes widened as she said, "Wow, you thought of that fast."
     "I thought of what fast?"
     "Not you, Makayla. Kevin," she said. "He said Robyn was very stubborn and hard to deal with."
     "Was she the kind of woman who would cheat on her husband?"
     Ruth listened, then replied, "It wouldn't surprise me if she did."
     "Do you think she cheated on Anthony?" I asked eagerly. "How long were they married before she was killed?"
     "Makayla, can we please finish this later? I want to see Kevin's surprise!" It was just Ruth talking now.
     "No, Ruth!" I snapped angrily. "I feel like I'm actually getting onto something here! Something about Anthony Green doesn't sit right with me..."
     "Kevin just told me he needs us to go into the closet," Ruth said. "He's going to show us the surprise! I've been waiting for it all day!"
     "But—"
     "Come on!" she said impatiently, beckoning for me to come with her.
I grunted before following her into her closet. There was a bar to hang hangers on and a few hooks on the back wall.
     "Okay, we're in the closet. Can we keep discussing the murder, please?" I asked sourly.
     Ruth ignored me. She seemed to be listening to something Raymond was telling her. Her eyes got huge all of a sudden. "Really?"
     "What is it?"
     Ruth didn't respond but looked over at the three hooks on the wall. She grasped the middle one with her tiny hands and pulled down on it.
     The hook sank down a few inches and an unmistakeable "crack" sounded behind me.
     "How did you do that?" I asked in shock.
     "Look!" Ruth pointed behind me. In the left corner of the closet was a tiny door that had popped open, leading into darkness.
     "What the heck? Is that like a tunnel or something?" I crouched down and pulled the door open wider.
     "Kevin says it's a secret passageway." Ruth knelt down beside me and peered into the opening. "Where does it lead, Kevin? A secret room?"
     "Stay right here," I said to Ruth as I ran out of her room and scurried down the stairs to the kitchen.
     "How was school, sweetheart? I'm about ready to head to Smith's, is there anything you need?" my mom said kindly. She was fixing herself a turkey sandwich at the counter.
     "Mom, do you know where that one flashlight is? You know, the really big one we always take camping?" I asked quickly.
     My mom frowned. "It's probably still in a box somewhere. What do you need it for?"
     "Um... I just need it." I wasn't about to tell her what we'd found.
     "Check the boxes in the mudroom. It should be in one of those," she said as she drizzled mustard on her sandwich.
I rushed into the mudroom and rummaged through the boxes until I found the heavy duty flashlight. It weighed about ten pounds by itself.
I nearly slipped on the tile floor running back to Ruth's bedroom.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" my mom wondered with a laugh.
"Just helping Ruth with something!" I replied.
I entered Ruth's closet again and flipped the flashlight on. She gasped in pleasant surprise when she saw it.
"Shine it in here!"
She stepped aside so I could point the flashlight beam into the small opening.
There was a tiny hallway that stretched about a ten feet forward. At the end of it was another small door. The floor in the narrow passage was coated in at least an inch of dust, and there were dozens of filthy cobwebs strung across the low ceiling.
"Wow... this is amazing!" Ruth said in awe. She couldn't keep her eyes off the tunnel.
"Yeah, it is pretty cool," I agreed.
"Kevin told me this goes to his private study. It was where he spent most of his time."
I grimaced at the disgusting tunnel. "He crawled through this everyday?"
"It was much cleaner when he used it. And he wanted to show us it in case there was some stuff in there that could help us find out who set him up," explained Ruth.
"Why did he randomly have a tunnel connecting his study to a closet? That's so weird," I said.
"He says it was to keep it more secret," said Ruth. "Anyway, I want to go first!" She crawled through the opening on hands and knees.
"Wait!" I shrieked. "What if there're like—spiders and mice and stuff in there?"
"There probably are," she said, continuing forward into the ancient tunnel.
Was my sister insane? "Hold on! You shouldn't just crawl into this sketchy place!"
"It'll be fine. Right, Kevin? He says it's perfectly safe. There's nothing to worry about," she said calmly.
"Well, he's a ghost, of course it's safe to him," I muttered to myself as I watched Ruth get deeper into the tunnel. Clouds of dust floated up around her as she dragged her knees across the ground.
She turned her head back at me and squinted in the light of the flashlight. "Makayla, come on!"
"Ugh... okay..." I very reluctantly shimmied my way into the tunnel. I panicked when I got a face full of sticky spider webs. Some of it went in my mouth. I also caught a horrible whiff of rat feces.
Crawling through the passageway was by far the most unpleasant thing I'd done since we moved here. There was so much dust in the air that I thought I would suffocate. And the piles of dust I was walking on stuck to my sweaty hands like a pair of fuzzy grey gloves. Why hadn't I thought to change my outfit before coming in here? I probably looked absolutely hideous by now.
When I finally emerged from the opposite end of the tunnel, I coughed uncontrollably and frantically tried to brush off all the filth and spiderwebs that had accumulated on my clothes.
"Why did I do that?" I said to myself once I'd stopped coughing. "That was disgusting! I'm gonna get a diesease from all the crap that was in there! And there are probably spiders like all over me!"
"Stop complaining, Makayla." Ruth acted as if we'd simply walked through a doorway to get here. "Look at this place. Wasn't it worth it?"
"Well... I guess it was worth it." Ruth had found the light switch and turned on the lights. This room was very tiny, full of shelves of paper. A desk made of oak wood was nestled in the far corner. There were cobwebs everywhere in here too.
Even though it was cluttered and small, this room had sort of a—dangerous—feel to it. Like we weren't supposed to be here. It was spooky, but also exciting.
I set the flashlight down on the desk and started opening different drawers to examine their contents. There were hundreds of old papers, letters, documents... most of it had to do with finances.
"What in here could help us solve the murder?" I asked, looking over at Ruth.
She listened, then said, "He says it's just a possibility some of it could help, and we might have to spend some time looking through all of it."
"Well, it'll have to be you, Ruth, because I can't spend all day in here. I have homework to do, and I don't want to have to crawl through the tunnel again," I said with a shudder.
Ruth suddenly gasped, looked at the wall (I'm assuming Raymond was over there), and said, "Seriously?!"
"What is it?" I demanded. It was getting annoying to see Ruth react to something and then have to wait for her to tell me what Raymond told her.
She pointed to a large black chest underneath the desk I hadn't noticed before. It had a pretty silver lining all around the edges. "We need to get inside that box."
"Do you mind telling me why?" I asked her grumpily.
"It's where Kevin kept all of his savings."
"What?" My heart sped up quickly. That was not what I'd expected to hear.
"No one ever knew he kept his money in here, so no one could take it when he went to jail or after he died," Ruth said.
I swallowed. "And... how much money did he last have saved?" Kevin Lee Raymond had been a very rich, very popular hotel owner. He must have a lot piled up in that chest.
I stared intensely at Ruth, waiting for her reaction to Raymond's answer. I knew he'd told her when her eyes became the size of dinner plates. "He had over one million dollars."