The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (good short books .TXT) 📕

so close. Cheryl said most of the people who owned them worked in the big city and either commuted daily or the family stayed in Mist River while the breadwinner only came home on the weekends.

Tessa remembered attending a few house parties in this neighborhood during high school. The extravagance had shocked her. One place had both an indoor and outdoor pool. Two beautiful pools! At the time, Tessa had to go to the local YMCA to use one pool—and that one had broken tiles with green stuff growing around the edges and questionable chlorine levels.

The assignment’s address delivered Tessa to the mouth of a driveway so long that she couldn't see the house at the end of it. The driveway was paved and lined with huge maples on both sides, the branches of which leaned in toward each other, meeting in a canopy high above the ground.

Wow. In another month or so, that would make a stunning tunnel of gold, yellow, and red. It almost made her want to make a note to come back and see it when autumn leaves were at their peak.

About ten feet into the driveway stood a spectacular wrought iron gate in two pieces designed to meet and lock in the center. Only one side was open. If Tessa scooted the car a tiny bit onto the shoulder, she’d be able to squeeze the LeSabre through the opening.

That's weird. You'd think a place like this would be locked up tight all the time.

But a glance at the clock told Tessa she didn't have time to consider such things. She only had about five minutes to find Mr. Artemis Green before he died.

She gave Linda a little bit of gas to nudge her through the gate, but the car didn't respond other than to let out an ominous cough-bark-wheeze sound. Tessa pushed the gas again, a bit more insistently, but it was no use. Linda's engine sputtered to a stop. With a quick curse, Tessa twisted the key in the ignition. "Come on, come on," she muttered.

But Linda didn't even attempt to start up. There was just . . . nothing.

Tessa chewed on her bottom lip for a second, debating what to do. She looked at her watch. There wasn't much of a choice. She grabbed her phone, jumped out of the car, and ran up the driveway.

She estimated the driveway was about a quarter mile long, and by the time the house came into view, Tessa was mouth-breathing in an attempt to drag enough oxygen into her lungs to power her legs. Pain exploded in her side, and she leaned over, trying to relax the stitch while berating herself for not hitting the treadmill more often. Or at all.

Still gasping, she craned her neck to gawk at the gorgeous architectural structure in front of her.

The place was gigantic, towering at least four stories high, with grand turrets in three spots on top of it. The grounds surrounding the house were immaculate. It looked like someone had gone around trimming the grass with a pair of scissors, and the flowerbeds didn't appear to have a single weed among them. They were filled with beautifully trimmed hedges, rosebushes with flowers in every hue, and gorgeous orange, yellow, white, and brilliant purple gladiolus. Tessa recognized rhododendron bushes that were almost two stories high. Though the time for them to flower had long past, she could imagine how striking they would look in late spring.

The house’s footprint would probably take up a Mist River city block, and a huge porch stretched the entire length of its front and wrapped around both sides.

Tessa only considered sprinting up the steps and knocking on the door for an instant. But her instincts and the recent reaper training in Miami told her that was foolish. She’d almost certainly run into staff members or perhaps Mr. Green's family if she tried to make a frontal assault like that.

She straightened, feeling glad the stitch in her side had eased, and sprinted around the side of the house. Movement to the left caught her eye, and she lunged behind a hedge.

Okay. Get yourself together. Remember what you learned at the conference.

At the time, the presentation about keeping to the shadows had seemed laughable. But now she had to use the information, so Tessa wracked her brain to remember what Bubba had said.

So far, she hadn’t done a great job of sticking to any shadows. She’d taken in the lovely architecture but just now spotted the two cameras perched at the corners of the house. She made a note to steer clear of them and to look out for more.

For a second, she wished for the secret of invisibility that the original grim reaper had bestowed upon Lee Stuart. He hadn’t deserved it, but she could sure make good use of it now. A glance around the hedge told her it was a gardener she’d seen moving about, and she was still out there, trimming fruit tree branches with a huge pinchy tool.

She really should pay more attention when her mother tried to teach her about taking care of plants.

Tessa looked around wildly, knowing without checking that she was running out of time to get to Artemis Green. She couldn’t miss his death and lose his soul.

Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.

She crouched low and darted to the next hedge, staying close to the house and keeping an eye on the gardener. She continued that way, needles falling into her hair and branches scraping her arms, until she got around the house into the back yard.

Tessa didn't see anyone, but the expanse of the area was huge. The landscape was dotted with flower beds, small groves of trees, and even a couple bubbling fountains with seating around them. About an acre away stood a huge red barn, complete with a couple of horses in an attached paddock.

There could easily be someone tucked into one of those areas, working, and Tessa wouldn’t be able to see