The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (best ereader for comics .txt) 📗

or a member of his household coming out of the doorway. Tessa recognized Jake, another reaper in her office. His expression was grim, which wasn't like him.

Any other time Tessa had ever interacted with Jake, he'd been jovial and friendly—a jokester who liked to have fun. But now, he looked positively solemn. The lamplight cast shadows on his face, which added to the somber effect. He stopped short when he saw her. "Oh, hey."

Tessa glanced over his shoulder into the dark room behind him. "What's going on? I got some weird alarm on the reaper app that I'd never seen before."

"Oh, it was an emergency reap. Something that wasn't on the schedule until the last minute. Everyone within a certain proximity gets a notification, and we’re all supposed to rush there in hopes that someone makes it in time. I was able to get here first."

Tessa was moving forward before she consciously decided to, scooting past Jake into a well-appointed office that made the words man cave leap into Tessa's mind. Everything was all leather and mahogany. But it was lacking in books. There was a stale smell of cigar smoke, but it wasn’t foul smelling. If anything, it was the opposite.

Nathaniel, Artemis Green’s son-in-law, sat slumped in a fine leather chair behind a huge, glisteningly clean desk. Tessa could've almost believed he was sleeping if it weren't for the extreme slackness in his facial muscles and the open pill bottle next to a half-full glass of water on the desk in front of him.

Tessa moved farther into the room to look at the pills without touching the bottle. She couldn’t read the label in the dim lighting, but she could read the big words scrawled on the note that sat next to it:

I'm sorry. I made a huge mistake when I killed my father-in-law. I couldn't live with it. Please forgive me.

Tessa turned to Jake, who had reentered the room with her. "What did he say? His soul, I mean, when you took it over?"

Jake grimaced and ran a hand through dull-copper-colored hair. "I don't usually ask them questions. I've found I sleep better at night when I don't. But he did seem a little confused. Lots of rapid blinking and looking around."

"Confused? If he killed himself, why would he be confused?"

"Well, it happens sometimes when people don't believe in an afterlife. They're surprised to find that they still have a form of consciousness after their death. It seems to happen a lot with suicides."

Tessa pressed her lips together and looked around the room, but there weren’t any other obvious clues. "You sure that's what happened? He committed suicide?"

Jake shrugged. "I guess I can't be sure. By the time I got here, he was already dead. Luckily, his soul was just standing there, like I said, confused."

With a start, Tessa realized they were talking in normal voices. What if they got caught? She lowered her volume. "Have you seen anyone else here?"

He shook his head. "I don't think anybody’s home. Listen, I'm going to take off. I want to get a little bit of shuteye tonight before work. You know how it goes with our job—never a day off." He gave her a wry smile.

Tessa nodded. "Have a good night. I'll be right behind you."

But when Jake left the house, Tessa didn't immediately follow. Instead, she made her way quickly through all the rooms on the ground floor. All empty. Next, she crept up the spiral staircase in the center of the foyer and did a quick check of all the rooms up there. They were equally dark and deserted, including what was obviously the master bedroom.

Where was Hannah? It was the middle of the night—shouldn't she be sleeping in her own bed?

Tessa went back to the office and looked one more time over the note. Nathaniel’s penmanship was exquisite. He’d even signed his name—probably something he was used to doing working at Mr. Green’s business.

Beside the note, there was an open envelope and a letter addressed to Nathaniel and Hannah. It was from Mr. Green’s estate attorney about his will. They were going to have a meeting at the residence.

A bit unorthodox.

But even more interesting, Tessa found Lark’s name amongst those invited to attend. Maybe Sky was wrong. Maybe Lark was going to come into some money after all.

She hoped so.

Tessa made one last look around, satisfied that she was truly there alone. Then she hurriedly retreated, making her way back out to Linda.

It seemed like an open and shut case, like Mrs. Cross had called Artemis Green’s murder. Nathaniel, feeling guilty about having killed Mr. Green, had taken an overdose of pills. It made complete sense.

So why was Tessa’s gut telling her that Nathaniel's death hadn't been a suicide?

Chapter 13

TESSA MADE HER WAY through the lobby of Mist River Manor Apartments with her thoughts still churning over Nathaniel's death. Could he really have killed himself?

When she and Gloria had watched him from the safety of invisibility, he'd been accusing Lark of the crime. And Silas had been arrested for it already. And at the golf course, he’d practically admitted that Mr. Green’s death left him in a prime position with their company. He liked the small bit of notoriety Tessa had given him.

So, why would Nathaniel admit to murdering Mr. Green when he didn't have to? He basically got off scot-free, with a lucrative company to boot.

Something didn't add up. Tessa had pretty much convinced herself that Mr. Green’s son-in-law had been murdered too. But would the police think that?

She highly doubted it. The cops in Mist River seemed to like their cases straightforward, and this one was pretty much just that. If Nathaniel and Artemis had both been killed by the same person, it was going to be up to Tessa to figure out who that culprit was.

But how was she going to do that? Tessa rolled the question over and over in her mind, wondering about the best place to start