CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Amanda gasped at Jake’s sudden escape plan. Good thing the man had bad-ass skills when it came to locks and cuffs. She strained against the cuffs on her own wrists, to no avail.

Scrambling across the floor, Jake and Randall hurled punches. Fists, arms, kicks. With the chair still attached to Jake, he didn’t have the quick movements Randall did. Still, Jake bent his body over, managed to whap Randall in the neck with one of the chair legs.

He punched Randall in the nose. Apparently broke it, based on all the blood. As Randall screamed, Jake manipulated the cuffs around his feet. Got loose so he could fight without a chair attached to him.

Jake crashed forward, slamming Randall against a wall. Randall returned with a right hook to Jake’s kidney, making him scream in agony. Amanda’s heart raced. She knew how much that had to have hurt.

“You can take him!” she yelled. Neither one listened. They were too busy writhing on the floor, throwing fists at each other.

Something touched her hands. What the hell? She turned and saw Declan standing beside her. “What are you doing here?”

“Helping save your ass, as well as mine,” he said with a grin. “Let me get you out of these things.”

She held still, not sure how a ghost could unlock handcuffs, but she wasn’t going to argue. The cool air from his presence blew across her fingers.

“Can you get it?” she asked.

“Trying my best. Ropes are made of more Earthen materials. Would’ve been easier. There’s only so much control the dead have over objects.”

If she couldn’t get free, she needed another plan. Keeping her voice low, she said, “Forget the handcuffs. My cell phone, over there at the base of the carousel. Need to call 9-1-1 and turn on the recording app.”

“Doubt I can press three digits on your phone, even if I summon every ounce of energy in my semitransparent form. Might be able to press one digit though.”

“Then press the record app,” Amanda said. “Jake can call the cops once he subdues Randall.”

“I’ll do my best,” Declan said, maneuvering his way through the fighting pair. He managed to reach her cell. Now the punching pair took up most of the ground. No straight shot or safe way to kick the phone over to her.

Declan nodded, bent down, and used a gust of air to press a button on her cell. She didn’t know how ghosts had the power to touch real objects, but she wasn’t going to object.

Jake’s scream turned her attention. Randall threw a gut punch and then another. Jake lunged toward him. Randall gripped Jake’s wrist and used the force to smash Jake into the wall. With Jake debilitated, Randall trapped him in a neck grip.

“Stop!” she yelled. “Let him be!”

In seconds, Randall’s forearms turned bright red from squeezing. Jake’s eyes shut, and Amanda watched in terror as he blacked out.

Wiping his bloody nose with his hand, Randall glared at her. “He started it. Both of you did, by coming here. Snooping around.”

She glanced back to Declan, who nodded. Good. He’d hit the record button. Now to get Randall to incriminate himself.

“We weren’t snooping. We had permission to be in the park,” she said. “What do you have to hide, Randall?”

“Don’t play stupid with me,” he said. “You two went to the library. Been talking to people in town about the derailment. Only a matter of time.”

“Matter of time until what?”

Randall heaved Jake onto the chair. This time he used ropes to tie Jake’s hands and feet. He pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket, lit it, and took a long puff. “I only meant to kill Chester and Andrew. Not everyone else.”

“The two execs from Bello and Toale?”

“Yes. Those two asses bragged about the all-important debut ride, just the two of them. Narcissistic jerks. Their roller coaster, the design I made but they stole. The bolts I threatened to expose them on, then they shifted the blame to me.”

“And?”

“And they were supposed to be the only passengers in that rail car.”

Amanda kept her breathing steady, trying to remember everything and say the right words so the right amount of information could be recorded.

“But other people decided to ride the coaster too?”

Randall nodded, letting out a smoky exhale. “Yep. Women. Children. I didn’t want them to suffer. I only wanted those two monsters to go down for what they did.”

“How did you do it?”

She knew the answer. Jake had talked about the safety wire being tampered with, but anything she could get out of Randall for the recording would be beneficial to their side.

“What do you care?” Randall stood up, pointed to the gas cans. “I need to get these prepped.”

“For what?” Her voice cracked at the question.

Randall stared at her and gave a wicked smile. “I’m going to set a little fire, right inside this crappy tent. With the old wood and paint of the carousel, I might not need my forty gas cans. Since you and your boyfriend will be trapped inside, better to use too much accelerant than too little. Call it another Zephyr Land tragedy.”

Amanda’s throat tightened. Sweat beads dripped from her brow. “No…please…”

“What did you think, missy? I was going to release you? Let you and your academic boyfriend here make a bigger fool out of me?”

“We didn’t think you were a fool. Jake respected your engineering work. He called you his mentor for years—”

“Yeah, well I used to be that guy. Before those assholes decided to frame me for something I didn’t do. They wanted to use subpar equipment. I cared about the public’s safety. Not them. What did I get for it? Fired and disgraced.”

Amanda looked around, noticing Declan doing his best to untie the ropes that bound Jake’s hands. She needed to stall, keep Randall talking. Incriminating himself until he had no way out.

She swallowed hard, looking at the forty-plus gas cans. And hopefully they could call the police before the psycho burned them alive.