The Wolfe Widow (A Book Collector Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

even if that were true, I would have worked for less or worked less for room and board. I brought in money and I could have helped her bring in more. We could have arranged something that would have suited us.”
    “Well, we can rule out any competency issues. You are one top-notch book hunter, Jordan.”
    “Thanks.” He was right. I knew my stuff. I was valuable to Vera and I was getting better every day.
    I said, “I suppose people get fired because they’re light-fingered. Vera would have had me tied to a chair and interrogated if that had been the case.” I take pride in my law-abiding life, so there was no chance that I had pilfered anything or otherwise crossed any legal or ethical lines.
    He said, “Vera knows you’re not a thief.”
    “I would have thought so too, but here we are.” I sighed. “How about down at the cop shop? What does it take to get handed a pink slip?”
    “It’s pretty hard to get rid of us unless we start shooting innocent bystanders or sleeping with the chief’s wife. Even then—”
    “Funny. So you’re immune?”
    “Nope. Just hard to fire. But there’s lots of politics in policing, and people’s careers can take a beating because of departmental politics.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like someone hates them and starts a rumor. Someone is jealous and turns other people against them. Someone wants their job and undermines their credibility or messes with their mind or their cases. Politics. It’s everywhere.”
    “I don’t think I was in any political danger from the signora or from Uncle Kev. Vera can barely find someone to deliver her paper, she is so despised in this town, as Uncle Mick enjoys telling me. Let’s face it, no one wants my job.”
    I sat on my little pink bed surrounded by the trappings of my childhood and an empty case of beer, a holdover from the brief period when Uncle Kev had been living in my room before he hit the jackpot and moved into Van Alst House. I scratched my head. Smiley was giving it his best shot, but I needed to know the real reason behind my sudden dismissal.
    “Nothing explains it,” I said.
    He wasn’t giving up. “Sometimes people get fired because someone more powerful influences their employer to dismiss them.”
    Twenty-four hours ago, it wouldn’t have made a bit of sense, but that was before Muriel arrived and changed the rules of the game. Kev was right. And now Smiley had put his finger on it.
    “You know what? Last night a woman came to the house and Vera made us let her in and shooed us all away while she met with her in private. We didn’t see Vera again until the morning, and at breakfast she fired me with no warning.”
    “But who is this woman?”
    Right. I hadn’t explained that yet. “Muriel Delgado. She walked into Van Alst House with more confidence than anyone has ever faced Vera with, like she had a handle on something that the rest of us didn’t.”
    “What do you know about her?”
    “Not a thing. I’ve been checking the Internet and coming up empty.” Of course, Smiley was an agent of the law, and who better to find out about Muriel than my own personal police officer? “And that reminds me, I really need you to—”
    I thought I heard bellowing in the background.
    He lowered his voice. “Gotta go. I’ve been spotted talking on the phone. Sorry.”
    I said, “But—”
    Naturally, the phone was dead.
    Fine.
    I didn’t have the slightest idea why Muriel would want to get rid of me. None. But in the deepest fiber of my body I was now sure she was behind it. The question was, why? And not only why, but how? Even coaxing a smile out of Vera was impossible, but actually swaying her behavior? Vera was a mountain, never to be moved.
    Was Muriel after the money that Vera paid me? It seemed a small amount for such a big presence. I couldn’t imagine her dancing to Vera’s tune or happily lounging in the attic room with the curling cabbage rose wallpaper while making deals for old mystery books. No. There