Impotent Death: A Paranormal Mystery

Chapter Sixteen

     "Ah, look— the little detective is finally awake!"           The honey-sweet voice woke me from a very deep and painful sleep. And it wasn't the kind of sweet your grandma's cookies are—more like the kind of sick sweet you taste after having too much candy.
     I yawned and let out an uncomfortable moan. I tried to stretch, but was unable to for some reason. The back of my head hurt like the devil; then it all came back to me in a rush. The conversation with Amanda Blackwood. Me trying to run. And now I was... here.
     I opened my eyes all the way and found myself lying in the giant copper bathtub in the bathroom by my room. There were ropes tying my legs together at the ankle, knee, and thigh, and ropes binding my arms and wrists to my torso. I tried to shift my body to a sitting position, but it was impossible.
     "I hope you're nice and cozy in there," Amanda said, noting my discomfort. "It would be tragic to spend your last moments of life in pain."
     Anger and confusion boiled inside me, and I glared hard at Amanda. "Why are you doing this? Don't you know killing me would only give your family more problems to deal with?"
     "Well, we had to do something. Word cannot get out about my grandfather," she said, leaning closer to me. "Don't you know what that would do to the hotel business? If people knew about the sacrifice Grandpa made to get the hotel, we would never have another customer walk through our doors. That's what happened to poor Kevin Lee Raymond, isn't it?"
     "Shut up!" I screamed, and spat in her face. I didn't know where that rush of bravery came from, but I hoped I had more of it somewhere.
     Amanda growled as she wiped the spit off her face and gave me a hard slap on the cheek. "Makayla, I can make you a lot more uncomfortable than you already are. I don't think you want that, now do you?"
     I shook my aching head, feeling weak all of a sudden.
     "Good. Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and you'd better answer honestly."
     "Well, if you're just going to k-kill me anyway, why do I need to cooperate?" I asked shakily.
     "Because it will mean a less terrible death for you," Amanda said with a smirk. "First, how did you find out Mr. Raymond was innocent? Honest answer!"
     She wanted honesty? Then that's what she would get. "He told my little sister. She can talk to ghosts."
     Amanda stared at me for a second and then snapped, "I said honesty! Who told you about him?"
     "He did! Didn't you hear me?" I said angrily.
     She grunted and folded her arms. "I guess I must've hit you harder on the head than I meant to. Next question, which is more important anyway: where is this evidence you found?"
     Oh, no. I couldn't tell her that. "It's... in the cellar," I lied.
     "The truth! Where is it?" she demanded, getting within an inch of my face.
     "I already t-told you," I mumbled. "It's in the cellar—"
     "My patience is running short! Tell me now!" Amanda shrieked. This time she grabbed my neck with both hands and forced all of her weight onto it, quickly cutting off my air supply.
     I choked for air and tried to fight her beneath my bonds. She was going to kill me! What could I do? I needed air! Right... now...
     Amanda finally let go and I gasped for breathe, coughing and wheezing.
     "I hope that convinced you to tell me the truth," she said harshly.
I coughed once more and answered weakly, "It's i-in a secret p-passageway through the oven—"
     "How do you open the passage?"
     "You t-turn the faucet in the kitchen sink to the right," I told her, feeling sick for actually telling the truth. But what could I do?
     A huge grin came to Amanda's face. "Perfect. Thank you for that, my dear. That information will be very useful. Although I must say, I'm a little offended Grandpa never told us about that one. Now, let me deliver the information to Nathan."
     "Who's Nathan?" I asked nervously.
     "My brother. He'll be coming to join us shortly," she told me as she pulled out her cell phone. "I think you've met him, haven't you?"
     "He was the one following me!" I realized, shuddering.
     Something else occurred to me at the same time: the reason Mrs. Harrison and Mrs. Bakersfield couldn't agree if Benjamin Weller had a grandson or granddaughter in Mosier was because he had both!
Amanda dialed a number on her phone and stood up. "Yes. Hurry. Apparently there's a secret passageway through the oven. Grandpa never told us, I know. No, Nathan, this comes first. Hurry." She hung up.
"How did he do it?" I asked all of a sudden. "How did Benjamin frame Kevin? Gloria Heller lied, didn't she. And Benjamin stole Kevin's savings, too, isn't that right?"
Amanda laughed. "Well, since you're going to die anyway, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. Yes to both. My, you must be an expert sleuth to have figured that out," she taunted.
"You know, you won't get away with this," I told Amanda firmly. "There are people who already know you're guilty." I was positive Kevin had gone to alert Ruth by now. "You might as well just let me go and we can sort this out some other way. I promise I won't hold anything against you if you let me go now."
Amanda laughed hysterically. "How stupid do you think I am, Makayla? I've already gone this far, there's no going back now. And I need to prove to Grandpa that I'm not afraid to make the same sacrifices he did for the hotel. I'm sorry, dear."
Amanda leaned over the tub and grasped the handle, turning the water on full blast. Icy cold water shot from the faucet, and I gasped as it came down on my feet.
"What—what are you d-doing?!" I cried, trying unsuccessfully to scoot myself away from the freezing water.
"You can't guess? I'm drowning you, that's what." She said it so casually, you would've thought she did this kind of thing everyday.
"You're just g-gonna leave me in here for someone to f-find?" The water was soaking my jeans, making them uncomfortably tight.
"No, Makayla. Once you're dead, we're going to take your body down this chute right behind me." She pointed to the sink. "It leads right to Mosier Creek. We'll dump you right into the river. The water runs really high this time of year—drownings are a normal occurrence. No one will suspect a thing."
"What about the bruise on my head? That's a little suspicious!" I pointed out.
Amanda shrugged. "You slipped and hit your head on a rock."
This was absolutely horrifying. Amanda had already had my murder planned out; she'd just been waiting for the right time to carry through with it. Just like Benjamin had done with Robyn.
"My sister will know what you've d-done!" I yelled at Amanda, twisting and turning in my restraints. "You won't get away with this!"
"Oh, I'm not worried. My family has natural talent for getting away with things," she said. "Oh, you hear that? Nathan's here."
The sound of footsteps came closer and closer to the bathroom until the door swung open and in walked Nathan Weller, the man I'd see on the sidewalk: he had pitch black hair, identical in color to Amanda's, and dark eyes. He was pretty short, but looked strong enough to lift a car.
His intense gaze swept over me and he grinned in amusement. "There she is. This is the girl who tried to uproot all our secrets, isn't it?"
"The very same. The little sleuth thought she could resolve the past... looks like her plans were ruined," Amanda teased, and they shared a laugh together.
Ugh! They were really going to sit there and watch me die? How could they so casually murder someone so innocent? Like me? I guess that's when it really hit me: I was going to die. In my favorite bathtub, of all places. Everything leading up to this point had felt like a confusing nightmare—so unreal—but not now; in this moment I was more terrified than I'd ever been in my life.
I struggled and struggled under my bonds, but it was useless. What was wrong with me? Weren't people supposed to be crazy powerful during adrenaline rushes?
Suddenly, all three of us heard a loud pounding coming from downstairs. It sounded like someone was knocking on the door. I perked up: could someone be here to rescue me?
Please let it be the police, I thought desperately. And please let them come up here...
"Nathan! Go see who's down there," Amanda snapped at her brother. "I'll be down to join you shortly..."
Nathan took one last glance at me and Amanda before he rushed through the doorway and down the stairs. Amanda pulled the belt off of one of the bathrobes hanging on the door and approached me with it.
Before I realized what she was doing, she wrapped the belt around my mouth and yanked it hard, nearly making me choke. She tied it tightly behind my head and came back around to look at me.
"Perfect!" she said with her hands on her hips. "Be a good girl and stay right there, okay?" And with that, Amanda left the bathroom and shut the door behind herself.
     "You won't get away with this!" I screamed after her, only with the gag in my mouth it sounded more like: "'Oo 'oh 'eh' uh'ey 'i' 'i'!" Super pathetic, I know.
     My inability to speak coherently was the least of my troubles though. The water in the tub was already up to my neck. Pretty soon my whole head would be under if I didn't do something.
     I flopped myself around like a fish, trying to splash water out of the tub. I struggled again against the ropes that tied my legs and arms, but they wouldn't budge.
     A huge rush of fear mixed with frustration overcame me. The whole reason I was in this situation was because I'd been stupid enough to trust Amanda. Why did I let her into the house? Why couldn't I see that she'd been lying to me? Of course, when everything was fine on Thursday I'd flipped out, but today when things were actually dangerous I let my guard down. I was officially the stupidest person ever.
     I felt like crying, but no tears came. Probably because I was so close to death. I don't know. I just couldn't believe I was going to die like this.
The water was past my chin now. I strained my neck and stared straight up at the ceiling in order to keep my mouth and nose above the water. And then I heard it: a soft voice.
     "Makayla?"
     My eyes widened and I listened intently to hear it again. I had to be sure I wasn't imagining it.
     "Makayla! Are you there?"
     The voice was real! I grunted urgently through my gag to let the person know I could hear them.
     "Let me come through—" the voice said again, and I heard a big crunch sound come from the sink. Was the person in the secret passageway? "Ugh, how do I climb through this?" Then I realized who it was: Liam.
     I shouted his name and tried hard to position myself so I could see him come through the passageway. The water was now so deep it was getting into my mouth.
     I heard the cupboard doors open and pretty soon Liam's beautiful face appeared over me. I had never been more happy to see another human being, let alone him!
     "Makayla! Oh my gosh, I have to get you out of here!" he reached for the faucet and turned it off, then submerged his hands in the cold water and started picking at the knots tying my left wrist. "Don't worry about Amanda, I recorded everything she said—she and her brother have no way around jail now—"
     I had so many things I wanted to say to Liam, but the gag in my mouth kind of complicated things. I mumbled more incoherent nonsense until he said, "Oh, right. Sorry."
     He loosened the gag for me and the second it came off I started blabbing away. "Liam—oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here! That—that was so scary—I thought I was gonna die—" I started becoming really shaky and emotional all of a sudden.
     "You're in shock, Makayla, just stay still." He continued to untie me in a calm manner. I couldn't comprehend how he could act so cool under these circumstances.
     Liam had freed my left wrist and was almost finished with my right when Amanda Blackwood suddenly burst through the bathroom door... and she was holding a knife.