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

seems like he has something important keeping him here. Important to him, anyway.”

“What should I do?”

Gloria shrugged. “You’re going to have to keep trying to tag him. Where’d you see him?”

“The casino. He was hanging out by the blackjack table.”

“You don’t say?” Gloria grinned and sat back in her chair. “So, either he just can’t get enough gambling, even after he can’t really do it anymore or . . .” She tapped the desk thoughtfully and then brightened. “Or someone there owes him something.” She leaned forward and tapped the keyboard a few times. “And look at that! My next assignment is due to choke at the casino’s buffet in two hours.”

“Seriously?”

Gloria stood and gestured for Tessa to follow. “It won’t hurt me to be a little early. Let’s go see what we can find out.”

Tessa leaped up and trailed after Gloria. Her heart rate had slowed back to normal, and she was glad for the company of the experienced reaper.

Once they were settled into the car and heading out of town, Tessa snuck a glance at Gloria, who had donned a pair of designer sunglasses that were huge, round, and gorgeous.

“I love your makeup,” she ventured. “Where do you get it?”

Gloria shot her an amused look. “From the pharmacy.” She laughed.

“Do you really?”

“I buy the cheapest stuff available and use online tutorials to make it look good.”

“Wow! That’s amazing.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal.”

“I can never get mine to look anywhere near as good as yours.”

“Not with that attitude! I’ll help teach you if you’re interested. We can have a makeup tutorial night. With wine. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Tessa beamed. “That sounds great!”

Tessa very much doubted even Gloria could teach her the technicalities of applying makeup or that it would look as good on her. And she knew she wasn’t the type to apply it every day. But hanging out with Gloria sounded like a lot of fun, and if she had to put up with some makeup woes to do it, then so be it.

When they got to the casino, Gloria reapplied her tangerine-colored lipstick before they went in.

The cigarette smoke hit Tessa just as hard as the last time, but it didn’t take as long for her to adjust to it. The reapers wandered among the slot machines, Gloria drawing people’s attention in a way Tessa never could.

When they passed the first room containing table games, Tessa spotted Ricardo there playing blackjack again. She nudged Gloria, who shrugged and followed Tessa’s lead. The women flanked the man, who wore a green version of the casino tank top and held a cigar in one hand. His bushy eyebrows danced, almost touching the fringe of his toupee as he tried to look at them both at once.

“Well, hello, there.” He puffed out his chest and looked smug, as though beautiful women flocked to him daily. “How you ladies doing?”

He looked closer at Tessa. “Hey, don’t I know you? Yeah, I do. From that restaurant downtown, right?”

“Not anymore.” Tessa sighed. “Hey, my friend and I noticed you seem to do pretty well at this.” She nodded toward the cards on the table. “Can you teach us?”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure.” He seemed surprised but shook it off fast. “You came to the right place—the right man. I’ll tell you, the dealers here hate to see me coming.” He said the last part in a hushed tone, eyes darting toward the dealer, who smirked but didn’t correct him.

“Great.” Gloria smiled and settled into a seat. “Teach away.”

Ricardo launched into a detailed but convoluted explanation of the game of blackjack. Tessa didn’t pay a bit of attention. She knew the gist was to make twenty-one. Instead, she tried to appear interested while keeping an eye out for Sanborn’s spirit.

“Who wants to try a hand?” Ricardo beamed at his pupils.

“I’ll do it.” Gloria leaned forward and put a chip on her marker before the dealer tossed out some cards.

As the other reaper played, Tessa leaned toward Ricardo and pointed at his shirt. “One of my neighbors used to wear these all the time. I didn’t realize they were from the casino.”

“Who was your neighbor?”

“Chet Sanborn.”

Alarm flitted across his face. If Tessa hadn’t been watching closely, she might’ve missed it. He quickly rearranged his expression into sadness.

“Oh, yeah, I knew him. It’s a bummer about what happened.” He seemed to be avoiding eye contact. “Do you . . . happen to know the cause of his death? The report I read didn’t say. Heart attack maybe?”

Tessa shook her head. “Unfortunately, he didn’t die of natural causes.”

“What does that mean? He have an accident or something?”

“Someone killed him.”

Ricardo nodded and tsked. “Ah. Can’t say as that I’m too surprised, really. If you’re going to make a living gambling, you have to hedge your bets. Get really good at one, maybe two things and stick with ‘em.”

“Like blackjack!” Gloria screamed as her cards made twenty-one.

Ricardo cheered and fist-pumped. “Way to go! Ha! I’m quite the teacher, eh? But honestly, any putz can make twenty-one. The real trick is to know when to split and double down.”

Tessa steered the conversation back to Sanborn. “So, you were saying Mr. Sanborn didn’t focus.”

“Right. Chet tried to get a little bit into a lot of things instead of a lot into a few. He never got good at anything and lost a lot.” He shook his head. “Kind of a shame.”

Gloria tapped the table with a well-manicured nail and said, “Hit me.”

“Good, good!” Ricardo praised the reaper.

“So, you think Mr. Sanborn was killed because of something to do with his gambling?” Tessa pressed, not wanting to lose the conversation thread again.

Ricardo shrugged. “I can’t really say, but it wouldn’t shock me if he was.”

“Did he owe people money?” Tessa knew he owed the casino, but this was her chance to find out about anyone else.

He took a long pull from his cigar. “Everybody under the sun.” He gave Tessa a serious look and lowered his voice. “You can’t be doing that, you know? Borrowing