One Book in the Grave: A Bibliophile Mystery

we first met, after all. Me kneeling over Abraham with my hands covered in blood. Derek, the first to accuse me of murder. It was a match made in heaven. Call me a romantic fool, but when it came to finding a body dripping blood on an Oriental rug, there was no one else I’d rather have on my team than Derek Stone.
     
    “The police officers are cordoning off the back room,” I said, pointing in that direction. “That’s Joe’s antiquarian room, where he died. They told me to wait out here.”
     
    “Have they called Homicide?”
     
    “I don’t know, but I went ahead and called Inspector Lee.” I shrugged. “I’ve got her on speed dial.”
     
    “That’s handy.”
     
    “Isn’t it? I had to leave a message.” I told Derek exactly what had happened from the moment I walked into Ian’s office at the Covington and saw the
Beauty and the Beast
to my arrival at Joe’s bookstore, where I found the body. I explained about the papermaker’s knife and concluded by confessing what I did when I heard the killer run out the back door.
     
    That was when Derek pulled me back into his arms and held me tightly. “You scare the hell out of me, you know,” he muttered against my hair.
     
    “You’ve mentioned that before,” I said, then admitted, “It was disconcerting.” I was still shaken by the reality of what might have happened if I’d managed to catch up to the killer. “I tried to be careful. But I’m not looking forward to telling the whole story to Inspector Lee. I’m sure I’ve left fingerprints on everything.”
     
    I could just imagine what my favorite Homicide cop would say when she found out I’d stumbled over another dead body. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
     
    “Joe was a sweet old man,” I whispered. “Who would want to hurt him?”
     
    “He might’ve overheard something he wasn’t supposed to hear,” Derek suggested. “Or perhaps he angered a business associate.”
     
    “Maybe.”
     
    “It could be as simple as a robbery gone wrong.”
     
    “Except for that knife,” I said. “It’s definitely a papermaker’s knife.”
     
    “You would know best,” he said. “I can see it hurts to think someone in your community might be responsible, but I believe it’s a good thing you saw that knife. Now we know what we’re up against.”
     
    “Do we?” But I knew what he was saying. Now that we were aware that the killer could be someone I knew, Derek and I might be able to sort out who knew what and when they knew it.
     
    I rubbed my forehead where a headache was forming. “I had the strongest urge to grab the knife and throw it away, Derek. I hate to see this happening all over again.”
     
    “It could be an unfortunate coincidence. You might not know the people involved.”
     
    “I suppose,” I said skeptically.
     
    “Or it could be a setup.”
     
    “I’ve considered that, too, obviously.”
     
    He smoothed my hair back from my face. “Brooklyn, darling, this isn’t about you.”
     
    “Mind if I hold you to that?”
     
    “You can hold me to anything you’d like,” he murmured, and kissed my neck.
     
    I stared into his smoldering blue eyes and felt sparks ignite inside me. It continued to amaze me that Derek seemed to have the same reaction to me as I had to him. I hugged him a little tighter, then reluctantly pulled away. There was something wrong about snuggling within a few feet of a dead body.
     
    On the other hand, there was a dead body just a few feet away, so what better time to seek comfort? I rested my head against his chest and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. We stayed like that for a few minutes while the muted voices of the two officers in the other room wafted toward us. I couldn’t hear what they were saying and didn’t really want to. I just wished Derek and I could walk out the door and go home.
     
    But no such luck. The front door swung open and SFPD Detective Inspector Janice Lee walked inside. “Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite dead-body magnet.”
     
    I cringed. She didn’t mince words. But at least I was her favorite.
     
    “Commander Stone,” she said, greeting Derek in a more respectful tone. He had been, after all, a member of law enforcement.
     
    “Hello, Inspector,” Derek said pleasantly, as I buried my face in the lapel of his thousand-dollar suit. I wasn’t shy; I just didn’t think it would be wise to flash her the dirty look I had on my face in response to her smart-ass