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

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,