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

“Why are we here?” She jabbed a thumb toward the squat gray hospital building. Mist River was such a small town it was a wonder they had one, but it served the whole western part of the county. Recently, a big out-of-state company bought it, which was a huge scandal, but they’d upgraded the facilities and raised all the workers’ compensation, so that shut everyone up quickly.

“There’s a reap for you in there,” Gloria said, tossing bags and papers to the edges of the trunk until she said, “Aha,” and pulled a small green duffel back to the top of the pile. She unzipped and rifled through it for a minute before pulling out a pair of light blue scrubs. “Put these on.”

Tessa scowled again, but Gloria made a face that said she shouldn’t argue. Tessa pulled the shirt over her own fitted T-shirt.

“Good thing I’m wearing leggings,” she muttered as she stepped into the scrub pants. If she’d worn jeans, she would have had to make herself into a pretzel to change in the back seat.

But Gloria wasn’t paying attention—she was still digging in the duffel bag. “Where is it? I know it was here last time!”

“Maybe you should clean out your trunk,” Tessa suggested.

Gloria shot her a glare. “I can’t. This is everything I may need to blend in anywhere. Your trunk should look just like this.”

Tessa frowned.

“Okay. Maybe not just like this. But this stuff is important.”

It made sense. Having scrubs or overalls or a wig or whatever would definitely make it easier to look inconspicuous on a reap. Tessa made a note to visit the local thrift shops and see what she could stock up on.

“Bingo!” Gloria held up a card attached to a brown lanyard, which she handed to Tessa with a triumphant smile. “Here you go.”

Tessa accepted the item and turned the card over to examine it. “There’s nothing on this. What is it?”

Gloria pointed at the card. “That is your ticket into any place you’ll need to go to reap.” She re-zipped the duffel bag and closed the trunk, then leaned on the bumper. “It’s a universal badge that has some Grim Reaper magic in it. Becomes whatever you need it to be.”

Tessa turned it over again, but it still just looked like a plain laminated white card to her. “What am I missing?”

“Walk toward the hospital. Watch the card.”

With a shrug, Tessa put the lanyard around her neck and then did as Gloria directed. When she was within about twenty feet of the hospital, Gloria called, “Check the badge.”

Tessa pulled the card up to examine it and pulled in a breath when she saw it now showed a picture of her, in scrubs, and proclaimed her to be Nurse Lottie Swan.

“Wow,” she breathed, heading back toward Gloria. In front of her eyes, the picture on the badge became fuzzy and then vanished completely as she walked away from the hospital. “So, this is, like, an all-access pass, huh?”

“Within reason,” Gloria said. She held up her cell phone and wagged it in the air. “I just assigned you the reap of Mrs. Samantha Hughes, room 323 inside. But yes. That card will act as a badge or pass key or whatever you need. Cheryl didn’t think you were ready for it. I do.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Figures she’d think I wasn’t capable. She’s never given me credit for anything.”

Gloria gave her a nudge toward the building. “I’m your boss and your love life consultant, not your therapist. Get in there and escort Mrs. Hughes over, will you? We don’t have all day.”

Tessa stuck her tongue out at her friend but went toward the hospital.

The badge worked perfectly. No one gave her a second glance as she walked around the hospital like she belonged there, straight into Mrs. Hughes’ restricted visits room.

When she was finished, she found Gloria still leaning on the trunk of her car. “How’d it go?”

“Fine. What’s next?”

“Another reap. This one’s at the chemical plant. Don’t worry—one of us is prepared. I have a white jumper suit for you. You can give that thing another whirl.” She pointed at the card around Tessa’s neck. “You’ll need it to get past the guard at the front desk and then into the lab room where Don Stempin is.”

“Fine. Let’s go. How many of these do we have today, anyway? I want to work on the Artemis Green case.”

“A few.” They got into the car, and Gloria started it up. “What are you going to do, anyway? Where are you going to start the investigation?”

“I don’t know. But I was thinking maybe I could do something like I did with Chet Sanborn’s family. You know how I went over there and talked to them about the life insurance policy? I could go to Mr. Green’s house and say I’m there about his policy. Maybe I’ll be able to talk to some people, get some information.”

Gloria scoffed and shook her head. “No way. His family would never believe he’d taken out insurance from a run-down agency like Cooper’s.”

Disappointment shot through Tessa, but she knew her friend was right. “Okay, well, that was my only bright idea. Do you have any?”

Gloria winked. “We’re just going to have to get creative.”

Chapter 8

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY creative?" Tessa studied Gloria's profile as her friend drove.

"Let’s just say a promotion wasn't all I received this morning." The tiny smile on Gloria's lips reminded Tessa of a kid who'd spotted a present with her name on it.

"What do you mean? What else did you get?"

As though she'd been dying to say it for hours, Gloria burst out, "I was endowed with Lee Stuart’s reaper ability! This girl can turn invisible."

Tessa felt her eyes pop open. This was big news.

When the earth's population had gotten to the point where the original Grim Reaper was hopping busy, he’d decided he wanted to retire, take it easy, and lounge around on beaches to drink coconutty