Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery

the room and began gyrating playfully to the music. It was meant to be sexy and flirty and fun, but it was more than that. It was riveting. Vinnie was a fantastic dancer.
    She had changed her clothes and now wore a lavender chiffon sari with long matching scarves that floated up and down as she moved in time with the quirky music. She wore delicate sandals that seemed to curl with the shape of her small feet as she moved nimbly around the stage. She was mesmerizing.
    Her fingers never stopped waving and snapping and convulsing as they performed their own fascinating dance. Her shoulders undulated and her feet moonwalked gracefully in a circle. Then she threw in a few disco steps and some King of Pop moves that brought her audience to its feet.
    By the time the music ended, everyone in the room was waving their arms in the air and swaying and dancing with Vinnie. It was the perfect fairy tale via Bollywood ending to the talent show.
    Vinnie took her bows to thunderous cheers and a true standing ovation.
    “Thank you very much,” she said. Suzie moved to her through the crowd and gave her a big kiss.
    “Wasn’t she great?” I said to Gabriel, who had been sitting behind me during the show.
    “Blew me away,” he said with a grin.
    “Yeah. Me, too.” I turned to look at him. “You didn’t perform.”
    “No.”
    “I’m sure you’re good at something. The hula, maybe?”
    His mouth twisted wryly. “Not in this lifetime.”
    “Such a disappointment.”
    Then he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “What’s going on over there?”
    Frowning, I glanced up at him. Following the direction of his gaze, I found Sybil standing in front of a closet door I hadn’t noticed before. I watched Sybil glance around as if to check that she wasn’t being followed, then open the door just wide enough to skulk through and close it behind her. “Did she just walk into a closet? She’s a strange woman.”
    “Grace went through the same door less than thirty seconds ago,” Gabriel murmured.
    I scanned the room again and did a quick count. Every one of our party was still in the room except Grace. And now Sybil. But the talent show was over and people would soon begin to wander off to the bar or the game room.
    “This house has so many back hallways and odd passages. Sybil probably just found a shortcut back to her room. Maybe she was embarrassed. I would be. I would want to disappear if I’d been the one singing that stupid song.”
    Gabriel gazed at me. “Maybe.”
    “But you don’t think so.”
    “She never ventures far from her husband. If she were going to her room, he would go with her.”
    It was interesting that Gabriel had noticed that. Also interesting was the fact that Peter was deep in conversation with Marko and didn’t seem at all fazed by the absence of his wife. So maybe that meant he knew where she was. Maybe she was looking for a bathroom. Or maybe when we weren’t looking, Sybil had whispered to Peter that she had a headache and was going off to bed.
    But since it was Gabriel who had brought it up, I began to worry that something might very well be wrong.Gabriel tended to notice things that I wouldn’t have given a second thought to. And once again Vinnie’s words from the tarot card reading the other night hit me with a dull thud.
    “We must keep an eye on Sybil over the next few days. Anything could happen to her, and I don’t mean that in a good way.”
    But if Sybil was following Grace, why would anything be wrong?
    Suddenly I wondered if the cards had meant that Sybil should be watched not because harm might come to her, but because she meant to do harm to Grace.
    Could Sybil be trying to kill Grace?
    Because of Bella’s death the day before and Shelly’s near-fatal fall off the balcony earlier, Gabriel’s and my suspicion levels were off the chart. Still, it seemed so silly to worry just because both Grace and Sybil had used the same closet door to escape the rest of the guests.
    “You’re right,” I said as I stood. “It might be nothing, but I’m going to worry until I see her again.” I gave Gabriel a brief recap of what Vinnie had said after Sybil received the Tower card.
    “Not that it means anything,” I added. “Nobody believes in that tarot stuff, right?”
    “If you say so.”
    “I do.” I nodded absently. “So it’s probably nothing. She’s probably gone to bed.”
    “Yeah. So what’s this?” Gabriel said, as he nudged his chin in the direction of the