by Paula Lester
Briefly, Tessa wondered if the reaper grapevine worked by phone or email or something more archaic, like messenger bats or something. She knew the answer. The agency was so bureaucratic. It had to be email. But then there was Corwin Blade’s message to her, something about a scythe? That was pretty arcane.
Of course, even if Cheryl knew what had happened through mystical means, Tessa couldn’t question her too much about it at the moment. Silas sat two feet away from her, munching on a piece of garlic bread and having no idea his dining companion reaped the souls of the dead for a living.
She’d like to keep it that way as long as possible. Like, forever.
Cheryl spoke again, pulling Tessa out of her reverie with a vague answer. “Oh, I hear about things like this right away. So, do you have any idea what’s going on? Are the souls lost? Or were they ever allocated?”
Tessa’s eyes narrowed. “No. Why would I? I don’t know what you mean.”
“You were so good at finding Chet’s soul, dear, that’s all.”
There was a pause on the line, during which Tessa’s mind scrambled, trying to figure out Cheryl’s endgame.
She got nowhere. Tessa had never been able to outsmart her mother. Her eyes flitted to Silas, who had finished the garlic bread and was digging into his pasta with the zeal of someone who’d spent all day in the sun and needed some calories.
She turned her body a bit, hoping to shield the mouthpiece so Silas would be less likely to hear Cheryl’s voice wafting out. Tessa said, “Well, I don’t believe April would exactly welcome my help.”
“That may be. But if someone down there doesn’t figure this out, I’ll have to . . .” She trailed off, leaving only silence on the line again.
“You’ll have to what?”
“Oh, nothing, dear. I was just thinking out loud. Go. Finish up dinner and get to bed. Your notes will suffer on less than eight hours of sleep. Nighty-night.” Cheryl made a kiss-kiss noise and disconnected.
Silas glanced up from his spaghetti Bolognese. “Everything okay?”
“Well, my mom is nuts, but that’s status quo. So, I guess everything’s fine.” She chuckled and tucked her purse away after silencing it. Then, she dove into the food in front of her.
The rest of the meal was pleasant, but only part of Tessa’s attention was on the conversation. She kept thinking about her mom’s half-sentence. What would Cheryl have to do if the mysteries of Art’s and Cynthia’s unaccounted-for deaths weren’t solved?
After dinner, Silas and Tessa strolled slowly through the hotel.
“I’ll walk you to your room,” Silas offered.
“Okay, but let’s take the elevator because I can’t climb stairs with that tiramisu weighing me down.”
“You got it.” His hand found its way to the small of Tessa’s back, giving her a little chill, as they headed for the lobby, where he punched the elevator button for her floor. “That was an excellent dessert, though. Worth not being able to climb stairs for.” Silas rubbed his flat belly and radiated satisfaction.
“I have to agree with you there. Stairs are overrated anyway. Elevators are the way to go.” She actually thought stairs may have been invented by the Grim Reaper. To kill people faster, by heart attack. Having met the man and felt his predatory gaze, she wouldn’t put it past him.
She shook her head to clear out the image of the creepy Corwin Blade, drawing a questioning glance from Silas. Luckily, the elevator doors opened before he could question her.
Gloria and a few other reapers tumbled out into the lobby. They all wore pajamas. Gloria had on her hedgehog slippers. When she saw Tessa, she grabbed her elbow. “Emergency session,” she said. “Come on.”
Confusion clouded Silas’s features. “You’re having an emergency life insurance presentation at nine-thirty pm?”
Gloria shook her head. “This is about the agent who was killed by a shark, I think. They want to give us some information about her memorial. Or, you know, something. Sorry to steal Tessa away from you. Bye, now!” She pulled on Tessa’s arm.
This was new. Usually, Gloria was shoving Tessa toward Silas, not trying to lead her away.
Over her shoulder, Tessa called, “Goodnight! I’ll text you in the morning.”
“Thanks for dinner!” Silas gave a little wave and headed for the door, still looking a bit baffled.
“What is this all about?” Tessa hissed, pulling her elbow out of Gloria’s grip.
She shrugged. “I got a call that we needed to head to the main conference room for an emergency talk. You should’ve gotten one, too. That’s all I know.”
Tessa remembered her silenced phone. Oops.
As they filed into the conference room, Tessa caught a glimpse of April and Lee talking near where the buffet was set up in the morning. Lee’s arms were crossed, and he frowned. April was talking earnestly to him.
It took about ten minutes for the room to fill with reapers. Some looked like they’d just come from the hotel bars, and they swayed slightly. Others were wearing pajamas and had mussed hair, as if they’d been sleeping already.
Finally, April moved behind the podium and tapped the microphone. “Okay, everyone. I’m sorry to have needed to call you down at this hour. But we thought it was important for you all to know that we’ve sorted out the circumstances surrounding the spate of unaccounted for deaths we’ve had recently.” She paused, looking down as though consulting notes for a speech, even though the lectern was empty. No papers sat ready to help April know what to say.
The room was totally silent as everyone waited to hear the rest of the explanation. Or, as Tessa was thinking of it, for the other shoe to drop.
April pulled in a breath and looked up again. “It turns out, Cynthia was the problem all along. She failed to account for a few reaps in her home office. Then she missed reaping poor Art in the plane. And instead of admitting her mistakes or asking for help to fix the problem, we believe she simply made an allocation for herself to avoid coming clean.”
The room filled with gasps and murmurs.
Tessa felt her face scrunch. Did April just say Cynthia chose to die by shark? To avoid getting into work trouble?
Cynthia had seemed pretty miserable, virtually from the first moment Tessa saw her. Maybe April was right?
But then Tessa thought about what Lee had said. That if there was an accounting error, it was Timothy who was the probable culprit. And Tessa had spoken to Cynthia herself about the problem. The other reaper had been adamant she hadn’t messed up.
Tessa had believed her. She still did.
It was April who wasn’t telling the truth. Tessa was sure of it.
But why? And if Cynthia hadn’t allocated her own death, who had?
Chapter 13
THE NEXT MORNING, TESSA felt rejuvenated. A decent night’s sleep and she’d only gorged herself on tiramisu, unlike the previous night with Gloria and room service.
As she showered, Tessa came up with a game plan for the day. She wasn’t as convinced as April that Cynthia was responsible for the deaths—especially her own death. So, she was going to follow Timothy to the sessions he attended. Of course, she realized the potentially major flaw in her plan. Timothy’s sessions were likely to be the ones April attended too.
And Tessa really didn’t want to be stuck in a seat next to April. Like Cheryl, she’d probably expect Tessa to take notes.
Oh, well. Something fishy was going on, and Tessa had made up her mind to figure out what it was. Timothy was her biggest—well, her only—lead so far.
“Oof.” Tessa surveyed the buffet table with a hand on her belly. “I can’t do this to myself every day. I still haven’t hit the gym.”
Gloria wrinkled her nose. “You know, after last night, I’ve lost my appetite too. Coffee only.”
“So, you aren’t convinced either?”
“That Cynthia reaped herself?” Gloria raised a well-groomed eyebrow. “Of course not. I told your mother as much in an email earlier this morning.”
“You did?”
“It's nothing. And don’t worry. I told her you were a lovely roommate.”
As they sipped coffee in the main conference room, Tessa kept an eye out for Timothy.
“What sessions are you going to attend today?” Gloria pushed her schedule sheet over so Tessa could see it.
Tessa shrugged. “I’m not sure.” But she didn’t look at the schedule—she found Timothy. He sat alone at a table and dug into a bowl of cereal. Within seconds, he’d splashed milk on his lapel and batted at it with a fistful of napkins.
“How to Relax When the Reaping’s Done sounds good,” Gloria mused. “I believe we already proved we have a handle on that with the company credit cart. How about What to Talk About to Decrease Awkwardness on the Way to the Light.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Tessa had decided not to tell Gloria about her plan to follow Timothy. If she did, Gloria would probably either insist on joining Tessa, making it harder to be subtle about it, or try to talk her out of it, which she didn’t have time for.
Timothy got up, put his bowl in a dish tub by the door, and headed out of the conference room.
Tessa shot to her feet. “I, uh, have to go to the bathroom before the first session. I’ll catch you later. Save me a seat.” She was gone before Gloria could utter a word.
In the hallway, she scanned every direction for Timothy’s ill-fitting burgundy suitcoat. She just caught a glimpse of it as he rounded a corner. Tessa hurried that direction. But by the time she got around the corner herself, he was nowhere to be seen.
Wow. For such a clumsy guy, he actually has good shadow skills. He could give Bubba some tips.
Tessa rushed forward, glancing into each of the doorways as she passed through the hallway. But Timothy wasn’t in any of them.
At an intersection with another hallway, she stopped and peeked around the corner. She looked left. There were quite a few reapers milling around there, but she couldn’t spot tall, thin Timothy. When she turned to the right, a burgundy blur pushed through a doorway midway down the hall.
Tessa ran to catch up, thanking herself for not wearing heels that day. She leaned against the wall for a few minutes and counted slowly to forty before entering the room herself.
Timothy sat next to April in the front row. Tessa took a seat at the very back of the room.
The presenter, a reaper Tessa didn’t know, had a sunny attitude and, if Tessa hadn’t been focusing on Timothy so much, would have been fun to listen to. She was talking about how to get the most out of your day as a reaper—planning and scheduling your day so you could be given more assignments.
Tessa kept her eyes on Timothy. About fifteen minutes into the presentation, he looked at his watch, grabbed the notebook he’d been jotting in, and slipped out of the chair.
Tessa leaned over her own notebook, letting long hair fall forward to thwart Timothy’s recognition. Had he noticed her? She counted slowly to twenty, grabbed her stuff, and darted after him.
He was nowhere to be seen. The hallway that was bustling earlier was now empty, as everyone was in their morning session.
Where is he? Had he gone back toward the hotel lobby? That made the most sense. The majority of the conference rooms where in that direction. Or maybe he’d wanted to go to two talks that were scheduled at the same time and decided to go halfsies.
She started in that direction but then hesitated and glanced the other way. The only thing there was a set of double doors that said Exit. One of them wasn’t closed completely, as though someone had slipped out of it and not delivered enough momentum for the thing to swing back shut all the way.
Her brow furrowed. Why would Timothy leave the building? Did he need a smoke break or something? Tessa had never seen him with a cigarette, but she hadn’t exactly been following him around everywhere before either. The guy, with his accountant-like aura, mostly blended in with the scenery.
Tessa opened the door cautiously and stuck her head outside. The sun was so bright she couldn’t see anything for a minute. She blinked several times and held a hand to her forehead to shield her vision. Timothy was walking down a sidewalk that bordered the back of the hotel.
She eased out, holding the door until it closed so it wouldn’t make noise. She dug in her purse for the sunglasses she’d bought with Silas, glad she had them with her even though she hadn’t been planning to go outside that morning. Once they were on, her eyes were much more comfortable. She started after Timothy, making sure to stay far enough behind that it hopefully wouldn’t trigger his sixth sense and let him know he was being followed.
At the end of the building, Timothy veered off across the perfectly manicured lawn, past a little courtyard with stone benches.
Where is he going?
Tessa tried to remember what Bubba had said during his talk about staying in the shadows. The main thing was to act normal. As much as possible, even forget yourself that you were following the person. That way, you wouldn’t be putting out energy that may draw their attention.
She tried to think about something other than following Timothy across the lawn. First, her thoughts landed on Abi and Pepper. A smile lifted her lips as she remembered the need to pick up some gifts for Abi to make up for her cat’s bad behavior. She should get Pepper a little something too. Poor kitty was probably just as irritated with Abi as the other way around.
The loud chirp of a bird startled her back to the moment. Her heart thudded faster as she remembered the mission. She scanned the landscape ahead for Timothy. He’d put more distance between them. The courtyard had given way to shorter, perfectly clipped grass.
In the distance, Tessa could see a few scattered golf carts.
Really? A golf course?
She couldn’t believe it. Since becoming a reaper, Tessa had found herself on a golf course roughly triple the number of times she’d ever set foot on one during the whole rest of her life combined.
Was this some kind of curse? Were golf courses to reaper Tessa what graveyards were to most ordinary folk?
She rolled her eyes at her own thoughts and focused on Timothy. He’d stopped walking and stood, arms crossed, watching a group of golfers.
Tessa wanted to get as close as possible without being spotted by Timothy. There was a little creek to her left. She darted that direction and crouched in a patch of cattails, praying there were no alligators lurking there.
Then she stopped and blinked with the realization she wasn’t the only reaper around. Lydia was there too. That was even more odd.
Lydia was approaching from a slightly different direction as Tessa and Timothy. The golfers waved her over and one of them requested a bag of chips and a soda, as though Lydia worked for the golf course. Tessa couldn’t hear everything, but the scene was familiar. Her own first reap had been strikingly similar.
A moment later, one of the golfers stiffened and fell over. Tessa watched Lydia, in her grim reaper form, greet the man’s spirit and herd him toward a bright light that only the two reapers could see.
But Timothy’s gaze was right on them, above the other golfers. Could he see Lydia and the golfer’s spirit too?
A shout went up from one of the other golfers, stopping the spirit momentarily, who looked down on his own prone body in the grass.
“I think he had a stroke or something! He’s not breathing!”
The spirit looked sad. Lydia touched his arm, smiled, and drew his attention away from the ground and toward the sky.
Timothy nodded once, turned, and headed back across the course toward the hotel.
Tessa frowned. Why had Timothy taken it upon himself to watch Lydia reap a golfer? Why was Lydia even doing a reap here? Didn’t Miami have its own office?
At least one thing was for sure—following Timothy had given Tessa more to chew on. Much more.
Chapter 14
TESSA STAYED IN THE cattails until Lydia was done with the reap and heading back to the hotel. By then, the course had been swarmed by emergency and golf
course personnel, and it was easy to blend in anyway.
Lydia went around to the front doors of the hotel. Tessa followed her inside. As soon as she set foot in the lobby, the scent of lunch wafted past Tessa’s nose, making her stomach growl. Apparently, skipping breakfast meant something to her body and she needed more sustenance.
The hall outside the main conference room was loaded with food. Reapers teemed around it, piling their plates with sandwiches, veggies, and chips. Tessa thought it was weird how only the day prior it had been deserted when they’d called off the sessions after Cynthia’s death. Today, it was like that had never happened. Business as usual—which only made sense because their business was death.
She didn’t see Timothy anywhere, so Tessa kept one eye on Lydia as they both filled their plates. When she went into the conference room to eat, Tessa was glad to see Lydia sat alone at a round table at the edge of the room. She made a beeline to her. She smiled politely. “Hi! Care for some company?”
“Sure!” Lydia motioned to an empty chair. “Knock yourself out.”
No sooner had Tessa settled in than Gloria appeared in the third chair at the table. She smiled brightly and then dug in.
“How are you doing, Lydia? You and Cynthia were friends, right?” Tessa took a bite of ham and cheese sandwich. At Lydia’s nod, she said around it, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“It was a shock. This whole conference has been full of rotten surprises.” Lydia picked up a carrot stick but put it down again without taking a bite. “First Art, then Cynthia. I don’t understand it.”
“But April has all figured out.” Tessa caught the sarcasm in Gloria’s tone.
“You think?” Lydia tilted her head.
“Well, let’s just say if she doesn’t, I hope she figures it out soon.” Gloria didn’t say them out loud, but the words before it happens again hung in the air.
Tessa had been trying to figure out how to bring the conversation around to what she really wanted to know. She waited for a moment after Gloria spoke so the change in topic would be less abrupt and then said, “Lydia, what presentations did you attend this morning? It’s so hard for me to choose which ones to go to and which ones to miss.”
