Corpses & Conmen (Rosewood Place Mysteries Book 2) (18 page)

“Do you think that his reaction was, um, normal?” Annie whispered.

“For him? Probably. But, I’ll keep an eye on him, okay?” He glanced over at Alexander, who was now enthusiastically describing something to Devon, using his hands to illustrate whatever it was they were discussing. “I know he’s weird, but I can’t help but like the guy. It’s like--it’s like he just has no filter, you know?”

Annie trusted Rory, and she wanted to trust his judgment on Mr. George, but the strange man in the wiry spectacles made her feel very uncomfortable. “Don’t leave him alone with Devon, okay? Just in case.”

She thought that she could see the slightest hint of a frown, a touch of disappointment in Rory’s face. “Okay. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

As she walked away, Annie could hear their discussion pick up again. Devon laughed loudly at something Rory said and she could hear Alexander complain that he didn’t get the joke. Annie began to wonder whether Rory hadn’t been right about the odd little man. Maybe he was some sort of autistic savant, or at the very least, someone who simply took everything literally.

Kizzy and Rob drifted downstairs and out on the veranda shortly after Annie’s conversation with Rory. She showed them the photo and wasn’t surprised by either guest’s response.

“I know that the police said he was a bad man,” Kizzy confided to Annie, “but I can’t help but think about how sad the whole situation is. I mean, if he was on his way to visit his mother, well, what’s she going to think when he doesn’t turn up? And Rob told me that the police haven’t been able to figure out who she is or where she lives--it’s so awful.”

Annie chewed the inside of her cheek just a little upon hearing how much Rob already knew about the police investigation. “What can I say?” he shrugged when she mentioned it to him. “I’m just lucky Emmett likes me. I’ve pretty much pestered the crap out of him this week, trying to get a lead that might break the case.”

“Rob, you’re not a detective. You’re a reporter and a very good one, but I think you should be careful about trying to solve Lou’s murder. After all, you know that so far, the police still suspect one of your fellow guests.” Annie gave him a stern look, the kind she typically reserved for Devon when he did something she considered foolish or dangerous.

Rob rolled his eyes, which made him look much younger than his late twenty-something age. “And you’re not my mom. No offense,” he added quickly. “I’m not trying to solve the murder. Well, I mean, if I happened to solve it while helping the police gather information, then, so be it.” He crossed his arms. “And isn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? I mean, come on, what is this seance if it isn’t a sting operation designed to lure out a killer using a mysterious package that just conveniently happened to arrive from beyond the grave?”

Now it was Annie’s turn to cross her arms. “There was nothing convenient about it. And, yes, I’m aware that it looks a little like a sting operation, but mostly I just want to see who seems the most interested in Lou Ross’s mysterious package.” She arched one eyebrow. “You seem pretty interested in it. Should I be concerned?”

Rob’s indignance was quick but short-lived. “I like you, Annie Richards. I’m not going stand here and argue with you. Point taken, I will be cautious and more discreet from here on out.”

Annie relaxed her own stance. “I know you mean well. Now, go enjoy your food before Marie calls us in for her big event.”

Rob and Kizzy walked, very closely together, Annie noticed, out to the veranda to get their food. Annie didn’t feel very hungry. In fact, her stomach was in knots thinking about the seance. She’d never been to anything like that before, and she wasn’t entirely sure how comfortable she felt letting Marie have one in her home. Even if it was a load of hogwash, the idea of possibly sitting around the table with Lou’s killer while trying to communicate with his departed soul gave Annie a proper case of the heebie jeebies.

Annie wasn’t the only one who didn’t eat anything at dinner. Marie had locked herself away in her room, explaining cryptically that she needed to spend some time charging her ‘psychic energy’ and preparing herself mentally for the task of communicating with the dead. Annie wasn’t sure what exactly one did to prepare for such an activity, but she imagined it involved a great deal of essential oils and incense, judging by the stink coming from the room.

I’m going to have to Febreeze the heck out of that place when she leaves
, Annie fumed. She just hoped that the scent hadn’t seeped into the walls and furniture. The room would only be empty for a couple of days and then a new guest would be arriving to take advantage of Annie’s special low prices during her first month of business.

Everyone else ate plenty. Rory’s dab hand with a grill meant that the burgers were juicy and tender, cooked nearly to perfection. He’d brushed the hot dogs with some tangy barbecue sauce while they cooked, giving them a sweet kick that had Frank going back for seconds and thirds.

Bessie had whipped up not only her promised peach cobbler, but she’d managed to whip up a sneaky batch of banana pudding. Annie suspected her mother had begun the dish the day before--everyone knows banana pudding needs to ‘set’ for a good day to be any good--but she didn’t say anything when Bessie proclaimed it a ‘last minute’ contribution to the evening meal.

MegaMart’s coleslaw and potato salad were nowhere near as good as homemade, but the guests didn’t seem to mind. Devon’s contribution, several bags of potato chips, were also welcomed by the ravenous guests. After eating for what felt like hours, but was actually only like thirty or forty minutes, Annie’s guests were full and content to sit out on the deck in the dappled sunlight that filtered down through the branches of the few oak trees that dotted the property.

Annie glanced at her watch every so often, keenly aware that Marie hadn’t spoken to anyone for several hours. She was beginning to fear that the woman had fallen asleep or simply forgotten that she was going to perform a seance. If it wasn’t for the fact that Annie could see the woman’s compact little Honda sitting by the edge of the drive, Annie would have sworn she’d simply packed her bags and hit the road.

Finally, as the sky began to darken and conversation began to dwindle, Marie appeared like a specter at the back door of the screened-in porch. “It’s time, Annie. Please bring me that which belongs to the dead man.”

Marie was dressed head-to-toe in black. Her shirt was a plain turtleneck, quite hot for August, Annie thought, and her skirt was a voluminous, billowy thing full of layers. She was sure that Marie wore it to look more spectral, more mysterious, but the rail-thin woman only looked odd in the getup, like a stick insect stuck in a big, black marshmallow. Her pale face and hands stood out in stark contrast to the getup, and the resulting look was both startling and a little unnerving.

Bessie sidled up to her daughter. “She looks like one of those Barbie doll toilet paper covers,” she whispered. “What is up with that getup?”

Annie shrugged. “I’m sure it’s for effect. Let’s get everyone seated in the dining room so I can get the package.”

Everyone except for Rory, Devon, Alexander, and Frank headed up the small hill towards the house. “Give him my regards, won’t you?” Frank hollered after them, chuckling at his own morbid sense of humor.

Annie noted that Devon had bolted straight for the barn the minute that she’d started towards the house.
Probably sneaking that dog another burger
, she mused.

The house was completely dark, at least the downstairs part. “Trust me,” Marie explained when Annie mentioned it, “you’ll want the lights out. Sometimes spirits can get, well, spirited. They love to manifest in light sources, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of shattered bulbs.”

Annie and the others followed Marie wordlessly to the dining room where the three candles were now lit. They cast just enough light for everyone to see each other’s faces, but no more. Annie was surprised by how dark the room was with all the lights out. The single window in the dining room was blocked by a heavy curtain, and the overall effect was creepy.

Annie waited for everyone else to be seated, then she made her way back to her little office, which was just down the hall from the dining room. She wished that she’d brought a flashlight, and once inside her office, she did turn on the light, but only long enough to unlock her desk and retrieve the package. After turning out the lights and closing up the office, she returned to the dining room and deposited the package unceremoniously onto the middle of the table. Then she pulled out the now-folded photo of Lou from her pocket and unfolded it, placing it so that it faced Marie directly.

The medium’s eyes grew large for a moment. “Where did you get that?” she asked, pointing to the photo.

“The police sent it to me. I thought, well, I thought it might help you to focus if you knew what he looked like.” Annie hadn’t meant to upset the woman, but she could tell that Marie was uncomfortable with the image of Lou Ross staring back at her. Perhaps she didn’t usually use a photograph to identify her spirits? “I can get rid of it, if you want.”

Marie didn’t say anything, but she nodded, and Annie retrieved the paper and returned it to her pocket. Then she took her seat beside Bessie, who was on Marie’s left. Doris sat to Marie’s right, with Rob and then Kizzy completing the circle. Because the table was a long rectangular one (meant to sit twelve or sometimes even sixteen people if they squeezed in just right), Rob and Kizzy were separated by an expanse of table. They strained their arms across its surface, reminded by Marie to keep touching each other.

“The spirit may try to inhabit you if you aren’t touching someone else,” Marie warned them. “I can handle that, but none of you are experienced with these sorts of things, and it could be very dangerous for you.”

Bessie squeezed Annie’s hand a little more tightly at this. Annie smiled reassuringly in the darkness and waited for Marie to begin.

The tall, thin, pale woman reached across the table and took the package in her hands. She ran long, spindly fingers across it, caressing the corners and, Annie couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw her sniff the address label. A low, humming noise filled the air, and Annie realized that it was coming from Marie.

“Come to us, Lou Ross. Come to us and tell us what you need for us to hear.” She repeated this a few times, and Annie was beginning to feel beyond foolish when suddenly the flames on the candles began to flicker in an odd way. They seemed to twitch and bend, dancing in a random pattern that was wholly unnatural and more than a little spooky.

“I know that you’re here, Lou. Come to me...speak to me!” Marie’s voice rose to just below a wail. “I will speak with you now!”

A loud, low groaning noise filled the room, and Annie couldn’t be sure if the sound was coming from Marie or somewhere behind her. Marie held the box gripped firmly in her hands, and she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Yes, yes, I see…” she trailed off, mumbling something that Annie couldn’t quite understand.

Suddenly Marie stood, holding the package above her like an offering. She spoke, but her voice didn’t sound like her normal one. It was growling and urgent. “I want what belongs to me!” Marie froze, her back arched in some sort of spasm, and then she screamed.

Then, the candles went out, and the room was thrust into a most complete darkness.

Annie had never completely understood the meaning of the phrase ‘controlled chaos,’ but her evening was about to become the complete definition of the term. A few seconds after the candles went out, there was a loud bang from somewhere behind Marie’s chair, then the sound of breaking glass. The entire table shook, which caused Doris to withdraw her hand from Kizzy’s.

“No, don’t let go!” Kizzy shrieked. “I don’t want to get possessed by a ghost!”

It took Annie a moment to get her bearings in the fully darkened room, but she had been listening intently from the moment that the candles went out, so she heard the scuffle of feet on the hardwood floor and what sounded like fabric tearing somewhere behind Kizzy’s chair. She stood up, pulling her hand away from her mother’s.

“Annie, what’s going on?” Bessie sounded more than a little frightened. “Was that my antique pitcher I heard smashing?” Bessie’s hearing was keener than her daughter’s, Annie marvelled.

“I don’t know. Marie? Marie, are you alright?”

Everyone hushed their whispers at Annie’s question. She got no reply, only the sound of silence and her own heart beating in her chest.

“Rob, get the lights.” Annie barked out the order even as she made her way around the table. A moment later the electric lights flickered on, causing everyone in the room to squint and cover their eyes. Annie wasn’t exactly surprised to find Marie’s chair empty, after all, she hadn’t responded when Annie had called out. Annie was a little shocked and saddened to see that Bessie’s guess about her antique ceramic pitcher was right. The decorative piece lay in fragments on the floor.
It must have been knocked over when Marie stood up
, Annie guessed.

“Where’s Marie?” Bessie sounded surprised and a little hurt to find that the psychic was missing.

“And where’s the package?” Rob asked, pointing to the empty space where the package should have been.

Annie and Rob both came to the same conclusion at once. He opened the door to the dining room, which had inexplicably slammed shut during the seance, and stepped into the darkened hallway. Annie darted out after him.

“Wait!” she insisted. “Let me check her room. Why don’t you go and tell Rory to keep an eye out for her. If she tries to leave the plantation, he can stop her.”

Rob agreed reluctantly to her suggestion. Annie felt her way down the hallway, flipping on lights as she went so that she could see. By the time she’d climbed the stairs and reached Marie’s room, she had convinced herself that the woman would be gone, completely vanished. She put her ear to the woman’s door, and listened. She could just make out the sound of muffled sobs.

Annie kept a master key to every door in the house. She pulled her keys from her pocket and selected it now, opening the door as quietly and as quickly as she could. She wasn’t quite prepared for what she found, and for a moment, she didn’t quite know what to say.

Marie had packed her bags and was obviously ready to leave. She was also on her knees on the floor, cradling the wooden jewelry box, its cardboard box ripped to pieces all around her. Bits of foam peanuts drifted in the air and clung to Marie’s oversized skirt, which had a large tear in it. The woman turned to look at Annie. Her face was streaked with tears, and she clutched the box defensively.

“Marie, are you alright?” Annie felt lame, but it was the only thing that she could think to ask.

“What do you think? Do I look alright?” Marie spat the words at Annie. She glanced at her bags, and Annie realized that she’d almost let the woman slip away.

“Why did you take the box?” It was a command as much as it was a question, and Annie’s hand went out instinctively, asking for Marie to hand it over.

Marie suddenly seemed more aware of the situation, of her disheveled state, and of Annie’s insistence on having the jewelry box that Lou Ross had presumably meant for his mother to have. “I told you from day one that you should have had this place cleansed of the negative spirits.” She rose to her feet. “I’m not through with this,” she said simply, and Annie realized that she meant the box.

Annie realized with sudden clarity that she was in the presence of someone who was not in her right mind. “Marie, why don’t you come downstairs and let me fix you up some tea. You’ve been through a lot, it seems.”

Marie laughed. “You don’t know the half of it!” She darted her eyes around the room, then scuttled over to her bags and snatched them up with one hand, the other still gripping the jewelry box tightly. “I’ll be checking out now, Mrs. Richards,” she said coolly, “I believe you have my credit card details--please charge my card accordingly.”

Annie was blocking the door, but she stepped backwards just enough for Marie to pass. When the woman came closer, Annie held out her hand again. “The police are going to need that, Marie.” Annie glanced down the hallway, hoping to see Rob or Rory, but she realized that they’d be watching Marie’s car, waiting for her to make her escape.

Marie stopped, frozen in her tracks for a long moment. She cocked her head to one side and seemed to be listening to a voice that only she could hear. Goosebumps slipped down Annie’s spine as Marie broke into a widening grin. “I’m not falling for that one. I’m getting what belongs to me, Lou Ross, and no one is going to stop me.”

One minute Annie was tensed, waiting for Marie to make a move. The next, she was falling backwards, her feet swept out from underneath her by one of Marie’s bags. As the world spun backwards, Annie caught a glimpse of black fabric billowing out behind a running Marie, then all hell broke loose.

Fortunately for Annie, Marie’s bag managed to make its way underneath her backside as she fell, breaking her fall somewhat and lessening what surely would have otherwise been a very painful fall. Unfortunately, it felt--and smelled--as though the bag was full of bottles of essential oils. Annie slipped as she tried to rise, and discovered an oily puddle of liquid oozing out of the bag. She pulled herself up along the wall and took off running after Marie, slipping only for the first few steps.

Before she’d reached the landing at the top of the stairs, she heard the barking, then the growling, and by the time she’d hit the first step, she heard the screaming.

Despite the wailing cries of one seriously deranged psychic, the scene could have been a funny one. Karma, small as he was, had the woman cornered in the parlour, her billowing skirt now tangled tight in his puppy teeth. The dog, which only weighed about twenty pounds, according to Dr. Fisher, had managed to stop the terrified woman in her tracks. Before Annie could reach the bottom of the stairs, Devon came tearing onto the scene, stumbling to a stop as he realized that his puppy had Marie’s skirt in his jaws.

“Oh, crap, Mom, I’m so sorry! Let me put him outside!” Devon reached for the dog, but Annie stopped him.

“No!” She glanced out the window beside the front door and saw blue lights. “Go outside and tell Delbert or whoever it is to come in here and bring some handcuffs.”

Devon bolted back through the kitchen, and Annie marched over to Marie. She snatched the jewelry box from the woman’s shaking hands. Despite everything that had just happened, Annie was surprised to find that she didn’t feel angry at Marie. In fact, when she saw that the woman’s glasses had come off and were lying on the floor, Annie couldn’t help but pick them up and place them in her now empty hands.

Annie reached down and calmed the dog, who now sat obediently at her feet. He didn’t drop Marie’s skirt, but at least he’d stopped the barking. He still let out a brave little growl every few seconds, though. Marie whimpered in response.

“Oh, Marie, why?” Annie couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the evening’s events. Of all the guests in the house, Marie was the last one that she’d suspected of being a killer. She was so
airy fairy
, so
woo woo
, that Annie had completely written her off as nothing more than a lonely, loony woman looking for attention.

“Because it belongs to me,” she said simply. “Or, I thought it did. But it’s empty, and Lou’s dead, and now it’s all gone so wrong.” Her words melted into sobs, and as Delbert appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, Annie motioned for him to wait.

“I don’t understand--did you know Lou Ross?”

“I--I loved him,” Marie sniffed. “But he lied to me. And he took everything--all of my money--even after I helped him.”

Annie thought about the crumpled piece of paper she’d found in her office. “You mean telling him about the Martins?”

Marie nodded. “He thought they might be someone he’d--he’d taken money from,” she confessed. “We were a good team, but he was better. He fooled me,” she nodded, then dropped her head between her knees and gave into another sob.

“Why did you kill him?” Annie asked, her voice gentler than before.

“He betrayed me. There was money,” she whispered, “a lot of it. And I only wanted my share, but he laughed at me. He told me he didn’t have it, but he’d kept it safe. And then he said he couldn’t stay here. I think he thought that the Martins were someone else, but I told him that it was safe here.” She bit her lip, holding back more tears. “He said he had someone else in Mobile. He told me that he only needed to collect something from you and then he’d leave. I got angry, and I know I shouldn’t have, but I kissed him.”

“You kissed him?” Annie was baffled. “How would that kill a man?”

Marie put her fingers to her lips. “I knew he was deathly allergic to peanuts,” she admitted. “I had peanut oil on my lips. It’s wonderful for the skin, you know,” she added absentmindedly. “For a moment, it was perfect. He kissed me back, and it was literally breathtaking,” she giggled, then her face turned somber again. “But it was all for nothing. I was sure he’d have the money in his car, but that stupid dog nearly tore my hand off when I tried to look. I had to chase him off with a stick,” she explained.

“That’s why he doesn’t like you,” Annie marvelled. “You killed his owner, then you, what? Beat him with a stick until he ran off?” Annie was beginning to lose her sympathy towards the woman.

“Oh, no, I would never do that! I love animals, even ones that bark and bite, but he had to go away so I could find what belongs to me,” she emphasized. “I just chased him a little, then he ran off into the night. Of course, it’s just my luck that Lou had hidden it somewhere else.”

“It?” Annie was confused. “You mean your money?”

Marie nodded. “I worked for months with him, gathering information and helping him convince people to give him their money. We worked so well together, and I really thought…” she trailed off.

“You thought he loved you and was going to meet up with you here, for some sort of rendez vous?” Annie decided that she did feel sorry for the woman after all. Heck, Annie had been in sort of the same situation once, not the situation where she helped anyone con people out of their money, but she’d been betrayed by someone who claimed to have loved her. Her own husband had died and left behind a mistress who seemed to have spent more time with David Richards than Annie had, and she’d been married to him for nearly two decades.

Delbert gave Annie a questioning look, and she nodded, letting him know that he could now come inside and arrest Marie. As Delbert pulled out his handcuffs, Annie couldn’t resist asking one more question. “Why were you so sure that he’d put the money in the package? Wouldn’t that be risky? What if the package never arrived?”

Marie’s face twisted with bitterness. “When you said that he told you to expect a gift for his mother, I knew. His mother died ten years ago.”

Ouch
. Annie decided that she did feel sorry for Marie. Whatever else she was, a bitter, heartbroken woman now sat on Annie’s floor, and nobody should ever be lied to by someone who claimed to love them.

Annie gently pried the pup off of Marie’s skirt and pulled him out of the policeman’s way. The dog sat obediently at her feet as she watched the room begin to bustle with activity. People started filling the parlour, the guests from the seance who’d been left waiting for Annie’s return, Frank searching for Doris, and Rory, who made his way straight to Annie’s side.

“I’m sorry about the deck,” Marie said suddenly. “I--I thought that I could somehow burn away the memory of that night, and I needed to convince you to do the seance. I had to be sure--” She stopped talking as Delbert began his speech about the right to remain silent, but as soon as he’d finished, Marie spoke again.

“Wait,” she said to Delbert before he could push her through the front door. “Annie, Rose says ‘thank you.’ She told me that you know her secret, but you’ve kept it for her, and she really appreciates it. She wanted me to tell you that, and also to tell you that your father loves you very much.”

Delbert waited for her to finish speaking, then pushed her out the door. “Nobody wants to hear your nonsense, lady.”

Annie paled slightly. “Can you believe the nerve of that woman?” Rory asked her. “Even as they’re hauling her away, she’s trying to play on your emotions.”

He noticed the box in Annie’s hands. “Is that it, the package from Lou Ross?” She nodded. “Can I see it?”

Annie handed him the box. “I guess the police are going to be mad because it’s covered in fingerprints now,” she said. “Marie seemed to think that it was going to be full of cash,” she added, “but it’s empty.”

“Did you check her pockets?” Rory teased. “And your silverware drawer?”

Annie shook her head. “She was so sad. I mean, she really seemed to love that guy, and according to her, he just crapped all over her from a dizzying height.” She explained what little she knew about Marie’s and Lou’s working relationship, and their personal one. “He was a con artist in every single sense of the word, I guess.”

Rory turned the box over in his hands, studying the craftsmanship. “This is weird,” he muttered, fingering a seam along the base of the box. He shook the whole thing gently, then tapped the base with his finger. “It’s got a hollow base,” he whispered, “I’m sure of it.” Rory continued to examine the box for a minute, until a familiar voice boomed from the kitchen.

“Annie, you in there?” Emmett appeared in the doorway to the parlour, his expression neutral. “Heard you had some problems with a guest?”