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

gold suitcase was gone from the luggage rack, replaced by a navy-blue one. In fact, all of Gloria’s stuff had vanished.

“Mom. What are you doing here? And what did you do with Gloria?”

Cheryl flipped another page and kept her eyes on the magazine. “The problems here are too grand. We can’t allow the conference to continue without our intervention. The task force was called up this morning.”

Tessa dropped her phone and pass key on the dresser. “Task force? What . . . wait. You’re a member of the super-secret task force that comes in to handle things when a soul is lost or whatever?”

Cheryl raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Not a member, Theresa. I’m the head of the task force.”

Tessa sank onto her own bed and ran a hand through her hair. It had gotten knotted up a bit during her walk with Silas on the windy beach. She felt off-kilter. Her mind was sluggish as she tried to catch up with what was happening. “You didn’t answer my question. Where’s Gloria?”

Tessa’s heart fluttered as, momentarily, she wondered if her friend was okay—if maybe her actions had triggered Timothy into offing another reaper. But Cheryl had said this morning. Nothing had happened this morning.

“We moved her to a single room. I thought it would be nice to bunk with my daughter.” She finally looked over at Tessa. “Like old times.”

Tessa pressed her lips together. There was something odd in her mother’s expression . . .  the hint of an emotion she couldn’t remember seeing there before. If she didn’t know better, Tessa would have said it was vulnerability.

She nodded. “That sounds like fun, Mom.” She managed not to choke on the word fun. “But wait. If you’re the head of the task force, why did you make me find Chet Sanborn’s spirit by myself?”

The strangely vulnerable expression on Chery’s face disappeared, replaced by amusement. She waved a hand. “Oh, that. I didn’t want to get involved unless it was required. And look! You did just fine.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes, thinking about the stress she’d gone through during her first week on the job. Her mother could have helped relieve that and decided not to?

Cheryl licked her finger to pry open the next page. “Oh, please. Don’t get your knickers in a knot. I was paying attention. I could have jumped in to help any time. But I thought it was a valuable learning experience. And I was right. You’ve jumped into your career with more knowledge than most at this stage. You should be thanking me.”

“No. You told me there was going to be an apocalypse if I didn’t find Mr. Sanborn.” Tessa’s tone was accusatory.

Cheryl chuckled. “Well, I may have exaggerated a touch. But, really, it is true that things can go awry fast with the fabric of the universe if the accounting is off for too long.” She set the magazine aside and swung her legs over the bed, facing Tessa. “Tell me. What have you dug up on this current situation?”

Tessa didn’t want to change subjects. She still felt pouty about the revelation that Cheryl was on the task force. But she knew from years of experience that once Cheryl had decided that a topic of discussion was over, she wasn’t likely to entertain it further. “Not a whole lot.”

“Really? Gloria says you’ve been snooping.”

Traitor!  

“Timothy . . . April’s assistant . . . he’s my biggest suspect right now.”

“Timothy?” Cheryl cocked her head as though it would help her access data in her brain about the man. “Timothy. That man from the office last week. He’s awfully mousey, isn’t he?”

Tessa shrugged. “I guess so. He wants to be a reaper. I think maybe he’s killing reapers to make a job opening for himself.”

“A little extreme, isn’t it? What brought you to this conclusion?”

“It’s not a conclusion. Not yet. But I don’t really have any other leads.” She flopped back onto the bed and talked to the ceiling instead of Cheryl. “Lee Stuart told me that, if there was an allocation issue in the eastern district, it was Timothy who’d be behind it. He seemed to think Timothy was easily distracted by nonsense and could have messed up the accounting on accident.”

“And you agree?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, Timothy has been on the outskirts of all the weird things going on. He was on the plane when Art died and nearby when Cynthia was attacked by a shark. And he’s doling out allocations here.”

“Here? In Miami?”

“Yes.” Tessa nodded. “There have been two reaps that I know of so far. He sent Lydia on one—a stroke on the golf course. And he followed her to watch. Mom, he told me he did that to see if he still had the chops to be a reaper after he got squeamish during Cynthia’s death. Then, he assigned a reap to me.”

“You?” Cheryl’s tone was sharp, tinged with alarm.

Tessa got onto one elbow to look at her mother. “Yep. I was supposed to reap a little girl. A drowning. But I didn’t do it.”

“You lost the soul?”

“No. I saved the little girl.”

Cheryl’s eyes got wide. “You what?” Her words were barely above a whisper.

Tessa shook her head and sat up all the way. “Something didn’t feel right. I think Timothy was messing with the numbers. Like, he allocated the little girl’s death to make the numbers add up or something.” She leaned forward. “I just had this strong gut feeling that she wasn’t supposed to die.” She shrugged. “So, I saved her.”

Cheryl blew out a breath. “Okay. I don’t know if I can get you out of this one, Theresa. If you saved a soul that was truly supposed to cross over . . . well, that’s very, very bad.”

For the first time since she’d yanked Dani back onto the pier, Tessa felt a ripple of doubt. “Like what?”

“Like you could be court-martialed and sentenced to life in federal prison.” In answer to the questioning look Tessa shot her, she explained,