Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery

apprehension, inciting Marko to slip his arm around her. “Don’t worry, Peaches. I’ll protect you from the ghosts.”
    Peaches?
I kind of liked that nickname, although I still wasn’t sure I’d want Marko protecting me from anything.
    Grace pulled the crystal ball closer. Looking around at all of us, she began to stroke and caress the large globe. Suddenly she cried out, “The spirits are restless! They know we seek answers.”
    Sure enough, that cued a series of scary sound effects, mainly lots of groans and moans from the spirit world. There were giggles and mock screams from the audience and everyone seemed to be having a jolly time. The lights continued to flicker.
    “Grace Crawford,” a baritone voice cried out from somewhere.
    Grace gasped. “Uncle Cuthbert?”
    Kiki, sitting next to Suzie, giggled, then whispered to the group, “We don’t have an uncle Cuthbert.”
    “Silence!” Cuthbert shouted.
    Kiki emitted a short shriek and hunched down in her chair. There were more giggles as Grace carried on a hilarious conversation with her dearly departed great-uncle Cuthbert. Apparently the story went that he had hidden his fortune in a tree trunk somewhere and Grace was trying to cajole the location out of him.
    In the middle of Cuthbert’s rant that all his relatives were drunken sots with no social skills and would never get a single rotten cent from him, there was a sudden raucous thumping of footsteps from somewhere in the house.
    The noise startled me. One of the women seated at the table screamed.
    “What is that?” Grace asked, glancing around. She sounded seriously concerned, but somebody chuckled and a few others joined in the nervous laughter.
    Those footsteps sounded real to me, not part of the show. And they were growing louder.
    I whipped around to stare at the closed door and caught Suzie’s look of surprise mixed with alarm. We both frowned as the sound of boots continued to echo off the hard marble surface of the front hall downstairs. Seconds later they were stomping on the grand stairway, the heavy sound barely muted by the carpeting. Some man was coming upstairs in an awful hurry.
    I rubbed at the sudden rash of goose bumps on my arms.
    “Who the hell is that?” Peter asked.
    A loud rumble of thunder roared outside, for real this time. The lights dimmed and stayed that way. The pounding footsteps grew closer.
    I recognized Kiki’s nervous giggle. A glass shattered on the hardwood floor. Grace cried out. There was another giggle and someone else gasped, then made a choking sound.
Probably laughing too hard,
I thought.
    There was some grappling and pushing of chairs, but I didn’t pay any attention. My full concentration was riveted on the door.
    “This is ridiculous,” Peter said, pushing his chair back and standing.
    But Nathan had already jumped up and beaten him across the room to the door. He yanked it open and yelled, “Who’s out there?”
    Is this part of the show?
I wondered, as we all stood and stared in fear at the open doorway.
    Two more women screamed as my dangerous friend Gabriel stalked into the room.

Chapter 6
     
    Gabriel?
    “Oh, my goodness,” Kiki said on a sigh. “Am I dreaming?”
    “Wow,” Sybil whispered.
    Madge pressed a hand to her heart. “You can say that again.”
    “Uncle Cuthbert, I presume?” Nathan said.
    “I hope he plans to stay,” Sybil whispered.
    Kiki giggled again. “Yes, please.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” I muttered, letting go of the breath I’d been holding. Pushing a chair out of the way, I ran over and hugged him. “Gabriel, what in the world are you doing here?”
    “Hey, babe,” he said, and bent and planted a smacking kiss on my lips. He looked even taller and darker and more rebellious than usual in his weathered leather bomber jacket and dark-washed blue jeans. His black hair was windblown and his cheeks were ruddy from the cold. I guess I couldn’t blame the other ladies for their swoony comments about him.
    “Gabriel, you’re late,” Grace said next to him, her breath coming out in short huffs and puffs from all the excitement.
    He gave her a cockeyed grin. “Hope it was worth the wait.”
    She slapped his arm. “Always, you scoundrel.”
    “Oh yeah,” Madge murmured. “Definitely worth the wait.”
    Down, girl
, I thought, but again, I couldn’t blame her. The guy was eye candy personified. I watched as Kiki slid into one of the chairs as though she were boneless, then simply stared at