Impotent Death: A Paranormal Mystery

Chapter Fourteen

     "Makayla, get up for school!" My mom's voice sounded like a siren in my ear. "You're going to be late!"
     I rubbed my eyes groggily and sat up. "I thought we were skipping school today because... because we're leaving. To go on vacation. To San Diego." I was so tired I could barely think.
     "Well, little missy, I just checked your grades, and you have an F in math!" my mom told me, yanking the blankets away from me.
     That news seemed to wake me up. "What? But I got it up to a D-! I even double checked last night."
     "I'm sorry, Makayla, but this morning it said you have an F. You failed the quadratics quiz, which brought your grade back down."
     "But I did the extra credit factorials worksheet! And I redid the homework I turned in late!" I promised. This was so stupid! If I didn't get to go to San Diego with my family because of my dumb math grade, then my math teacher was literally the devil.
     "You'll need to stay home and get that grade up," my mom said sternly.
     "Mom! Please? I've been looking forward to this trip for so long! Please let me come! It's not my fault my teacher got my grade mixed up with somebody else's—"
     "I'm pretty sure that's not what happened and you know it," my mom said. "I really am sorry, but that was the deal. You didn't meet your end of it."
     I couldn't believe this! Arrgghhh! My life could really be frustrating at times, and right now was definitely one of those times.
     I angrily got dressed and ready for school and then went in to say goodbye to Ruth.
     "I'm not going to San Diego," I said to wake her up. "Hope you guys have fun though... I'll keep working on the murder. Please tell Kevin to stick around the house, okay? I might need some company, even if I can't... see my company." Ruth was lying very still. "Ugh, whatever, you probably didn't hear anything I said."
     I turned to leave, but I heard Ruth say quietly, "No, I heard. Kevin will be with you the whole time, I'll make sure."
     I turned to look at her. "Thanks. You really are the best sister ever."
     She smiled back.

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     My family would leave for San Diego before I got back from school and they wouldn't be back home until Monday evening. Ugh. What was I supposed to do by myself for a whole weekend?
     At the end of the school day, I went to math. I asked my teacher, Mr. Dalton, what I could do to fix my grade. To my complete frustration, he said, "Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you to do the exponents worksheet instead of the factorials worksheet. You just did the wrong one, so once you do the exponents worksheet, your grade will jump right up to a D-." Well, there was no use in doing it now because by the time I finished it, my family would probably be on their way back home from San Diego. Aaahhhh!!! Why, why, why???
     I got home from school, tossed my backpack onto the couch, and slumped down right beside it. All of the motivation I'd had for today had been sucked out of me. I'd been planning to go to San Diego! I wasn't supposed to be left home alone to work on school stuff. Ugh.
I might as well deal with it and stop complaining though. And at least Kevin was here to keep me company.
"Hey, Kevin! Want to play a game of chess or something? Or we could watch a movie," I said to the air. I got no response, of course. Not that I'd been expecting one. "I guess I'll just keep working on solving the mystery, then. Even though there isn't much I can do without leaving the house or talking to you... actually, there is something I can do..."
I pulled up the picture of Benjamin and his wife on my phone again and stared at it for probably ten minutes, thinking about where I'd seen Ann Weller's face before. Then it suddenly hit me like a train: it was Gloria Heller. Her last name had changed because she was married, and I guess she started going by her middle name or something because it was her. Ann Weller and Gloria Heller were the same person! Which meant...
Oh my gosh. Benjamin Weller married the eyewitness to the crime scene. Something about that seemed very, very fishy... what if they'd worked together? Gloria could've said, "I can lie for you, Benjamin, my love. I'll lie to the police and say I saw Raymond strangling Robyn. It'll be my word against his. We can do this together!" I could almost hear a cruel feminine voice saying the words in my mind.
Husband and wife, partners in crime. It made perfect sense! That's how the "eyewitness" had such perfect timing. Even that was planned.
I said all of my ideas out loud to Kevin. "Did you get all that? Now, go tell Ruth! I really hope you're actually in here with me and not floating around outside or something... ugh, this is so awkward. I'm literally talking to myself... whatever. Just, if you heard me, go tell Ruth, if you didn't... I guess she can find out later. And it's not like it matters either way."
I suppose I could've called Ruth using our mom's phone and told her, but what did it matter? There really was nothing Ruth could do about any of it. And she couldn't send me messages with Kevin because I couldn't talk to him. Man, right now I was really wishing I'd turned out kind of strange like my sister so that I could talk to spirits. It would be freaky, yes, but so amazingly useful!
I spent another half hour thinking about everything and then started binge watching Netflix. Can you blame me? I was so drained of energy from all of my panic attacks yesterday that I needed to just chill for a while.
It was almost 9:00 in the evening when I finally paused my show and decided to make myself a packet of Ramen. I know it wasn't the healthiest choice, but... I really didn't care at this point.
I turned on the water at the sink and waited for it to heat up. When it finally reached the temperature I wanted, I stuck a pot underneath it and waited for it to fill up.
Once the pot was full of hot water, I swung it up out of the sink—only I accidentally banged it against the faucet in the process. The ancient faucet was bumped out of place into an awkward angle, and the next instant I heard an unmistakable "crack" sound somewhere near the stove.
Alarmed by the strange noise, I quickly turned off the water still spouting out of the faucet, set the pot down on the counter, and went over to investigate the stove.
Everything about it looked normal... which didn't make sense. I suddenly got the idea to check inside the oven. I opened the oven door, and to my complete astonishment, the back of the oven was cracked open. There was a mini door in the back of the oven. Another secret passageway.
"Oh my gosh, this is so cool!" I said excitedly to myself as I crouched down to push the door open wider. I could see the pathway ahead curve down slightly. "Kevin, how come you never showed us this one? This is so cool!"
I quickly went to retrieve the heavy duty flashlight Ruth and I'd used to explore the other secret passageways and shimmied my way into the oven (which felt very unsafe for many reasons). I crawled through the secret tunnel, which seemed to be made of hard rock. Water dripped onto me from above, and it smelled strongly of soil. I assumed this passageway was underground and not part of the house, similar to the slide we'd found in the bathroom.
I crawled on for about two minutes, picking up dirt and spiderwebs on my clothes. (I didn't mind so much though, I'd been through plenty worse than this before.) Finally, I reached a point where the space opened up a bit; almost like a little room. I barely had enough room to stand up all the way.
In one corner of the space there were a pair of dirty gloves on the dirt floor next to a coil of thin rope. I shined my flashlight over what I'd found and examined them. The gloves were gray, and the left one had a hole in the thumb.
"I bet this is that piece of fabric we found in Kevin's chest," I realized.
Holy cow, it was more evidence! And the rope... it must've been the same kind of rope used to kill Robyn! Whoever killed her must've escaped the house through this passageway and left their supplies in here. And this connected the thief of Kevin's money to Robyn's murder. It was the same person.
I scanned the room for anything else, and I wasn't disappointed. I found an exit that led to outside, and there were a pair of partially buried boots opposite from the gloves and rope. I bet the killer didn't want his footprints to be tracked outside of the mansion so he left them in here! Man, this was perfect. I'd found everything I needed in here! I almost jumped in delight until I remembered I would hit my head on the ceiling if I did.
I crawled back through to where I came from, more thrilled than I'd been in a long time. I'd found more evidence! Now all I had to do was wait until Ruth got back and then we could talk to the police together.
I had been thinking about trying to find Benjamin Weller's grandson/granddaughter to interview them, but I decided it would be safer to just go straight to the authorities. And besides, I wasn't sure the culprit was actually Benjamin Weller. I didn't want to risk embarrassing myself again like I did with Marcus Green.
So, with that all settled, I ended the night by actually having my tasty bowl of Ramen noodles and taking a bath in the giant copper bathtub in the bathroom by my room. I made sure to tell Kevin not to be in the bathroom with me (but who knows if he listened). I sat in the steaming water daydreaming about how wonderful the look on Ruth's face would be when I told her what I'd found. I couldn't wait! Actually, there was something I wanted to do...
"Hey, Kevin! Don't come in here, but... can you do me a favor? Can you not tell Ruth about what I just found? I want to surprise her myself. I'm so excited, you know. She's been so determined for us to solve this murder, and now we have real evidence just sitting in our house! Well, I left everything in the tunnel... I didn't want to contaminate it or anything... but I'm just so excited about all this! It's great! Pretty soon everyone will know the truth about you..."
After I spent a good hour in the bathtub, the water started to get cold. I dried off, got dressed, and brushed my teeth.
Finally, around 11:00pm I settled myself into bed. I lie there in the dark, staring at the ceiling and thinking about lots of things. Mostly about how I couldn't believe it was over. After all the work we'd put into it... and I suddenly felt guilty about something. I realized I'd never thanked Kevin.
Even though it felt weird, I sighed and started talking out loud. "Um, Kevin? I don't know if you're even here listening to me, but... I just wanted to say... thank you. I don't know if you realize this, but you've brought me and my sister closer together than we've ever been. You've given us a very special connection I've never had with anyone else. And you've been an amazing friend to her. You might not know this, but she's not the most—social—girl you'll ever meet. She's always been a little different than other kids. But maybe I've finally realized that being different might not be such a bad thing. I think somehow, even though I've never actually talked to you... you're the one who helped me realize that."
I hadn't meant for my eyes to tear up, but for some reason those tears were just begging to be free right now. I cried and cried, except I didn't feel the slightest bit ashamed or embarrassed about it. It felt... good. Really good. And necessary. I sincerely wanted Kevin to know I was grateful to him for strengthening my relationship with Ruth.
"Ah—sorry you had to see me cry," I apologized once I'd gotten a hold of myself. "I mean, I bet you've seen a lot more from Ruth. You guys probably have a pretty close relationship, don't you. It's amazing, considering you lived in the 1930's and now we're in the 2000's. To be honest, I've always been a little creeped out by ghosts. I tell people I don't believe in them so I don't have to admit my fear. But now that we've been around you so much... I'm not really afraid anymore. It's the opposite, actually—I wish I could talk to you. I wish I could see you. I wish I could... know you. I get a little jealous of Ruth sometimes because of that." I let out a big sigh. Then I thought of something. "Maybe I can hear you... just in a different way. Maybe if I listen hard enough, I'll hear something..."
I closed my eyes tightly and put all of my physical, mental, and emotional strength into searching my thoughts for a voice besides my own. I listened and listened, but there was nothing to be found except my own obnoxious thoughts.
I finally gave up and rolled over. "Ugh, whatever. I guess some people just... don't have the gift."