“You’re doing a fine job,” Rory reassured her. “You just got unlucky with this guy. Actually, come to think of it, he was pretty unlucky, too. I mean, he was probably looking forward to a nice relaxing stay, time off from cheating people out of their money, and look where he ended up. I guess karma caught up with him, huh?”
Annie sniffed. “Karma got away from him, now he’s shedding all over my son’s bed,” she joked.
They pulled into the parking lot behind the police station and stepped out of the car. A low rumble sounded in the distance.
“Sounds like we might just get a storm,” Rory noted.
Annie looked up at the still blue sky. “It doesn’t look like rain,” she argued, remembering back to another visit she’d made to the police station to get Rory out of jail when he’d been wrongly accused of killing a woman. It had rained that day, too, and she’d had to rush home to close all the windows in the house before the water could get in and cause damage.
If it did rain, she thought, at least her windows were closed today.
They entered the front lobby of the little brick police station. Myra Sedge sat behind the desk as always, her black hair in neat little braids and her uniform starched and pressed. “Oh, hey, there, Miss Annie,” she greeted them. “You just can’t stay away from this place, huh?”
Annie smiled back at the young woman. “I guess not. Is Emmett here?”
Myra nodded. “I’ll call him for you. He was down in the holding area with Delbert and a couple of the other officers a little while ago. Let me see if I can get him for you.”
Myra picked up a black phone receiver and pushed some buttons. Annie and Rory sat on a wooden bench that sat along the far wall. “Bring back memories?” Annie teased him. At the time that he’d been mistakenly arrested for killing Suzy Anderson, Annie definitely hadn’t been in the mood for joking. Thankfully, Rory had put it behind him and had even made up with the Chief of Police, Emmett Barnes.
It was hard not to like Emmett. He was a friendly man who loved to tell jokes, share stories, and fish, all things that just happened to appeal to most men in Coopersville. As the Chief of Police, he was clever and cautious, never rushing to conclusions when it came to his investigations. He was nearly seventy, but had no desire to retire, partly because his work kept him busy and being busy kept him young.
Emmett’s wife had passed away several years ago, and although he flirted terribly with many elderly women in town, Annie knew he held a special place in his heart for her mother. Bessie and Emmett spent many Sundays together, bonding over a shared love of food and books. Annie liked the old man, so did Rory. In fact, she couldn’t really think of anyone who didn’t like Emmett, except for maybe the criminals that he locked up, and even then, many of them didn’t hold a grudge against Emmett Barnes for doing his job.
“You just can’t stay away from this place, can you?” Emmett’s booming voice reminded Annie of Sam Elliott, and she jumped a little.
“Hey, Emmett. I guess not,” she replied.
“Rory, you keeping this one in line?” Emmett teased and Annie could swear that she saw just the slightest hint of a blush creep along Rory’s jaw.
“You know there’s no telling Annie what to do,” Rory replied with a grin.
“I hate to bother you, Emmett, but we’ve had some trouble up at my place. Again.”
Emmett’s face went slack. “You found another body?”
“No!” Annie replied, shaking her head for emphasis. “Nothing like that, but I think somebody tried to hurt a couple of my guests.” She briefly explained Rob and Kizzy’s sickness and told Emmett what Rob had said to her about his suspicions.
“So Rob thinks somebody tried to poison him?” Emmett twisted his bushy mustache, a habit he had whenever he was thinking hard about something. “You got any proof?”
Annie held up the thermos and sloshed it around. “Here’s what’s left of the tea they drank. It’s the only thing they both had that Frank didn’t, and he didn’t get sick.”
Emmett took the thermos, opened it, and sniffed. “I’ll have to send this off to see if there’s anything in it. Rob and Miss Fitzsimmons are okay?”
“They’re fine, now,” Annie confirmed. “But whatever they had, it had them pretty sick earlier.” Annie glanced at her watch. It was only a little past four in the afternoon, but the day had seemed to stretch on forever.
“Well, you did the right thing. I always say it’s best to trust your instincts, and if Rob’s instincts tell him that there’s something funny in this tea, it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially with the things that have been going on up at your place.”
Annie’s cheeks flushed slightly. “I’m afraid my place is going to get the wrong kind of reputation,” Annie worried.
Emmett smiled sympathetically at her. “Teething pains, Annie, that’s all it is. None of your other guests seem to be too bothered by it all, so you must be doing something right.” He leaned against the edge of the counter. “I understand y’all had a little incident this morning, something about a fire?”
“Mama’s been on the phone with you already, huh?” Annie sighed. “It was a little fire. Rory put it out.”
“You know how it got started?” he asked.
“No, to be honest, we don’t. I had a can of charcoal fluid in my shed, and it wasn’t there after we noticed the fire.” Annie sighed. “I have no idea why someone would want to burn the deck unless they were trying to get rid of evidence.”
Emmett nodded and rubbed the ends of his mustache. “Anything else weird happens, you call me. Don’t wait for your mama to do it, just trust your gut, Annie. Your gut won’t ever steer you wrong.”
Rory cleared his throat. “Uh, Chief, have you found anything else out about the dead man? More specifically, was he murdered?”
Emmett sighed. “Coroner confirmed he died from anaphylactic shock. Specifically, there were traces of unrefined peanut oil all over the man’s face and mouth. Unless he was suicidal, I’d say somebody slipped it into a drink, since he didn’t appear to have eaten anything right before he died. So, unofficially, yes, I’m going with murder. But officially, I just don’t have any firm suspects.”
“What about Kizzy Fitzsimmons?” Rory asked. Annie scowled. “What? I’m going to ask, even if you like the woman.”
“Well,” Emmett answered, “we found her prints on the phone, and another set, but not the dead man’s. I’m still waiting to see if we get a match on the second set of prints, but anybody could have touched her phone, so I don’t hold out much hope on that being any help.”
“She swore blind that she had her phone in her room when she went to bed,” Annie interjected, “Do you think she lied about that?”
“You told me she’d been drinking,” Emmett replied. “Who knows what she really remembers about that night.”
Annie’s mind went to Frank’s odd behavior at dinner the night before. “Have you confirmed whether or not the Martins were connected to Lou Ross?”
Emmett shook his head. “My gut says they are, but the guys going through the evidence from Lou’s car haven’t confirmed it.”
She thought about the crumpled piece of paper she’d found in her office. Who would have been interested in what Frank and Doris looked like? Lou Ross certainly would have been interested in them if he’d stolen their money only months before. Did he have an accomplice waiting for him, comparing his description of them to the actual guests staying at the house? Annie was beginning to believe that someone did know that Lou Ross was coming to the bed-and-breakfast. But was he killed by a partner in his crimes, or one of his rightfully angry victims?
“I wish we had all the pieces of this puzzle. My guests are going to start leaving in a few days, and my gut tells me that if we don’t figure out who killed Lou Ross before then, we may never find out who did it.”
She shifted her purse on her shoulder, signaling that she was ready to leave. “Please, call me when you find out what, if anyth
ing, is in that tea. In the meantime, I’m going to go home and try to keep my guests from dying.”
Emmett patted Annie on the back as he walked her to the door, and though she normally would have found this to be a patronizing gesture, she didn’t mind Emmett doing it. Somehow, it felt fatherly, and she knew that Emmett was as annoyed by the mess with the money as she was.
“You keep your eyes and ears open, Annie. We’re going to figure out who’s messing with your guests, and when we do, I’d venture to say we’ll figure out who killed Lou Ross.” He shook Rory’s hand and saw them to the door, as though they were guests leaving his home instead of two worried people leaving after bringing him evidence of a crime.
“Tell your Mama I’m still waiting for an invitation to dinner on Sunday,” he called after them, and Annie knew that he was well-aware that Emmett Barnes never needed an invitation to dinner, but she made a mental note to have her mother send him one, just the same.
16
Dark Horses, Dark Houses
The drive home was uneventful, except for the fact that Annie realized halfway home that she’d forgotten to go to the pharmacy for Mr. George. They turned around in a dusty driveway and headed back into town so Annie could get the drops and an extra-large bottle of acetaminophen. Since she’d bought the plantation, she’d had more headaches than she cared to admit. She supposed that was just part and parcel of being a business owner, and the price of a bottle of headache pills was a small enough price to pay for her troubles.
Once they were back on the road, Rory asked the question Annie had been trying to answer for the past two days. “So who do you think knew the dead guy, and do you think they killed him?”
Annie shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know. Nobody seems to have known him, or if they did, they’re doing a great job of acting like they didn’t.”
“Kizzy’s an actress,” he noted. “And her phone was found at the crime scene.”
Annie only hesitated for a moment. “I don’t think it was her. She just seems, oh, I don’t know--too ditzy. And she was sick, remember? Why would she poison herself? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Who would you say had the most reason to want the man dead?” Rory cocked his head to one side, waiting on Annie’s answer.
“I hate to say it, but Frank seems like the most likely person, in my opinion. I mean, he got so angry when we were talking about Lou at dinner the other night, and he was with me when I got the fishing rods out of the shed. He saw the charcoal lighter fluid, he knew it was there. And he was nosing around on the deck just before that, like he was looking for something.” She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “He didn’t get sick, either. Isn’t that a little convenient, don’t you think?”
Rory thought this over. “He’s also an old man, and I doubt very seriously that Lou Ross would have gone down quietly if one of his victims had confronted him. Nobody heard a thing the night Lou died, and Emmett says that he had an allergic reaction.” Rory ticked off each point on his fingers. “I’d say that if Lou ate or drank something with peanut oil in it, he had to have been offered it by someone he knew and trusted. Would you trust somebody you’d scammed out of ten thousand dollars?”
They turned onto the road that would take them to Rosewood Place. “Then who? Mr. George? He’s hardly spoken to anyone the whole time he’s been at the house, and he’s as timid as a mouse. But, could he be a dark horse?” Annie didn’t really believe her own suggestion, but she wanted to know what Rory thought.
He laughed gently. “I don’t think that dog would hunt,” he replied. “He’s pretty harmless, I’d venture. Actually, he’s a nice guy. Did you know he’s been coming out to the barn and chatting with Devon and me?”
Annie had no idea that the man had been spending time with her son and Rory. “Well, I guess he is a dark horse, then, just not the kind I thought.” She glanced up as a cloud passed over the sun, turning the sky an ominous shade of gray. Perhaps the thunder they’d heard was a warning. The sky definitely didn’t look blue and welcoming now; it had shifted into something that looked angry and spiteful, threatening to open up and pour down its vengeance onto them at any moment.
“You think that reporter’s on the up and up?” Rory’s question surprised Annie.
“Rob? Emmett seems to trust him. And he got sick, remember?”
“He could be smart, luring us off track while he gets away with murder.”
“Why would he kill Lou Ross? What’s in it for him, besides possibly getting to report the crime on the evening news? A bit of a drastic career move, don’t you think?”
“Well, that just leaves the psychic,” Rory replied. “She can talk to dead people, so why hasn’t she just asked the dead guy who killed him? Maybe she did the dirty deed,” he said, making his voice go wobbly in a bad impersonation of a ghost.
“Maybe she’s not really psychic,” Annie shot back. “I mean, come on, do you really buy her ‘I can talk to dead people’ schtick? I thought you were smarter than that, Rory Jenkins.”
“Now, I didn’t say I believe Marie is the real deal, but I never discount what people think about themselves,” he answered. “She seems thoroughly convinced that she can communicate with spirits. I don’t sense that she’s putting that on,” he continued. “If she’s a fraud, she’s a darned good one.”
Annie’s driveway appeared just up ahead, and as she turned into it a crack of thunder made her jump. Rory let out a low whistle. “Whoo, that was close. Let’s get inside before we need a rowboat to get there,” he teased.
They made it up the hill just as the rain began, and they made it onto the front porch just as it began coming down in earnest. It was a late summer storm full of fury and power, and Annie knew it would pass quickly. She could feel the air around her changing, releasing the pressure and heat that had caused the storm in the first place. Summer storms were good, they cleared the air and brought relief from the heat, but she knew they could also be deadly.
As if on cue, lightning arced across the sky, flashing light that was too bright for her eyes. “Let’s go inside and check on everybody. Hopefully, nobody’s foolish enough to be out in this.”
They went in through the front door and were greeted by Bessie, who sighed loudly when she greeted them. She carried a tray filled with cookies and a pitcher of lemonade. “I’m so glad you’re back! I swear, I have been just run off my feet since you’ve been gone,” she complained. “Not that I mind, especially since our guests have been unwell, but I’m just glad there’s someone else who can answer all of their questions,” she finished.
“Questions? What kind of questions?” Annie asked.
“Oh, you know, Mr. George wants to know what kind of wood the fireplace is made of, Frank wants to know what kind of fish are in the pond, and that Robichaud woman,” Bessie said her name like it was something exotic, “just keeps asking about people who died in the house. She seems awfully interested in that sort of thing,” Bessie finished.
Annie felt bad for her mother, but she knew that she brought it on herself. Bessie had a habit of starting conversations with anyone who would listen, and Annie had a feeling that many of her guests’ questions had risen from prior conversations with her mother. She was slightly amused by the fact that Bessie the Chatterbox had finally gotten tired of all the chatter.
“I’ll take over hostess duties,” Annie assured her. “You go sit, take a break.” She turned to Rory and passed him the two boxes she still carried from the car. “Would you mind sticking these in the office for me real quick?” He took the boxes and disappeared down the hallway leading to the office.
Annie took the tray from her mother and wandered into the sitting room. Frank and Marie looked up from a game of cards and greeted her warmly. “Look what the storm brought in!” Frank laughed. “Glad you guys got back before the weather took a turn. It’s rough out there!”
Marie sat in a corner chair, reading a book. She looked up and over the top of the book, gave
Annie a little smile, then returned to her reading. Alexander George sat on the opposite side of the room. He had a book about the history of Coopersville open on his lap and appeared to be studying a map of the county printed inside. There was a distinct lack of chatter, she noted. Her mother was a terrible one to exaggerate.
Annie sat the tray on a coffee table in the middle of the room. “Here’s a little snack to keep you all from starving until dinner,” she chirped. “Just let me know if y’all need anything else.” She turned and started towards the door, then remembered Mr. George’s eyedrops.
“Oops, I almost forgot.” She pulled the drops from her pocket and approached Alexander, who eyed her warily until she held out the small bottle.
“Oh, thank you,” he said, his cautious face breaking into a bright smile. “These are exactly what I needed! I still have no idea what happened to my other bottle,” he apologized. “I do hope your little kitty didn’t try to eat the bottle. They are not suitable for internal consumption,” he added soberly.
Annie smiled, not sure how to respond. “I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually,” she reassured him, “but these should help in the meantime.”
She turned to leave the room, aware that all eyes were on her. It dawned on her that she’d never seen Alexander speak to any of the other guests, and she realized that they must all find him just as odd as she did. Immediately she felt ashamed of herself. The man had been nothing but kind to her, so what if he was a little odd? Annie had no right to judge the man for keeping to himself. Shyness was not a crime, after all.
Annie found Rory and Bessie in the kitchen, eating cookies and drinking coffee. The smell of food filled the kitchen, and Annie realized that her mother had not one, but two slow cookers simmering away on the counter. She could just make out the tang of spaghetti sauce seeping out of one and a hint of beef coming out of the other.
Corpses & Conmen (Rosewood Place Mysteries Book 2) Page 12