Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery by Carlisle Kate

Author:Carlisle, Kate [Carlisle, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101593936
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2012-08-06T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Gabriel swore loudly and tore off down the stairs. I hurried to follow him, but had to be mindful of the slippery soles of my new shoes.

“Is she okay?” I asked when I reached the bottom.

“She’s still breathing,” he murmured, and slipped his hand beneath her neck. He gently lifted her head off the cold, hard marble floor to cushion her with his hands.

“Is she awake?”

“Not yet, but there’s no blood.”

“Thank God for that,” I muttered.

“No, no,” Grace moaned from a few feet above me on the stairs. “My little Kiki.”

“She’ll be okay,” Gabriel said briefly, although he didn’t sound all that confident yet. He ran his hands carefully along her shoulders and down her back, checking for broken bones, I assumed.

I heard the distant sound of tapping heels on the marble hallway floor and looked up. It was Sybil, and she was running toward us.

“What is that?” she cried from twenty feet away, then gasped as she saw Kiki’s inert body on the cold floor. “Oh, my God! What is happening to us?”

Gabriel looked up at her with annoyance shimmering in his eyes. “Quiet.” Then he ignored her and tended to Kiki.

“Where were you?” I said to Sybil, then grimaced at my suspicious tone. This wasn’t the time for an inquisition.

Sybil blinked at me. “I was using the powder room downstairs. I—I needed a few minutes to myself. To recover from that humiliating performance.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” I mumbled. “All in good fun.”

“It was horrific,” she said flatly.

True, I thought to myself. I still didn’t know if Sybil was telling the truth about sneaking off to the powder room downstairs, but I would wait to make sure Kiki was okay before jumping into a full-scale investigation of Sybil Brinker’s whereabouts over the past few minutes.

More footsteps pattered down the stairs. I glanced up and saw Suzie and Vinnie, both wearing identical looks of horror.

“Kiki,” Suzie said, her voice trembling as she wrapped her arm around Grace. “Is she…?”

“Gabriel says she’ll be okay,” Grace whispered.

“Praise Lakshmi,” Vinnie murmured, then began to chant softly in her native tongue.

I knelt down next to Gabriel. “Can I help?”

“I want to get her off the cold floor. Is there a room with a couch nearby?”

“The Blue Room,” Grace said immediately, pointing down the hall. “First door on the right.”

Gabriel laid Kiki down on the blue sofa, then knelt on the floor next to her, watching her slightest movements. I knew he was master of a hundred different obscure skills and had played at dozens of different roles throughout his colorful life. I just hoped that one of them was emergency medical technician, because I doubted even an ambulance would make it out here tonight.

Merrilee rushed in with blankets, a pitcher of water, and some hand towels. She spread a warm blanket over Kiki as Gabriel dipped and wrung out one of the towels and laid it on the unconscious woman’s forehead. He slid another warm, damp towel behind her neck, then leaned back on his heels and waited and watched.

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