Free Corpses & Conmen (Rosewood Place Mysteries Book 2) by Ruby Blaylock

suspiciously. I’ll call you as soon as I find out more information.”
    Annie and Emmett exchanged goodbyes. Her phone felt sweaty in her hand as she stepped into the cool air-conditioned kitchen. Bessie and Doris sat at the small kitchen table, snapping green beans. Annie was amazed at her mother’s ability to get their paying guests actually to do work while enjoying their stay. She wondered whether she’d see Frank out in the yard mowing the grass next.
    “Who was that on the phone, Annie?” Bessie asked as nonchalantly as possible, but Annie could tell she was chomping at the bit for information. “Have you heard anything from Emmett?”
    Annie knew her mother so well. “Could I see you in the other room for just a minute, Mama?”
    Bessie excused herself, leaving Doris cheerfully snapping beans and humming to herself.
    “What are you doing asking our guests to prepare the food?” Annie tried sound annoyed, but she really didn’t have the energy. Did she really even care if her guests wanted to help out?
    “Oh, you grumpy thing,” Bessie retorted, “she and I were just having the most fascinating chat. Did you know that the Martins are moving down here, possibly even to Coopersville?” Bessie’s eyebrows were on high alert, trying to make Annie understand the importance of Bessie’s bean-breaking conversation.
    “And poor Doris told me that she and Frank had the worst thing happen to them last year. She told me that some scummy realtor took them for ten thousand dollars’ worth of their savings. Isn’t that awful?”
    For a second, Annie forgot why she’d wanted to speak with her mother. “Wait--what? How does that even happen? You don’t pay realtors any money.”
    “Oh, he wasn’t even a real realtor,” Bessie said in a hushed voice. “He was a conman! Doris told me that the police think he’s done that to dozens of elderly people in their state. He told them that he could secure the house of their dreams and get them approved for a mortgage at less than one percent interest. Can you believe that?”
    Annie shook her head in disbelief.
    “Did you hear from Emmett?” Bessie asked again, moving on from her gossip to the topic she really wanted to talk about.
    “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.” Annie pushed her chestnut hair behind her ears. “The man in the pond, the missing guest, he didn’t drown.” She waited for Bessie to react, but her mother said nothing. “Emmett isn’t sure, but he thinks that the man died from an allergic reaction to something. He also thinks that his body was put in the pond after he died,” she added and watched as Bessie’s face became animated.
    “I knew it!” she said, almost gleefully. “I mean, who drowns in two feet of water? Oh, Annie, you know what this means,” she asked, putting one hand to her mouth for just a moment. “It means that we could have a killer in our midst.” She nodded gravely.
    Annie protested. “Hold on, Mama. Emmett told me that we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet. It’ll be a little while before he gets all the information back from the coroner, so let’s not do anything hasty. Besides, the last thing we want to do is scare the rest of our guests away with talk of murder. Let’s just let the police do their job and keep a close eye on things here in the meantime.”
    Bessie agreed reluctantly. Annie knew that her mother probably wanted to discuss the matter at great length with her new friend, Doris, but Annie reminded her that if one of the guests did have something to do with Lou Ross’s death, they still had no idea who it was. “I know you like Doris, but for now, the less she knows, the better. I suppose everyone's a suspect until we know more about how the man died.”
    Bessie returned to the kitchen and her bowl of beans while Annie went to her office. She sighed when she found a stack of papers had been knocked off her small desk. A cup holding pens and pencils had been knocked over on her desk