The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 Paula Lester (year 7 reading list .txt) 📖

“I’m here to be your wingman if you need one,” Lee offered.

“Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.” She got up and grabbed her plate. “See you later.” As she left the room, Tessa scanned it for Timothy. There was no sign of him.

She bussed her plate and went into the outer room. There were still a few reapers hanging around the buffet table, but it was slim pickings now. It was as though a flock of hungry vultures has descended on it. Only some sad-looking salami and a few wilted pieces of celery remained.

Tessa didn’t see Timothy there either. Talking to him about Lydia would have to wait.

She pulled out the presentation schedule from her purse and scanned it. There was slim pickings there too. Three of the sessions were repeats of talks she’d already been to. One was about how to sell actual life insurance if you had to. The only remaining one was Lee’s talk on advancement.

With a sigh, Tessa stuffed the paper back in her purse and headed toward the room Lee’s talk was supposed to be in.

As she went, she thought about Lydia’s reap and why Timothy had been there. Was Gloria right that he was simply acting as April’s stooge—micromanaging the help for his irritable boss?

It didn’t quite ring true to Tessa. Neither did Timothy’s explanation about the reap itself. There must be an agency in Miami, and not everyone there would be attending the conference. Why weren’t they given the allotment instead of Lydia?

She stumbled to a halt when someone stepped in front of her, blocking the way into the conference room. All she saw was a burgundy suit. Tessa’s head jerked up.

It was Timothy.

“Have you been following me?”

Chapter 15

TIMOTHY’S EXPRESSION was deadpan. Tessa swallowed hard. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what to say.

Suddenly, he laughed and clapped her on the arm. “Just joshing you. Seems like I keep seeing you everywhere. But it’s a conference. I guess we’re all basically in the same area most of the time.”

Her laugh came out more nervous than she wanted it to, so Tessa cut it short. She straightened her shoulders. “You know, speaking of following, why did you follow Lydia this morning?”

Timothy’s eyebrows rose in a question.

Okay, she’d blurted that right out. Now she had to stick to her guns. “Sorry. I needed some air. That presentation was kind of boring. I happened to see you crossing the courtyard and wandered that direction myself. I didn’t realize there was a golf course over there. Then I saw Lydia doing a reap and you watching her.”

He blew out a breath and looked at his feet. “Here’s the thing.” His eyes darted to both sides as though checking for eavesdroppers. “I have aspirations of becoming a reaper. At least, I did—until seeing what happened to Cynthia.” He paused, and a shudder wracked his thin frame. “It made me think I must not be cut out for it after all.”

Tessa could understand that. She was already a reaper, and most every reap made her re-evaluate her career choice. Cynthia’s death had doubled down on that feeling for a hot second.

Timothy averted his gaze. “So, I arranged for one of our reapers to get an allocation this morning and followed her to watch. I wanted to prove to myself I could still be a reaper if I wanted to.” He finally met Tessa’s gaze again. She couldn’t tell what the emotion was that played there.

“And did you? Prove it to yourself, I mean?”

His thin shoulders rose and fell. “I’m not sure.” He cleared his throat. “But the Miami office appreciated our help this morning. A lot of their folks are here at the conference, too, and their remaining reapers have been stretched pretty thin. I told them to just let me know if they need us to take any allocations off their hands.”

“That was nice of you.”

“Would you still think so if I send the next assignment to you?”

She pursed her lips and studied him.

Timothy waved a hand. “I promise I won’t follow you. I got the information I needed from Lydia’s reap. I just have to do some soul-searching on my own now.”

“Fine,” Tessa agreed.

“Thank you.” He stepped aside and swept a hand toward the conference room. “Enjoy your session.” As he walked away, he said over his shoulder, “Don’t forget to watch your app.”

Tessa found a seat at the back of the conference room, pulled out her phone, and made sure it would vibrate if the reaper app went off during the presentation. Lee gave her a smile and a wave as he entered the room and headed for the lectern.

Her mind wandered during the talk. She thought about Timothy wanting to be a reaper. Was that strictly an up-and-up aspiration? Or could the guy have more evil intentions? Like, was it possible he was a serial killer wanting to use reaping to do it? Maybe he’d been unable to secure a reaper job, so he’d had to use his accounting chops to do some killing.

Tessa remembered the lack of blood perfusion in Timothy’s face after seeing Cynthia and dismissed that potential theory. The guy was almost certainly not a serial killer.

But perhaps his desire to be a reaper meant Timothy wasn’t appropriately allocating deaths for another selfish reason. Could he have put in the order for Art’s death hoping to talk April into giving Timothy the empty position? And then, when that didn’t happen, arranged for Cynthia’s death for another shot at a job?

It made sense. More than the serial killer thing. It qualified as a motive.

Tessa’s phone lit up, and she grabbed it, half-expecting to see an assignment on the reaper app. But was it safe to go on a reap ordered by Timothy? Was it truly official or was his explanation a lie? He seemed to be onto the fact that Tessa was following him. Would he order her