Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery

ever came up with. She still has some life-sized props around the house from those early days.”
    “Yes, she does.” Vinnie shot Suzie an ominous look. “She has that hideous mouse cage hanging from the ceiling, waiting to trap innocent bystanders.”
    “Almost sounds like you got caught in it,” I said.
    Suzie snorted and Vinnie batted her arm. “Yes, I was caught, and it was not funny. Yet Suzie and her aunt howled with laughter when it happened.”
    “Suzie, that was mean,” I said, but I had to bite back a smile.
    “Thank you, Brooklyn,” Vinnie said. “They laughed, then walked out of the room, leaving me to rot in that cage.”
    “We came right back,” Suzie insisted as she winked at me in the rearview mirror.
    Vinnie scowled. “It was forty-five minutes later.”
    “It was ten minutes.”
    “I thought I would die in that stupid cage!”
    “Hey, I’ve been caught in her traps before, too,” Suzie said, then explained that she’d actually fallen through a trapdoor in one of the hallways. She’d landed on a huge pillow in the basement, but still. “Scared the crap out of me.”
    “Yes, that was too bad.” Vinnie had tried to remain impassive, but finally choked out a laugh.
    I was horrified but also curious. Who was this eccentric woman who liked to play games with her guests?
    Giant mousetraps? Moving walls? Trapdoors? Maybe Madge was right to freak out in the hall earlier.
    As we walked into the dining room, I was reminded of Grace’s advice: “Take care, watch your step, and nobody will get hurt.” I would have to remember that.
    In the grandly formal dining room, we found that the seating arrangements for all fifteen of us had already been designated. I left my friends at one end of the table and tracked down my place card at the opposite end. I was seated between Nathan Hayes, Grace’s new librarian archivist, and Peter Brinker, Grace’s ex-partner. I could live with the arrangement, although I hated tomiss out on the conversation at the other end of the table. Vinnie was seated between Suzie and Marko and the three of them were already laughing about something.
    “Are you just going to stand there?”
    I turned and stared into the face of Stephen Fowler. He looked even unhappier now than he had in the hall. I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. “What did you say?”
    He scowled, grabbed my arm, and shoved me into the back of my chair. “I said, move it.”
    Instantly livid, I yanked my arm away, then took a quick look behind me. There was plenty of room for him to pass by me, so what was his point? I shook my finger at him. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
    “Or what?” he taunted. What was wrong with him? Was he deranged?
    “Or you’ll regret it,” I said evenly.
    “Ooh, you scare me.”
    I was about to sputter incoherently, so I turned away, cutting him off. I gripped my chair and stared blindly at the place setting, hoping he would just walk away. Far away. I was shaking with anger. I wished I had a gun so I could pistol-whip him with it. That’s how irrationally angry Fowler had made me. He had baited me deliberately and I couldn’t understand why. I struggled to calm down, then carefully looked around again. No one seemed to have noticed our brief encounter.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Fowler had taken his place a few seats down on the same side of the table as me, thank goodness. I wouldn’t have to look at his Grinch-like face.
    I no longer had any interest in changing my seat to be closer to Vinnie and Suzie. It would only bring me closer to Stephen Fowler, and that would be intolerable.
    What a horrible man!
    “Hello again,” Peter said genially, and pulled my chair out for me.
    “Thank you,” I said, and sat down cautiously. Afterthe run-in with Stephen Fowler, it took a few seconds to remember that most people here were friendly and capable of acting politely.
    Sybil was already seated on Peter’s other side. It might’ve been my unsteady imagination, but I thought I saw her scowl as I took my seat. As soon as I looked back at her, though, she favored me with another one of her weak smiles.
    I wasn’t ready for another verbal confrontation, so I ignored my neighbors and spent a few minutes studying the pretty formality of the large room. The crystal chandelier in the center of the ceiling glittered in the candlelight. The table settings were gold-banded ivory set on hammered silver chargers. The delicate glassware appeared