The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3

by Paula Lester

  But she was going to have to make a decision about how to handle this issue and then stick to it. Waffling, even in her own mind, wasn’t working out at all.

  Tessa hauled herself out of bed and grabbed the phone to check the reaper app. It'd become a habit to do that first thing in the morning, so she didn't miss any assignments. Sure enough, there was one waiting for her, and she checked the time of death against the digital clock on the end table. She had forty-five minutes.

  Tessa scrolled through the assignment to see where she needed to go and frowned, not recognizing the address. Luckily, the reaper app was set up for such things, and she tapped the screen until a map pulled up. It didn't look like it would be hard to find, and it wasn't too far away. Tessa decided she had time for a quick shower, but she'd have to miss breakfast if she did that.

  A grumbling rumble in her stomach made it clear that Tessa's body was more interested in breakfast than a shower. So, she only washed her face, ran a brush through her long, dark hair, and pulled on jeans and a sweater before heading toward sustenance.

  Pepper did her best to trip Tessa all the way down the hallway, through the living room, and into the kitchen. "No. I said you can’t have any canned food. Here's your kibble." Tessa sprinkled some dry food into the cat’s bowl. Pepper gave her a look of extreme betrayal, and it made Tessa giggle. "Okay, okay. You can have a quarter of a can. How's that?"

  Pepper licked her nose and appeared eager, so Tessa took that as acquiescence and dished out the cat food. Then she got a pot of coffee started, poured herself a bowl of cereal, and carried it to the dining room table.

  The scene of the crime. She tried not to think about Silas while she ate but wasn't very successful. She racked her brain, trying to figure out how she could make things right with him.

  And she did want to make things right. He was a good guy, and she had a feeling he'd make a fantastic boyfriend. They just had to get through this rough patch.

  Once she’d filled a giant glittery purple travel mug with hot java and petted Pepper goodbye, Tessa left the apartment. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to run into Silas in the lobby or not. A glance at her fitness watch—which she used almost exclusively for telling time and fashion and almost never for fitness—told her she didn’t have the time to run into him.

  Luckily, the lobby was empty, and Tessa scooted out without having to talk to anyone.

  Linda, Tessa's 1981 Buick LeSabre, fired right up. Tessa let out a breath, relieved. For a long time, Linda had been sort of finicky, but she'd been reliable enough never to leave Tessa stranded anywhere. At least since Silas had taken over her upkeep, the car had been running better than it had in years. Still, whenever Tessa was on a deadline—especially to get to a reap—she was always a bit nervous about the car's performance.

  Tessa set her phone on the passenger seat with the reaper app open to the map screen. She gulped coffee as fast as possible while she drove. She was grateful when the dull pounding in her head began to recede as the caffeine hit her bloodstream.

  The destination was just outside of Mist River, where the properties were large and the homes even bigger. It had always been strange to Tessa that Mist River was such a sleepy little town but that this sprawling neighborhood of mansions was so close. Cheryl said most of the people who owned them worked in the big city and either commuted daily or the family stayed in Mist River while the breadwinner only came home on the weekends.

  Tessa remembered attending a few house parties in this neighborhood during high school. The extravagance had shocked her. One place had both an indoor and outdoor pool. Two beautiful pools! At the time, Tessa had to go to the local YMCA to use one pool—and that one had broken tiles with green stuff growing around the edges and questionable chlorine levels.

  The assignment’s address delivered Tessa to the mouth of a driveway so long that she couldn't see the house at the end of it. The driveway was paved and lined with huge maples on both sides, the branches of which leaned in toward each other, meeting in a canopy high above the ground.

  Wow. In another month or so, that would make a stunning tunnel of gold, yellow, and red. It almost made her want to make a note to come back and see it when autumn leaves were at their peak.

  About ten feet into the driveway stood a spectacular wrought iron gate in two pieces designed to meet and lock in the center. Only one side was open. If Tessa scooted the car a tiny bit onto the shoulder, she’d be able to squeeze the LeSabre through the opening.

  That's weird. You'd think a place like this would be locked up tight all the time.

  But a glance at the clock told Tessa she didn't have time to consider such things. She only had about five minutes to find Mr. Artemis Green before he died.

  She gave Linda a little bit of gas to nudge her through the gate, but the car didn't respond other than to let out an ominous cough-bark-wheeze sound. Tessa pushed the gas again, a bit more insistently, but it was no use. Linda's engine sputtered to a stop. With a quick curse, Tessa twisted the key in the ignition. "Come on, come on," she muttered.

  But Linda didn't even attempt to start up. There was just . . . nothing.

  Tessa chewed on her bottom lip for a second, debating what to do. She looked at her watch. There wasn't much of a choice. She grabbed her phone, jumped out of the car, and ran up the driveway.

  She estimated the driveway was about a quarter mile long, and by the time the house came into view, Tessa was mouth-breathing in an attempt to drag enough oxygen into her lungs to power her legs. Pain exploded in her side, and she leaned over, trying to relax the stitch while berating herself for not hitting the treadmill more often. Or at all.

  Still gasping, she craned her neck to gawk at the gorgeous architectural structure in front of her.

  The place was gigantic, towering at least four stories high, with grand turrets in three spots on top of it. The grounds surrounding the house were immaculate. It looked like someone had gone around trimming the grass with a pair of scissors, and the flowerbeds didn't appear to have a single weed among them. They were filled with beautifully trimmed hedges, rosebushes with flowers in every hue, and gorgeous orange, yellow, white, and brilliant purple gladiolus. Tessa recognized rhododendron bushes that were almost two stories high. Though the time for them to flower had long past, she could imagine how striking they would look in late spring.

  The house’s footprint would probably take up a Mist River city block, and a huge porch stretched the entire length of its front and wrapped around both sides.

  Tessa only considered sprinting up the steps and knocking on the door for an instant. But her instincts and the recent reaper training in Miami told her that was foolish. She’d almost certainly run into staff members or perhaps Mr. Green's family if she tried to make a frontal assault like that.

  She straightened, feeling glad the stitch in her side had eased, and sprinted around the side of the house. Movement to the left caught her eye, and she lunged behind a hedge.

  Okay. Get yourself together. Remember what you learned at the conference.

  At the time, the presentation about keeping to the shadows had seemed laughable. But now she had to use the information, so Tessa wracked her brain to remember what Bubba had said.

  So far, she hadn’t done a great job of sticking to any shadows. She’d taken in the lovely architecture but just now spotted the two cameras perched at the corners of the house. She made a note to steer clear of them and to look out for more.

  For a second, she wished for the secret of invisibility that the original grim reaper had bestowed upon Lee Stuart. He hadn’t deserved it, but she could sure make good use of it now. A glance around the hedge told her it was a gardener she’d seen moving about, and she was still out there, trimming fruit tree branches with a huge pinchy tool.

  She really should pay more attention when her mother tried to teach her about taking care of plants.

  Tessa looked around wildly, knowing without checking that she was running out of ti
me to get to Artemis Green. She couldn’t miss his death and lose his soul.

  Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.

  She crouched low and darted to the next hedge, staying close to the house and keeping an eye on the gardener. She continued that way, needles falling into her hair and branches scraping her arms, until she got around the house into the back yard.

  Tessa didn't see anyone, but the expanse of the area was huge. The landscape was dotted with flower beds, small groves of trees, and even a couple bubbling fountains with seating around them. About an acre away stood a huge red barn, complete with a couple of horses in an attached paddock.

  There could easily be someone tucked into one of those areas, working, and Tessa wouldn’t be able to see them.

  She studied the back of the house. The wraparound porch extended all the way along its length, too, and Tessa counted at least four doors on this side of the house. She wasn’t sure which one to try.

  With a frown, she pulled out her phone and checked the reaper app again, quickly scanning the assignment details. The kitchen. It was supposed to happen in the kitchen on the west side of the house.

  She slipped the phone into her pocket, checked for a camera, then quickly climbed the stairs onto the porch, making her way to the westernmost doorway. She was in the open now, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d need to rely on being quick to keep from being spotted if anyone was in the back yard to spot her.

  When she got to the door, Tessa drew in a deep breath and reached out to try it. When it gave under her hand and opened, she let the breath out and popped her head through the doorway. Yes! It was a kitchen. A huge, gleaming, stainless steel kitchen that looked like it should be absolutely bustling with staff, creating meals for dozens of people at a time.

  Only it wasn't. There was only one person visible in the kitchen, and he had his back to Tessa. He sat at the bar in a corner of the kitchen, which was made up to be a breakfast nook, surrounded by walls of windows overlooking the back gardens.

  For a second, she wondered if the man with a salt-and-pepper crewcut and a green polo shirt tucked carefully into black slacks was Artemis Green, her assignment, or someone else. He almost looked too young and fit to be the seventy-five years he was supposed to be.

  But when the man's spine stiffened and then quickly slumped, his head diving straight into his cereal bowl, Tessa knew she had the right person.

  In a few seconds, Artemis Green's soul rose from his body. He glanced at Tessa and then back at his body, which was still.

  Spirit Artemis tsked as milk flowed over the edges of the bowl and onto the bar. "What a pity. If I'd known this would be my last meal, I would've chosen the marshmallow cereal over the bran."

  "Hey, I had marshmallow today!" Tessa blurted out. Then she winced, pretty sure she committed a faux pas.

  But Artemis grinned. "Good for you. Of course, it's good to keep your body healthy, but we should all splurge once in a while. After all, you never know when your last day will be, even if you take excellent care of yourself."

  Tessa studied the man, both the spirit and physical versions. "It looks like you were in great shape."

  He nodded. "Oh, yes. I saw my doctor just last week. Had a stress test and he said the old ticker was like one a thirty-year-old man would have. I exercised at least a couple of hours a day—cardio and weight training. My cholesterol was tip-top, and I never had a lick of trouble with my blood pressure. Of course, my life wasn't without stress.” A shadow passed over his expression. He shook it off and smiled. “But, in general, I was very healthy."

  Tessa shook her head sadly and flicked a wrist to open a portal to the other side of the veil. As bright light spilled over them, Artemis looked at his body one last time. “I don’t think that bran tasted quite right. I should know because I had it every day for fifteen years. No, as I said, I was healthy as one of the horses in the barn out back.” He pinned her with eyes that still managed to look sharp, even though they were in the face of a semi-transparent spirit. “I think you'll find that I didn't die of natural causes. I'm sure I was poisoned."

  Tessa was still pondering what he’d said after she released the path across the veil. But she knew it was important for her to get out of there before someone saw her. Figuring that heading back the way she’d come was her best bet for staying hidden, she turned on her heel to head out the back door but staggered to a halt after only one step, a gasp erupting from her throat.

  His face the same cream color as the kitchen walls around him and his jaw hanging slack, Silas stood between Tessa and the back door.

  Chapter 4

  FOR WHAT FELT LIKE five minutes but was probably about half a second, Tessa mirrored Silas’s shocked expression. Then, she sprang forward.

  “We have to get out of here,” she hissed.

  But Silas was craning his neck to get a better look at Mr. Green. Tessa ducked around him. She grabbed him by the elbow, spun him around, and yanked him toward the door.

  But his feet were planted. He may as well have been a giant boulder for as far as she was able to move him. Like a dog hitting the end of a leash, Tessa jerked to a stop and lurched backward a bit, bungling into him. This sent her landlord’s formerly inert feet the other direction—toward the deceased body.

  He steadied himself on the back of Mr. Green’s chair. Touching objects in and around a reap was definitely something Bubba had mentioned as a faux pas. Although Tessa had been guilty of it before. It was the new information—the notion that Mr. Green believed he’d been poisoned—that made Tessa cringe.

  He let go, and she wiped his prints away with the underside of her shirt.

  “We really have to go.” She’d either have to keep going without him or stay there. And she knew that, like it or not, it was her fault Silas was there. She couldn’t just leave him.

  “What just happened?” Silas’s voice was hushed but not a whisper, like Tessa would’ve preferred.

  Her eyes darted toward the second doorway in the kitchen, the one that led to the rest of the house, and she licked her lips. “I’ll explain, but we have to go.”

  Silas shook his head a fraction in each direction. He looked over his shoulder at Artemis’s body. “He’s dead, you know.”

  Tessa nodded. “He is.”

  “Is he one of your clients?”

  “I guess you could say that. Silas, I’m serious. We have to go. Now!” She kept watching the doorway. If someone came through it, they would see Tessa and Silas immediately. There was no way they could blend in with the stainless steel appliances. Especially since Silas seemed to be still trying to hold on to the Florida vibes.

  He was still tanned. And he was wearing a short sleeve, button-down shirt that had an orange background and was covered in yellow, blue, and salmon-colored flowers—not something most Michiganders wore when fall touched the air.

  “We should probably call 9-1-1,” Silas said, still unmoving.

  “No. We should go. I’m trying to tell you we need to leave.”

  “Tessa, did you kill that man?” He jabbed a finger toward the body. Tessa reached out and snatched Silas’s hand, pulling him toward the door again. “I promise you’ll get all your answers. But not here. As soon as we’re out of here, I’ll tell you everything.”

  Tessa realized she wasn’t lying. She would tell Silas the truth. The whole truth. In hindsight, she wished she already had.

  Silas moved, then, though he still seemed reluctant. Whatever. Tessa would take it. As long as he was walking, she could work with that.

  Her heart pounded as they rushed through the back door onto the porch and ran down its length. Tessa tried to use the skills she’d acquired in years of dance to bounce on the balls of her feet quietly as she ran. Silas seemed to take a hint from what she was doing, and she could only hear the barest of footfalls behind her.

  Wow. She remembered he’d played baseball. Maybe he was incorporating his base running skills. Whatever it was, she was grateful that he was
light on his feet. Hopefully, they wouldn’t draw any attention.

  But that was more than could be hoped for. As they neared the end of the house, Tessa glanced toward the horse barn and saw four gorgeous specimens lined up against the fence, staring at her and Silas curiously.

  Well, at least the horses couldn’t blab about who they’d seen.

  “Come on,” she whispered over her shoulder. “We need to go faster.” She dropped Silas’s hand and darted around the corner, keeping close to the house, behind the hedges, again.

  When they got to the front of the house, there was nowhere else to remain under cover. If it was just Tessa, she may have tried to stay toward the edge of the lawn, among the landscaping there, but Silas’s shirt was never going to blend in with Michigan’s flora. So, she decided the best thing they could do was simply make a run for it.

  She pumped her arms and legs and ran straight down the middle of the driveway. She could hear Silas just behind her, allowing her to lead the way.

  They made it about halfway, and Tessa was just beginning to think maybe they’d be okay, when the mansion behind them seemed to erupt into chaos.

  It began with one horrendously loud screech, and Tessa knew someone had found Artemis Green. After that, multiple shouts and screams drifted to them from behind. Tessa put on speed, ignoring the aching muscles that were screaming for more oxygen. She scooted through the still-open gate and skidded to a halt next to Linda, dragging open the door and throwing herself inside. She was gratified when Silas climbed in the passenger seat without further trying to slow her down. But when she turned the key in the ignition, Linda didn’t respond at all.

  “No!” she cried. “Not now.” Tessa knew it had been too much to hope that the car had gotten over whatever snit she’d been in when they arrived at the mansion. She shot Silas a horrified look.

  He was staring at her, not much having changed in his expression or complexion since she’d first turned around to find him in the kitchen. “I knew you were lying to me, but I never expected this.”