Read Online Ring of Fire by Pierdomenico Baccalario - Free Book Online Page A

replies Harvey, handing her the newspaper. “But I don’t think it’s good.” On the front page is a photograph of a man lying on his back in the snow. His face is obscured by a dark stain spreading out from his elegant raincoat.
    “Oh, no!” cries Elettra, raising her hand to her mouth.
    “What does the article say?” Sheng asks her.
    “That he was found … dead … by the side of the Tiber last night, during the snowstorm.”
    “How did he die?”
    “They slit his throat.”
    Sheng’s cream pastry plunks noisily into his latte.
    “It doesn’t say much more than that …,” says Elettra. “They’re investigating to find out what happened, but they don’t even know what his name was. They’re asking anyone who has information to contact the carabinieri—the police, I mean. And …”
    Elettra translates the whole article out loud to the other kids.
    “They don’t say anything else?” Harvey insists.
    Elettra shakes her head. “It’s breaking news. That’s all they know.”
    “What about the blackout?”
    “Oh, yeah …” She thumbs through a few pages. “They say it only affected certain parts of town. The electricity came back on at dawn and the problem seems to be solved. But they haven’t figured out what caused it yet.”
    “Talk about a dark and stormy night …,” Sheng murmurs.
    “Let’s get moving,” Elettra suggests.
    The kids reluctantly finish their breakfast and speak briefly with their parents, asking if they can have the day to themselves. Sheng’s father and Mistral’s mother make no objections. Quite the opposite, in fact. The man from China decides to take the opportunity to sleep off his jet lag and the French woman says she has to do a little extra work for some of her key clients.
    Harvey’s parents, on the other hand, get into a lengthy debate with their son, which the boy survives at the price of a very bad mood. “It’s no big deal,” he grumbles when Elettra asks what it was all about. “Getting along with my parents is always kind of complicated.” He seems ready to add something else, but then, with a shake of his head, he keeps it to himself.
    Elettra doesn’t press him for details.
    She walks with him over to the door leading down to the basement, pushes aside the garden plants that Aunt Linda uses to try to hide it, and opens it up. They wait for Mistral and Sheng to join them, and then they all go down the stairs leading to the underground realm.
    “We’ll be nice and warm down here,” Elettra points out, shutting the door behind her, “and nobody will bother us.”
    “Wishful thinking,” grumbles Harvey. “You don’t know my folks.”
    “They seem pretty interesting to me!” says Sheng.
    “Yeah, sure …” Harvey’s expression is as dark as a storm cloud.
    “Do they get on your case?”
    “Yeah. That is … especially after they … Oh, never mind. My dad’s always wondering how he could have such an ignorant son. My mom, on the other hand, never wants me to leave her side.”
    Little by little, as they make their way down the steps, the basement surrounds them with its maze of old furniture and empty picture frames. “Same thing here. My mother cried for a week when she found out about this trip …,” Sheng adds.
    “That just means she cares a lot about you,” Mistral tells him, stretching out like a flamingo.
    “Tired, huh?” Harvey asks her, sitting down cross-legged on the floor.
    “I sure am. I didn’t sleep a wink.”
    “Why not?”
    “I was afraid,” answers Mistral, rubbing her hands together nervously. “Just like you guys.”
    The leather briefcase is lying on the floor, hidden under an old white sheet.
    “We can always change our minds,” Elettra states. “After all, nobody’s forcing us to open it.”
    Their eyes dart around in the dim light.
    “I say we do it,” Sheng proposes.
    “Me too,” says Harvey.
    “It might be dangerous,” Mistral adds meekly. “After all … that man was