Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery

here.”
    I stooped beside the console and grabbed a torn pieceof paper off the carpet. It was the top corner of some kind of court document. I knew because I could see two thin vertical lines running down the side of the page with numbers next to the lines.
    Standing up, I waved it at Gabriel. “Look at this. It’s a small piece of some legal document. Stephen Fowler is a lawyer. Maybe he was carrying this when he disappeared.”
    “It’s part of a legal brief,” Gabriel muttered, staring at the torn fragment. “Makes sense.”
    “It sure does,” I said, excited now. “So let’s look right around here.” I started pushing on the wall, testing random sections and panels. With a soft click, one section abruptly gave way and I fell forward, tumbling down into blackness.

Chapter 13
     
    It wasn’t that much fun after all.
    I landed on my back—thankfully on something soft and welcoming—with a loud plop. I lay still, stunned, for several seconds, first trying to catch my breath and decide if I’d broken anything in the fall, and then trying to figure out where I was. I didn’t recognize the room, but as I shifted position, it felt like I was sprawled across a giant balloon. It squeaked with every movement I made and felt like one of those giant bounce castles people rent for kids’ birthday parties.
    The initial shock wore off gradually, and then I started to appreciate the ride itself. Maybe I was hysterical, going crazy, but I didn’t think so. Now that I was safe, I could see that the ride down had been kind of fun. Scary and bizarre, but fun. I could understand how kids would get a huge kick out of it.
    But I still would have preferred some advance warning.
    Suddenly from somewhere up above, I heard Gabriel yell, “Move out of the way!”
    I rolled quickly. Gabriel plummeted down the chute and flew out onto the balloon pillow mere seconds later. A minor tidal wave erupted and I was bounced forcefully toward the edge. Oh yeah, an adult-sized bouncycastle; that’s what this was like. And I was about to fall off.
    He reached out and grabbed my sweater. “Don’t fall on your head, for God’s sake.”
    “Thanks. I’m okay.” I lay back on the pillow as it settled, and stared at the cavelike ceiling. “Where are we?”
    “This is the basement.”
    That made sense. It was more dungeonlike than anywhere else in the house. “It looks like it was carved out of stone.”
    “It was.”
    I ran my hands over the surface of the pillow, then turned my head and looked at him. “This thing is like one of those bouncy castles they have at kids’ parties.”
    “You visit bouncy castles often?”
    “Who doesn’t?”
    He smiled. “Good point.”
    I maneuvered myself around until my feet were dangling off the side, then slid down onto the floor. Gabriel followed me and we stood side by side and looked around some more.
    “That was completely weird,” I said, still a little shaky.
    “Are you hurt?”
    “No,” I said after mentally surveying myself again. “It’s just a strange feeling, suddenly dropping through space and landing on a big balloon—that’s all. A first, for sure.”
    “Not a bad thing.”
    Since I’d survived and I had company, I was willing to go along with that. “I guess not.”
    The pillow’s surface was at least eight feet across and it was almost three feet high. Plenty of room to catch someone plunging down the chute. I made my way around it and found a hose nozzle sealed in the plastic shell. It snaked across the floor to a small box with a plunger. I recognized it as a pump. A cord from the pump led to an electrical outlet in the wall. A timer was plugged in to the adjacent outlet.
    “So they keep the landing pillow pumped up on a regular basis. That’s very good.”
    “And Ray comes down here and checks it every few days.”
    “I’m glad to hear it.” God forbid if the pillow sprang a leak and collapsed. I couldn’t imagine the damage a person would suffer when she came hurtling out of the chute with nowhere to land but the cold stone floor.
    “Here’s the rest of Fowler’s legal document,” Gabriel said, holding up the folded, wrinkled pages.
    “I’m sure he’ll be happy you found it.”
    “He’s never been happy in his life.”
    “True.” I took one last look around and that’s when I noticed a dark smear on the blue surface of the pillow.
    “Is that blood?” I shivered and sucked in big gobs of air as I took many baby steps backward. As I’d