Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery

stood then and looked him in the eye. “Sothat’s it. You’ll pay back the money, Marko. And you’re fired.”
    “You—you can’t fire me,” he blustered. “You need me, especially now with Bella gone.”
    “You’re so wrong, Marko,” Grace said evenly. “If you think my company won’t survive without you, then you’re an even bigger fool than I thought you were.”
    Marko’s pride faltered. He looked around for someone to latch onto, someone to talk to or commiserate with. But everyone ignored him and he was left to stand alone in the middle of the room, a pitiful shell.
    I was glad to see that Grace had gotten her spine back. I’d worried that Sybil’s attack followed by Marko’s betrayal might have crushed some of Grace’s spirit, much like Greta’s spirit was crushed after she gave away her baby.
    Okay, that was fiction.
This
was real.
    It made sense that Marko wouldn’t bother to defend himself, though. I’d thought from the start that he personified the term
slacker
. So why would he exert any energy in his own defense? It was too much trouble for a laid-back dude like himself. And that was the thing I found most pathetic about Marko Huntley.
    Grace insisted that Marko be arrested. But until the police arrived he would have to be detained somehow. Derek and Gabriel agreed with her, so Gabriel worked his magic with duct tape while Merrilee called the police.
    Now Marko faced Sybil, duct taped to his very own chair in the Gold Salon. As a precaution Gabriel decided to rip the tape off Sybil’s mouth so she wouldn’t suffocate. Of course, that meant we all had to put up with her howls of pain for a few minutes.
    Tired of her caterwauling, Gabriel got up close to her and said, “Look, I didn’t want you to choke to death on your own rage before we had a chance to bring you to trial. But I’ll cover that foul mouth of yours in a heartbeat if you don’t shut up right now.”
    She huffed in response but said nothing, so we all headed for the door, intent on salvaging Grace’s birthday party in another room.
    “Wait!” Sybil cried. “Don’t leave me here with that filthy creature!”
    “Screw you, lady,” Marko groused.
    “Not you, you idiot,” she shot back. “The cat. I’m allergic.”
    “It’s Leroy,” I said. “I’ll get him.”
    “Don’t you want to leave him here to taunt her?” Suzie said.
    “I would,” I said, “but that would be cruel to Leroy.” I moved to pick him up, but Leroy had his own agenda. He sauntered over to Sybil and sniffed around her ankles. She tried to kick him, but before she could strike, Leroy reached out and clawed her leg, ripping her nylon stockings.
    Sybil screamed. “Get him out of here! I’m going to puff up.”
    “She doesn’t even like the cat,” Ruth said, shaking her head.
    Grace nodded. “Looks like the feeling is mutual.”
    I really did have to wrestle with the urge to leave Leroy in the room to torment Sybil. But in the end, I knew it wouldn’t be fair to the nice kitty. So I knelt and scooped him up. I started to push myself up off the floor but noticed something under Sybil’s chair near her designer bag. I took a closer look. It was another lost book.
    “Vinnie, can you take the cat?”
    “Of course,” she said, reaching for Leroy. “And I’m going to have Merrilee order him fresh tuna for the rest of his life.”
    “He deserves it.” I crawled a few more feet to see what had caught my eye.
    “Get away from me,” Sybil barked, and tried to kick me with her pointy-toed shoes.
    “Oh, shut up,” I muttered. Before I could slap her foot away, Gabriel warned her to stop. It worked. She was stillfor the moment, so I crawled around the side, stretched my arm underneath the chair, and snagged the book. Kneeling, I took one look at the dappled brown cover and knew what I had. “
Gulliver’s Travels
, volume one!”
    “Good job, Brooklyn,” Nathan said, knowing what it meant to find the first volume.
    Derek reached down to lend me his hand. Once I was back on my feet he chuckled. “One thing’s for sure: with you, my life will never be boring.”
    I blinked in surprise, then slipped my arm through his. “You have no idea how sweet those words are to me.”
    I glanced at Grace and waved the book. She gave me a quick nod that I interpreted as approval of my taking the books. I was glad I wouldn’t have to argue with her, because, frankly, after the week I’d had, there was no way I was leaving this house