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

“My house? Really?” Melinda sighed. “No. We believed he was cheating. But the cameras weren’t enough to get us the proof we needed.”

“So, what, you thought he was counting cards or something?”

“Using a marked deck. Maddox and Horner went over to search his apartment for it.” Melinda’s tone and expression were cool—as though she ordered breaking and entering every day and her actions shouldn’t be questioned.

“But how would he insert a marked deck into the game?” Tessa asked. “Doesn’t the casino have safeguards in place for that sort of thing?”

What Tessa knew about casinos and gambling could fit on one sheet of paper if she wrote it down. It was nothing quite like Gloria’s. But she’d watched a lot of movies.

Melinda’s thin lips got thinner as her jaw clenched. Her next words came through gritted teeth. “The dealer would have to be involved too.”

Ah. That makes sense.

If a casino employee was on the take, being blackmailed to use a marked deck, that would definitely be something the manager would want to root out and put a stop to. But at the risk of her goons getting arrested for breaking and entering?

“So, when your guys switched over to trying to find me because they saw me get arrested . . .”

“We thought you’d been involved somehow. Perhaps you’d disposed of the marked deck,” Melinda finished.

It didn’t sound like a story Melinda could make up on the fly. But an eerie thought skidded through Tessa’s mind. What if Melinda hadn’t ordered Chet’s apartment searched? What if she’d been more sure of her suspicions that he was cheating the casino? Had she told the owners? What if this was the reason Chet had been killed?

Melinda’s phone rang, and she picked it up. “Yes?” She listened for a moment. “No, that’s not right. We need one branded car and twenty-eight golf carts for the charity tournament tomorrow.” Another pause and then irritation flooded her features. She smacked the desk with her palm. “No! No, no, no. How many times do I have to tell you people that there will be fourteen teams of four. Fourteen fours. It’s not hard.”

Unable to shake the feeling that Melinda’s actions had led to Sanborn’s murder, Tessa took the opportunity to scoot out of the room and hurry down the hallway. Her thoughts raced as she tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. If someone connected to the casino had killed Chet, and they thought she was in on it too, then maybe they’d planned to kill her next.

Male voices drifted into the hallway from a side room. Something about the tone made Tessa pause and listen. “That’s ridiculous! Chino’s not going to go for that.”

“She doesn’t have a choice. This is a real mess, and if she wants to keep her fancy job and build her extravagant house, she’ll let me handle it.”

Tessa was sure that was Horner. He sounded venomous. She had a vision of him strangling Chet Sanborn and tossing him in the frigid water at the bottom of the pool. She hurried past the doorway, not glancing into the room. She didn’t want Horner and whoever he was talking with to think she’d overheard anything.

Relief flooded her when she exited the hallway into the table games room. Ricardo was still at the blackjack table, but now, Gloria sat next to him, her chin resting on a fist. She wore dark maroon eye makeup and exactly matching lipstick, but her expression was forlorn.

Tessa started to cross the room to greet the other reaper, but then Ricardo surged out of his seat, fist pumped the air, and cheered, lunging forward to gather a big pile of chips into his arms. The others at the table grumbled and moaned. Gloria looked disinterested.

Someone brushed past Tessa, coming from behind her. It was Horner, approaching the blackjack table. But before he got there, the bulky man suddenly doubled over, clutching his abdomen.

Gloria sighed and got up, moving toward Melinda’s goon. She waved a hand, and a beam of light appeared in the room. Horner’s spirit rose from his body and hovered there, shock and confusion written all over the semi-transparent features.

Tessa moved next to Gloria. “Wow. I did not see that coming. Did he have a heart attack?”

“No.” Gloria shook her head. “That man was poisoned.”

Chapter 17

“THAT HORNER GUY—WHAT a name.” Cheryl shook her head. “That was supposed to be your assignment.”

“It was?”

Cheryl nodded. “You lucked out, and I rearranged your schedule for Ellen Walker.”

“Thanks for that.” Tessa couldn’t tell if her mother had meant it as a kind gesture or if she’d used it to ensure she stayed employed as a grim reaper. Either way, it had worked.

But her mother held her cards close, so to speak.

Tessa sank into the chair across from her mother’s. “Hey, what do you know about that death, anyway? Gloria said it was poison. What kind of poison? Do you know who did it?”

Tessa had to admit—Horner had been her main suspect in Sanborn’s death. Especially after she overheard his harsh words about Melinda, who had taken her turn as Tessa’s main suspect too.

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “That isn’t the kind of information we’re given. You know that.”

“I thought maybe you—"

“You think I have higher access. And you’re right. I do. I suppose you think I should be thanking you for your little stunt?”

“For what?”

“For Chet Sanborn. You probably think you did good sending his spirit away like that—in a room full of people.”

Chery looked livid, bringing back memories of the time Tessa had used her mother’s crotchet needles to dig for worms in the back garden when she was seven. She’d simultaneously ruined the needles and the day lilies.

“Technically, he went in the bathroom.”

“You know what I mean, Theresa.”

Cheryl tapped her computer keyboard for a minute and then snapped, “I swear, Theresa. Between losing souls, not having your phone on, and insisting on driving that completely unreliable car around, I don’t know how you expect to keep this