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

go on trips with your husband or host the parties he wants you to.” The corners of her lips plunged downward. “To watch your husband get bored and go elsewhere."

For a second, Tessa felt sorry for her, but somehow, she knew the old woman wouldn’t appreciate sympathy. She pressed her lips together.

Mrs. Green went on, a faraway look in her eyes, as though she’d forgotten Tessa was there. "Oh, he didn't say he was bored. He said he was lonely. Whined that I shut him out when I got sick—that I treated him like a stranger. What a load of ridiculousness. He was just making excuses for his transgressions. But I knew—oh, I knew what they were. I never let on to him that I knew, but I did. And I also knew that he would give some of his fortune to that illegitimate daughter when he died. Some of the wealth that was rightfully my daughter’s."

"So, you killed him because of the changes to his will?"

"I wanted to kill him before he made the changes," she said gruffly. "But the opportunity never presented. When I found out he’d already been to his lawyer, I had to change my plan. Make it look like Lark had done the deed, so she wouldn’t be able to receive the inheritance. I used my hidden stairwell." She waved a hand toward the doorway where I'd found the jugs of cleaner already. "Way back in the day, before Artemis had this place basically rebuilt from the ground up, that was a servant's stairway. It was a way for the kitchen staff to bring food and drink directly to the master room—quicker than going through the rest of the house, so they could attend to the needs of their employers efficiently. Over the years, everyone forgot it was there except for me. But then you and that fan boy had to go and screw everything up. It delayed Lark's arrest."

Tessa gave her that. Silas’s bout of espionage had put a wrench in a lot of things. But it didn’t explain everything. She squinted at Mrs. Green. "Why did you kill Nathaniel, then?"

"Well, once I had my way, Hannah was to inherit everything. But she would have let that worthless son-in-law of mine take control of things. She was never a leader. Not like I was in my youth. That was before my ailment.

“No. Hannah always preferred to defer to her husband. And he would've driven our business and her fortune into the ground. I never did like him, and neither did Artemis. It was one of the few things we agreed on during the last twenty years of our marriage. Is that enough truth for you, girl?" Mrs. Green took several steps forward, re-aiming the gun to make sure it was centered on Tessa's chest. The floor squeaked under her feet.

Desperately, Tessa tried to figure out how to keep the woman talking. "You don't really want to do this." She put a note of pleading into her tone that she hoped would draw Mrs. Green's attention.

In her purse, though she had turned the phone down as low as it would go, she recognized the annoying buzz of the emergency reap alert. Her heart rate skyrocketed. Was the emergency reap for her? Which one of the agency’s reapers would come to help her cross the veil?

Mrs. Green put a sweet smile on her face. "Oh, you’re trespassing. I'm well within my rights to shoot you. I'll simply tell them you were up here trying to steal jewelry, and when I walked in on you, you attacked me."

The floor squeaked again.

But Mrs. Green hadn’t moved. Confusion crossed her face, and she turned to look over her shoulder.

Tessa surged forward, crouching low in case Mrs. Green pulled the trigger. She crashed into the old woman’s knees, and they both went down. The gun flew out of Mrs. Green’s hand. Her knee came up, nailing Tessa in the solar plexus. She wasn’t kidding about her rehabilitation.

Tessa gasped for air, folding into a fetal position. Mrs. Green inched across the floor toward the gun.

Fighting through the pain and lack of oxygen, Tessa wrenched herself around. She had to get to the gun before Mrs. Green if she wanted to live.

But as they both reached for the weapon, Tessa knew she was too late. Mrs. Green was an inch closer.

Just before the elderly woman’s wrinkled hand could close on the pistol’s handle, the gun moved on its own, away from her grasp.

Tessa craned her neck to watch the gun float from the floor up into the air. Mrs. Green gaped like a fish trying to get oxygen out of the air on a boat deck. “What? Who? What?” she sputtered.

But Tessa knew exactly who was in that invisible space. Gloria didn’t address Mrs. Green. Instead, her words were meant for Tessa. “I guess I was the closest reaper around when the emergency reap alert went off. I was meant to take you across the veil. But that would have been a lot of paperwork, and I’m just getting started in management, so I thought I’d buy you some time until the cavalry arrives instead.”

As though on cue, the soft sound of sirens floated through the air. Gloria helped Tessa to her feet. The invisible reaper and the gun headed down the hidden stairwell.

Mrs. Green pushed herself to a sitting position. She was back to looking old and frail, her expensive clothes rumpled and her hair wisping loose from its braid. “I hope you don’t think you’re done with me,” she hissed at Tessa.

“Oh, I don’t,” Tessa answered. “Somehow, I’m positive you and I will be crossing paths again soon. Very soon. But I’ll probably be working in my official capacity when that happens.”

Chapter 22

SILAS HELPED TESSA out of his pick-up truck with a strong, warm hand, and they crossed the parking lot together. “I’ve been wanting to try this place,” he said. “Good call on the restaurant