The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3

by Paula Lester

  He’d escaped.

  Chapter 20

  BY THE TIME TESSA MANAGED to wrench the door open, the hallway was empty. There was no sign of Lee’s spirit.

  She gritted her teeth. “No. This isn’t happening again.” She spun around, rushed back into the room, and knelt by Timothy. “I don’t know how to get these cuffs off.” She worked quickly, using a case hastily torn off its pillow as a tourniquet for his arm. “Stay here and I’ll send help.”

  He pinned her with a pointed look. “Catch that jerk and send him on to his next life!”

  “I will.” She patted his arm and took off, pulling out her phone as she raced to the elevator. She tapped at the screen and then held it to her ear. “Come on, come on. Answer,” she muttered as she got on the elevator and punched the button for the first floor.

  “Theresa? Where are you? You disappeared from the awards ceremony so fast I didn’t get to talk to you.” Cheryl’s voice was clear and calm. It anchored Tessa a bit, helping to get her heart slowed down.

  “It . . . it was Lee Stuart,” she said, finally catching her breath. “He’s the one behind Art and Cynthia’s deaths. And more.”

  “He—he did what?”

  “He saved people slotted to die in the east, so the allotments went to his side. Then, he used them to kill people who weren’t really scheduled to die.” She tapped her foot and watched the light indicate which level she was on. The elevator seemed to be moving slower than usual—they always do.

  “But how do you know that?”

  “Because he told me right before I . . . before I . . .”

  “Spit it out!” her mother scolded.

  “Before I reaped him.”

  There was silence on the line. If Tessa wasn’t so wound up about finding Lee, she might have celebrated the victory of driving her mother speechless. She couldn’t remember having ever accomplished that before.

  But she was distracted by the matter at hand and didn’t have time to bask. “Mom. Lee’s dead. And his spirit escaped. I don’t even know if he’s still in the hotel. I’m going down to the main floor to try and spot him.”

  “Okay. It’s just a lot to process. Even for me.”

  “It’s not all,” Tessa replied. “Timothy is up in that room where the task force was keeping him. He’s injured. He needs help right away.”

  “I’ll go up there now. You find Lee. There are plenty of reapers to help. Be careful.” Cheryl hung up without waiting for Tessa to respond.

  The elevator door finally opened, and Tessa hurried out. There were a few people in the lobby, and one of them was Bubba. His expression was bewildered as he focused on Tessa. “Lee Stuart just passed right through my body. What happened? Did Timothy kill him too?”

  “No. I did.”

  Bubba’s confusion deepened.

  She waved a hand before Bubba could say anything else. “I don’t have time to explain. Which way did Lee go? We have to catch him and cross him over.”

  He spun around and pointed. “I think toward the bar.”

  Tessa ran past Bubba, dodging around other reapers in the lobby and hallway until she skidded to a stop in the bar’s doorway. Frustration boiled up in her chest as she surveyed the place—there were so many reapers there that it was hard to sort out who was who. A spirit would be difficult to spot in the dim room with all the live people milling about.

  Bubba arrived next to her, also scanning the room. “I don’t see him.”

  “Me either.”

  “Let me ask around. Maybe someone saw him go through.” Bubba hurried forward.

  Tessa moved into the room, making her way around reapers and trying to look everywhere at once for Lee.

  “There you are! Do you want a margarita or a gin and tonic?” Gloria blocked Tessa’s path. She had a cocktail in her hand and a wide smile on her face. “One last party before we head back to the grind.”

  Tessa shook her head. “I can’t.” She took Gloria’s glass and set it on a nearby table. “Actually, you can’t either. I need your help.”

  “Hey! That was expensive.” Then Gloria snorted out a laugh and waved a hand. “But whatever. I put it on the black card. What’s up?”

  “Lee Stuart murdered Art and Cynthia. And a few other people. Actually, who knows how many people he’s killed over the years.” Tessa looked over her friend’s shoulder, trying to spot Lee’s spirit. She scanned the area near the ceiling but didn’t find him.

  Chet was one thing. But battling a spirit with the reaper knowledge Lee possessed was going to be difficult. What would happen if he really got away? She didn’t want to think about it.

  Gloria looked puzzled. “You mean, Lee was killing people who weren’t scheduled to die?”

  “That’s exactly what I mean. And now he’s dead. But his spirit escaped, and I have to find it and cross it over. I need all the help I can get.”

  She felt a burst of friendship when Gloria immediately took on a professional air and started scanning the room for Lee.

  “Tessa!” Bubba arrived next to the two women. “No one I talked to saw Lee.”

  Tessa groaned. “Okay. Where else could he be?” She paused as a sudden thought came to her. “And why would he have come to the bar in the first place? I mean, there are so many reapers here. If his intention is to escape being crossed over, you’d think he’d stay as far away from reapers who could see him and take him over the veil as possible.” Her mind raced to catch up with its own train of thought. “Unless escape isn’t his intention.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.” Gloria and Bubba exchanged a confused look.

  “Maybe he’s after April. You know, for one last opportunity to one-up her.” Tessa leaned forward. “Can a spirit kill a live person?”

  Gloria’s brow creased as she considered the question. “I’ve heard of it happening. I think there have to be certain extenuating circumstances. But Lee was a district supervisor. If anyone knows the loopholes, it would probably be him.” She paused. “You think he’s going to try to kill April?”

  “I think we have to assume he is.” Tessa spun around again, this time scanning the room for the eastern district supervisor. “Have either of you seen April?”

  “Did you say you’re looking for April?” Shirley spoke from the table next to them, where she’d commandeered Gloria’s drink and sucked down half of it already. “I think she went to take one last dip in the pool. You know she’s quite the swimmer.”

  “The pool. Come on.” Tessa took off for the door, Gloria and Bubba right behind her.

  As they rushed through the lobby, the elevator doors opened, and Cheryl came out, supporting a sagging Timothy.

  “Mom! We haven’t found Lee yet. I think he’s after April—at the pool.”

  “April!” Timothy was pale, and he cradled his injured arm with the other one. “No! We have to stop him.” He started in the direction of the courtyard pool but stumbled over his own feet.

  Cheryl caught him. “You’re not stopping anyone. I’m taking you to the hospital.” She pulled him gently toward the door. Over her shoulder, she said, “Lee is probably a pretty powerful spirit. He had a lot of reaper secrets when he was alive. Don’t underestimate him.”

  Her mother’s words sent a chill through Tessa, and she ran faster, losing Bubba while Gloria struggled to keep up in her heels.

  “Remember the tether I taught you?” Gloria asked.

  “I do.”

  “You got this.”

  Gloria stopped abruptly and slipped off her shoes while Tessa kept on. She erupted onto the pool deck and then slid to a stop, trying to make sense of what she saw.

  No one was there except April, who was in the pool, lazily doing a slow backstroke, eyes fixed above her as she tracked her way across the pool.

  There was no Lee, and Tessa felt a flash of relief. They’d been wrong. He wasn’t after April.

  She heard someone else arrive and glanced over her shoulder to see that Gloria had made it. She panted, eyes
on April before moving to Tessa. “She’s okay,” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  A splash drew Tessa’s attention back to the pool. April was no longer on the surface. She had dived down.

  That was strange. It had really looked like she was doing backstroke laps. And there was an awful lot of water churning for a peaceful underwater swim.

  Tessa moved to the edge of pool so she could see April better. The supervisor was twisting in the water, not simply swimming. Her hands and feet flapped wildly as she strained to get back to the surface. But something seemed to be preventing it.

  Then Tessa saw it—there were extra hands down there. Ghostly ones that were hard to see in the splashing water. But once she spotted them, the rest of Lee’s spirit-body quickly came into focus. Somehow, he was holding onto April. Keeping her from going up for air.

  How was he doing that?

  But it didn’t matter how. He was doing it—Lee was powerful in death as he had been in life, just like Cheryl warned. And April probably only had a few moments more to live.

  She didn’t have time to say anything to Gloria or Bubba, who had finally arrived too. She just kicked off her shoes and jumped into the pool without thinking.

  Tessa silently thanked her parents for their dogged belief that, when you lived in Michigan, water proficiency was a must. They’d put her through years of swimming lessons, and she was pretty good at it.

  She swam as fast as possible to the spot where Lee and April fought, having no idea what the plan was once she arrived. The secret of the scythe wouldn’t help her against someone who was already dead.

  Lee’s spirit turned its head and spotted her. His face twisted into unmitigated rage, and he roared in anger. The sound came through the water and seemed to have the physical oomph to push Tessa away.

  She fought the water pressure to continue forward, straining to reach April. The water churned and rolled, both from the frantic movements of April’s body and from whatever Lee was doing to make it worse.

  Tessa couldn’t see much. Without goggles or a face mask, the chlorine made her eyes burn. She shut them tight and surged forward, throwing caution to the wind because April had very little time left.

  Her fingertips brushed skin, and Tessa clamped down on April’s arm. She used the other hand and both feet to propel herself upward. Lee’s inhuman roar pounded in her ears along with the water.

  It felt like April was made of rocks. Lee was somehow applying more pressure downward than she could apply upward. There was no way Tessa would be able to pull her to the surface. She knew there would come a moment when she’d have to decide between letting the other woman go or taking in water herself. She firmly clamped down on the thought and kicked madly.

  Suddenly, April began moving upward. Her body was still extra heavy, but it was a little better. Tessa snuck a look through squinting eyes and saw Gloria on April’s other side. She was helping. Then Bubba appeared in front of them. He grabbed April under the arms and all four of them surged for the surface.

  As soon as her face broke through the water, Tessa dragged in air. Beside her, April did too, but then she immediately began coughing. “Take her! Get her out!” Tessa gasped, pushing April toward the other two reapers. She spun in a circle, looking for Lee.

  It didn’t take long to find him. Apparently, he wasn’t interested in fleeing. He was right next to her, his snarling spirit face just inches in front of hers.

  “It’s over, Lee. Time to go.” She treaded water with one hand while opening a portal with the other.

  “I’ll take you with me. I’ll take you all with me.” His ghostly face was so twisted with rage that he looked like a caricature of a devil from some old Renaissance painting.

  “Wow. You’re a really unpleasant dude, you know that? But I’m not going to let that happen.” She glanced up at the bright light from the portal above them. Only it didn’t look the way it usually did. Instead of the standard tunnel, with warm yellow lighting, it was darker. Creepier. “Looks like you’re heading to a special spot across the veil, though. I’m sure you’ll have just as much fun there as you tried to have here.”

  Lee glanced up, and his expression morphed from furious to fearful.

  Tessa took the moment of inattention to pull on her reaper powers and produce a tether. She caught Lee in it easily. Shocked, he writhed and shouted. But he couldn’t go anywhere. He was trapped.

  Above them, a figure appeared in the portal. A tall dark man stood there, his shoulder-length hair waving as though there were a slight breeze. Blade nodded approvingly at Tessa and then turned a frown on Lee. He reached out and grabbed the district manager’s spirit and made a yanking motion.

  Suddenly, Lee was standing in the portal with Blade, the fear etched even deeper into his spirit features.

  Tessa was relieved to be able to use both hands to stay afloat again as she watched the two men disappear across the veil, Lee screaming wordlessly the whole way.

  Chapter 21

  “I MISS THE HOTEL POOL. And the bar.” Gloria rested her chin on folded arms on the desk. She sighed deeply. “But not the murder and mayhem.”

  Tessa leaned on the door jamb of Gloria’s office. “There’s a pool at my apartment building.”

  “And a hottie landlord,” Gloria shot back. “You two can pick right up where you left off in Miami.”

  “We’ll see. I haven’t decided yet.” Tessa shrugged. “In the meantime, we could keep living as though we’re on vacation. You know—after work. Heaven knows Mist River has enough bars to keep us busy every evening for a year. I mean, as long as we stay away from Frank’s.”

  Gloria sat up, her expression brightening. “That’s a great idea. Although I wouldn’t want to put a damper on you and hottie’s relationship.”

  Tessa opened her mouth to argue, but Cheryl’s voice calling for her cut off her train of thought.

  Why was she so intent on cutting off her relationship with Silas? In Miami, it seemed logical. But here in Mist River, where things were comfortably mundane, she was failing to remember the key points.

  Gloria waved Tessa away. “Better see what the boss wants.”

  With a grin, Tessa crossed the lobby to her mother’s office. Cheryl sat at the desk watching her computer screen, through which voices floated. Tessa moved to stand behind her mother so she could see the monitor. April and Timothy were on video call. Timothy’s arm was bandaged, but his coloring was back to normal. There was an unidentified purple food stain on the white gauze wrapping that made Tessa smile.

  When he saw Tessa come into view, Timothy waved. “There you are. I wanted to say thank you for everything you did.”

  She waved back. “I should be thanking you. You saved my life when you prevented Lee from finishing that allotment on his phone in that hotel room. You were really brave.”

  Timothy puffed up visibly. “Nah. I’m just a guy who likes numbers. And Lee Stuart was always messing them up. Jerk.”

  Tessa smiled again. “Which is why you followed Lydia to that stroke victim. If you hadn’t, I’m not sure we could’ve put the pieces together so easily.”

  He nodded. “Even then, I couldn’t narrow it down to Lee. His invisibility made things difficult. But my time in handcuffs ignoring the very bad comedies Bubba liked to watch allowed me to put more together.” He leaned toward the camera. “You did great when I sent you on that reap in Miami. By then, I’d figured out those were extra reaps somehow. I knew those people weren’t supposed to die, but I couldn’t risk telling anyone. And I sent you because I knew you were as after the truth as I was. I figured you’d refuse to do the reap if it felt wrong.” He grinned and sat back again. “I was right.”

  She chuckled and glanced at Cheryl. Was it Tessa’s imagination, or did her mother look a little bit proud?

  “I owe you my thanks too.” April’s voice was soft but her tone earnest. “We’ve never had such a terrible convention. And I feel partially to blame. Our rivalry was always something
, but I never for the life of me thought Lee would go so far. So dark.”

  Tessa nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  “Really. If you hadn’t found me in the pool exactly when you did—and if you hadn’t jumped in without thinking of your own safety—I wouldn’t be here. Lee’s spirit would have killed me for sure. And he’d probably still be roaming the earth, causing problems for the task force.” She glanced at Timothy.

  He nodded. “Turns out Lee had more allocations to fill than he let on. He could have gone on quite the poltergeisterly killing spree.” Timothy’s mouth twisted in disgust.

  “What about that? The numbers, I mean. How can they be made right now?” Tessa hoped Timothy wasn’t going to say that a bunch of people had to be chosen to die.

  “The big man himself, Mr. Blade, fixed that up,” Timothy said. “A message came through from him this morning. He’s rebalanced the allotments, and we’re starting from scratch. By the way. That was some trick you did in that hotel room. Nice secret Mr. Blade gave you.”

  Tessa’s eyes darted toward Cheryl again, but her mother kept her gaze on the computer screen. “Yeah. Well. I’m glad you’re both okay.”

  “Back at ya,” Timothy said with a smile.

  April grinned and cut off the video.

  Tessa sat on the edge of Cheryl’s desk. “They looked good. I’m glad that’s all over.”

  Cheryl tipped her head, regarding Tessa. “It’s an awesome and terrible thing to receive a secret from Mr. Blade,” she said in a calm but slightly ominous tone.

  Tessa shifted her weight, suddenly both physically and mentally uncomfortable. “Um. Okay.” She didn’t know what her mother was trying to say, but it didn’t matter. She never planned to summon the scythe again. There shouldn’t be any need for her to. But there was something she’d been wondering about. She figured it was as good a time as any to ask. “How many secrets are there? And how many reapers have one?”

  The corners of Cheryl’s mouth twitched upward. “We can’t be sure how many there are. And there aren’t many of us entrusted with them. But those of us who have them must guard our secret closely. Use it wisely. Or we risk becoming like Lee Stuart—twisted by its great power.”