After about twenty-five minutes of walking, they came to a stop. Rory pushed aside some branches of a prickly bush to reveal a stunning view of the pond. From where they were, the house was completely out of sight.
“How big is this pond?” Rob asked, impressed with the secluded spot.
“It runs along most of the property, I think. It’s kind of narrow, for a pond, but it’s a good size for fishing. Actually, this is the back of the property line for the bed-and-breakfast.”
“Who owns the rest of that land?” Kizzy asked pointing to the trees behind them.
“I’m not sure,” Rory admitted. “But whoever it is, I’ve never seen them. It’s pretty secluded out here. Y’all make sure you stay together, don’t go wandering around in the woods. I don’t want to have to send out any search parties,” he joked.
Rory felt only a little uneasy as he left the small group and made his way back to the house. Annie greeted him by the deck.
“Everything good with the fishermen?” she asked, thinking that she really ought to say ‘fisherpeople,’ but it didn’t sound quite right.
“Yep. They should be fine as long as they don’t try and wander off,” he sighed. He reached over and brushed a coarse black hair off of Annie’s shoulder. “That dog sleep alright last night?”
Annie looked down and realized that her shirt was speckled with dog fur from an early morning cuddle with the young dog. She hated to admit that she had already grown quite fond of the little guy and she secretly hoped that the veterinarian wouldn’t find a microchip when they went to his office later that morning.
“Yep,” she replied, “he even slept through our little incident,” she added, gesturing to the deck. “I’m going to take Devon and the pup to see Dr. Fisher so we can make sure the dog doesn’t already belong to someone. I guess I might need to stop and buy dog food, too, depending on what we find out.” She picked at the fur on her shirt as she spoke and she knew that Rory could tell she was avoiding discussing the fire.
He simply nodded as she spoke, then replied, “While you’re gone, I’ll take care of the mess from our little ‘incident.’” He looked around the backyard, surveying the place for any clues that they might have missed the night before. Annie could tell that he was uneasy about the fire--who wouldn’t be? There was something extremely unsettling about waking up to a fire. It was bad enough that it was unexpected, but the fact that it appeared to have been deliberately set while everyone slept, that had Annie’s nerves on edge, too.
“Thank you, Rory.” She leaned in and hugged him. He smelled like soap and sweat, like fresh air and hard work. She sighed. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said finally.
Rory smiled. “I guess you’d be leading the fishing expeditions,” he joked. They separated and went off in different directions, both determined to get their jobs done as soon as possible.
Annie hated leaving Bessie alone to entertain the remaining guests, so she hurried along to Dr. Fisher’s veterinary office. After confirming that the dog had no microchip, she and Devon detoured to visit Emmett at the police station.
They waited with the puppy in the lobby of the station while the receptionist called the Chief in his office. Soon, he appeared behind the glass partition that separated the lobby from the rest of the station.
“Well, now, what have we here?” Emmett’s booming voice startled the pup, making it yelp. “Sorry, little fella,” Emmett apologized to the dog, scratching behind its ear. “Didn’t mean scare the little guy.”
“This is the dog I told you about,” Annie replied, stroking the pup’s head. “Devon and Rory found him wandering along the road by my house. He was dirty and hungry, but the vet says he seems okay, though he needs to be wormed and vaccinated.”
Emmett nodded, unperturbed by the revelation that the pup had parasites. “Most stray pups are wormy,” he said. He looked at Devon. “Did he have a collar or one of those microchip things?”
“No, sir. The vet says he’s probably about four months old. He looks like he’s part German Shepherd, you know, like the kind of dogs used in K9 units. I’m thinking maybe somebody couldn’t find a home for him and just dumped him,” the teen added. “I don’t see how anyone could be so cruel. Look at that face--those big old eyes!” Devon leaned in and let the dog lick his face. “But Mom says I can keep him, so it’s all good, right little guy?”
The dog’s tail wagged in excitement. “Chief, you said you found dog hair in the car? What color was it?” Something had been nagging Annie since the Chief’s call the day before. She felt like she kept finding pieces to a puzzle, but had no idea how they all fit together.
“‘Bout the same color as that,” Emmett replied, pointing at the pup. “Wouldn’t surprise me if your missing guest was planning on bringing a friend with him,” he added.
“Do you mean that this pup was the dead guy’s dog?” Devon asked. “No way!” He looked at the pup for a long moment. “Then it was fate that we found him,” he added. “If Rory and I hadn’t been driving along our road right then, he probably would have ended up getting hit or starving.” He rubbed the dog’s furry ears affectionately. “I know what your name is,” he said confidently. “Your name is Karma because it was definitely fate that brought us together.”
Annie stifled a giggle. “What?” Devon asked, a little hurt that his mother didn’t understand the importance of the name.
“Nothing,” she replied, “It’s a great name. A little dramatic, but unique.” She turned back to Emmett. “Do you need the dog for your investigation?” she asked, wondering to herself how she would tear Devon and the pup apart if he did.
“Nope. I think we’ll just go on the assumption that Karma here got separated from the deceased at some point. I don’t know if that has any bearing on the man’s death, but I don’t see any harm in you guys taking this little fellow home and fattening him up.” He pulled Annie to the side, then added, “I understand y’all had a fire at your place last night?”
Annie was baffled. “How did you know?”
“Your mama called me this morning, first thing. She said you wouldn’t want to worry me, but I’ll just say what I’ve been saying--be careful.”
“It was on the deck, nowhere near the house,” she replied as if it would make the whole situation less bad.
“You want me to send somebody out there? Dust for prints, maybe call in an arson investigator?”
Annie shook her head quickly. “No, I just want to get through this week and send these guests on their way. If the killer is found before then, all the better,” she added, hoping Emmett would reassure her that his officers had a lead on the killer already.
“I’m sure we’ll sniff them out in no time,” he reassured her. “In the meantime, you’ve got yourself a great little guard dog here,” he said, patting Karma on the head. “And you know what they say?”
Annie looked puzzled. “What do they say?”
Emmett grinned. “Well, you know that people who do bad things have to deal with Karma, right?”
The dog let out a little bark, and Annie laughed. “Well, I feel a lot better now,” she replied. “I’ll just let Karma here handle all my problems. I’m sure he’ll sniff out the culprit in no time.”
As they headed back to the car, Annie couldn’t help but wonder if maybe fate really had put the little dog in Rory and Devon’s path. It seemed like a lucky coincidence that they’d found the little guy. “Karma, it’s a shame you can’t speak,” she whispered to the dog as she rubbed its head. “You might be able to tell us who killed your owner.”
Karma looked at her with big brown eyes and barked in apology. Annie sighed, and drove them all home.
14
Tired and Sick
It was already getting hot when Annie arrived back home a little after ten in the morning. They’d made good time on their errands, even after stopping at the MegaMart for dog food. She’d also insisted on getting the pup a collar and soft little bed. “You w
on’t want him sleeping with when you realize how much he sheds,” she advised her son. While Devon took Karma up to his room, Annie sought out her mother.
Bessie was sitting out on the screened-in porch of the rear veranda. Doris sat with her, a tray filled with a teapot, cups, and accessories sat between them on a table.They were chatting quietly, watching Rory work on the deck, and didn’t hear Annie approach.
“I had a feeling I’d find you two out here,” Annie teased them, causing Bessie to startle slightly. “Didn’t mean to make you jump, Mama. What are you two plotting out here?”
Bessie looked slightly red-faced. “Oh, nothing,” she said quickly. “We were just swapping recipes,” she insisted.
“And drinking tea,” Doris confirmed, lifting a china cup for emphasis. Both women fell immediately silent and took to sipping their teas noisily.
“Well, okay, then,” Annie replied in an exaggerated voice. She got the distinct impression that the two women had just been talking about her before she walked up, though she had no idea why her mother wouldn’t include her in the conversation. Annie’s life was, for the most part, an open book. She saw Doris look intently at Rory, then over at Annie, as though she was comparing the two. Annie’s own cheeks reddened as she realized that they must have been talking about her relationship with Rory.
“Dr. Fisher says the dog doesn’t have a microchip,” Annie said, and it came out a little louder than she’d intended. “And he’s healthy, apart from being slightly wormy,” she added more quietly.
“Most puppies are wormy,” Bessie replied cheerfully. “So we have a new dog!” She sat her cup on the table and gestured towards an empty one, pointing at Annie to ask if she wanted a cup.
Annie shook her head ‘no.’ “Devon’s named him already,” she laughed. “He calls him Karma. I told him it was a little dramatic, but I guess that under the circumstances, he’s got a pretty dramatic origin story. I stopped by Emmett’s place,” she added, trying to be discreet in front of her guest. “He has an interesting theory he wanted to share,” she added.
“You mean he thinks the dog belonged to the dead man?” Bessie picked up her tea once again and peered over the rim of the cup. “He called me after you left. I think he’s fishing for an invite to supper on Sunday. Ever since I told him I’m making chicken and dressing he’s been pestering me non-stop,” she said, a giggle coloring her voice.
Annie was annoyed at her mother for discussing what she considered sensitive police investigation information in front of Doris, but the Ohio woman simply shook her head and cupped her hands around her tea. “I hope they catch whoever killed that man. He might have been a criminal, but nobody deserves to end up like he did.” She shook her head. “And now all his victims will never get a chance to get their money back,” she added. “It’s not like you can get money from a dead man, is it?”
Bessie agreed. “It’s an awful situation all round, isn’t it? But let’s not talk about such depressing things right now.” She patted Doris’s arm gently. “Would you like to see my favorite recipe for pineapple upside down cake? It’s an old one, been in my family for years, but it makes the best dessert!”
Annie left the two women discussing cakes and cookies. She went back inside the house and headed for the kitchen, where she stopped to make herself a cup of coffee. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out a tin filled with single-serve coffee pods. Her mother may prefer old-fashioned coffee from a coffee pot, but Annie was unashamedly in love with her Keurig, and she breathed a sigh of relief when the aroma of French vanilla coffee filled the kitchen and her blue ceramic mug.
Annie added her cream and sugar, then took a long drink, still holding the spoon that she’d used to stir the drink. Setting the mug on the counter, she reached for the faucet to rinse the spoon in the sink when something odd caught her eye. A pointed piece of clear plastic sat wedged up against the tap. Annie picked it up and examined it. It appeared to be some sort of a lid, though she had no idea what it fit. She was just about to toss it in the trash when Rory came into the kitchen through the back door. Annie slipped the lid into her back pocket absentmindedly and turned to Rory.
“Annie, I thought you should know that I’m going to go get your guests from the far side of the pond,” he said, catching his breath just a little. “Rob just called me and said he’s sick. Actually, he said Kizzy’s sick, too. I’m not sure about Frank, but Rob sounded kind of shaken up.” He paused for a moment. “I’ll try to be as quick as I can, and I’ve got my phone if you need me.”
Annie could tell Rory was anxious about something. It crossed her mind that he didn’t want to leave her alone after the murder and the fire, but Annie knew she could take care of herself. “Go, don’t worry about me, for heaven’s sake. Did Rob say how sick he was? Is he like, puking sick?”
Rory shrugged. “I don’t know, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to fuss over a little indigestion. They might have picked up a nasty stomach bug, you just never know what they got up to before coming here,” he added.
Annie frowned. It seemed awfully strange that only Rob and Kizzy would be affected by some unexplained illness. Still, she suspected that maybe Rob had exaggerated his illness in order to come back to the house sooner. She doubted that the younger guests had much in common with Frank, and with the temperature already in the upper eighties, they were all probably getting tired of the heat.
“Thanks for letting me know. You go on and get them, I’ll go see if I can round up some antacids and Pepto. I never realized that running a bed-and-breakfast required nursing skills,” she joked.
Annie stepped out the back door and watched Rory walk away until he disappeared in the tree line. She turned and went back into the kitchen, debating whether she should say anything to her mother, who would undoubtedly kick up a fuss over the sick guests. Annie decided to wait until Rory and the others returned before she said anything. She wouldn’t want Doris to worry, and Bessie would almost certainly say something to the woman.
Annie walked across the kitchen and opened the door that led down into the cellar. It was dark and cool down there, and it happened to be the perfect place to stash emergency supplies. She flipped a switch and a single bare bulb burst into light, casting a yellow glow on rows of canned foods, her mother’s gardening supplies, and an assortment of items that they had yet to find permanent homes for.
Across the room was a sturdy metal shelving unit filled with clear plastic tubs. Annie walked over to it and pulled out a tub labeled “medical stuff.” She vaguely remembered putting a few bottles of antacids in the tub just a few weeks before when she’d stocked up during a sale at the MegaMart.
“It’s always smart to keep these on hand,” her mother had advised. “These and Band-Aids, you can never have too many.”
Annie noticed that the door to the breaker box was slightly ajar. Although it was brand new, the door didn’t want to stay shut for some reason. Despite Rory’s best efforts, the door always managed to pop open, which wasn’t strictly a problem, but it drove Annie crazy. She couldn’t stand a slightly open door. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d scolded Devon for leaving cabinets open in the kitchen and her own mother for leaving doors ajar around the house. Either push it completely shut or leave it wide open, but a door that was slightly ajar aggravated her to no end.
She reached up and pushed the door closed, only to have it pop open again. She tried again, wiggling the catch until she thought it might just stay in place, but as she pulled her hand away she was rewarded with a ‘click’ and the door popping back out of place. Frustrated, she pushed the door closed and pounded the catch with her fist. It finally gave in and stayed where she wanted it to, but she didn’t have a chance to gloat.
“You can hit it all you want, but I don’t think that it will help.”
Annie jumped, turning so quickly that she knocked the bottle of antacids off onto the floor.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Marie apologize
d, “but I saw this door open and just wondered where it led. I always say that an open door is an invitation to the spirit world.”
Annie picked up the antacids and put them in her back pocket. They fit snugly, digging into her tailbone and stretching against the fabric of her capris. “You gave me a fright,” Annie admitted. “I didn’t hear you come down the stairs.”
Marie didn’t respond. She simply smiled and looked around the room, studying her surroundings. “Is this the cellar?” she asked after a moment. Annie nodded. “These old homes have such character, don’t you think?”
Annie thought the cellar was fairly boring. It was cooler down here, which was its only benefit, as far as she was concerned. The room felt clammy to her, and with no windows, it felt claustrophobic, despite the fact that it was nearly as large as her kitchen.
“We don’t encourage guests to come down here,” Annie responded, annoyed that Marie had frightened her and didn’t seem the least bit remorseful about it. Her apology sounded insincere, and that bit about the spirit world rubbed Annie the wrong way. She was sick of Marie’s references to ghosts and spirits, and Annie found herself looking forward to Marie’s checkout date with some small amount of glee.
Marie studied Annie for a moment. “You look like you’ve lost someone recently. No,” she amended, “not recently, but you have been thinking about him recently. Your father,” she added, “is that correct?”
Annie squinted in the low light. “My father died five years ago. I do think of him often, yes, and I’m sure he’s been on my mind in the past few days.” She pointed towards the stairs, motioning for Marie to make a move.
Marie nodded and began to walk very slowly up the bare wooden steps. “I believe he thinks of you, too,” she replied, exiting the cellar ahead of Annie. The two women stood in the middle of Annie’s kitchen for a long moment. The house was silent around them, save for the creaking of the floor as Annie shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Corpses & Conmen (Rosewood Place Mysteries Book 2) Page 10
