Read Online The Last Gondola by Edward Sklepowich - Free Book Online Page A

quite a few people.”
    It was true enough, and it was one of the main reasons he had installed his security system. But the Contessa, as his closest friend and confidant, was herself vulnerable from that direction.
    â€œIs this a version of the lady or the tiger, caro? Do I have to choose between losing my mind or having had someone break into the house?”
    â€œOr considering that someone in the house might be mischievous,” he said, before taking a sip of Madeira.
    â€œI like your choice of words. Anyone in particular?”
    â€œThe likely suspect would be your infatuated Silvia. She has immediate access to your personal objects. If only we could figure out if your things all went missing at the same time.”
    â€œWhy is that important?”
    â€œSomeone in the house would be inclined to take them one at a time. A person who broke in would probably take everything at once.”
    â€œYet a clever person attached to the house,” she responded, “might take everything at once, wouldn’t he—or she? It would appear to be a robbery. But I have no idea if they disappeared all at once or one at a time. As I’ve told you, once I noticed that the silver cascade was missing, I got anxious about what else might be gone. That’s when I discovered the other things—or didn’t discover them. The middle of January.”
    Urbino sketched out the time frame he had been considering the other night in the library.
    â€œSo let’s go through this together,” he said. “No one could have taken the tea dress and the hat before the beginning of September. Do you remember seeing them anytime between then and the middle of January?”
    â€œI’m not sure, but I think they were in the closet in the middle of November before the Feast of the Salute.”
    â€œAnd the Regency scarf? You wore it at the regatta. Did you wear it after that?”
    â€œIn October when I went to Florence,” she said after thinking for a few moments. “A German woman on the Ponte Vecchio commented on it. And it was in my armoire right before the Feast of the Salute, too! I remember!”
    She smiled as if she had pulled off a great feat.
    â€œThat means that your things went missing sometime after the middle of November to the middle of January. It narrows the picture quite a bit. And there’s something else that might help us. Are you aware that you wore the dress, the hat, the scarf, and the necklace in photographs? They were in II Gazzettino, La Nuova Venezia , and Marco Polo from early September to the end of November.” He paused. “All local.”
    â€œBut what does it mean?”
    â€œMaybe nothing, maybe everything. We may be on the trail of something. It’s just that I don’t know what.”
    He waited for her to take a sip of tea before he went on. He described how Pasquale had found the rowboat between its mooring and the water entrance of the Ca’ da Capo-Zendrini.
    â€œI didn’t notice it,” she said. “And he never mentioned it to me.”
    â€œNo reason why he should have, really. Not at the time. Anyway, someone could have taken the boat to your landing, and from there got into the house. The door from the water entrance opens into that seldom-used area with the large armoire. The person could have slipped inside and stayed until it was safe to come out.”
    â€œAnd then have roamed through the house and taken my things.”
    â€œAll at the same time or at different times, as we’ve said, but my guess is that it would have been at the same time. It’s unlikely anyone treated your house as his or her own personal orchard.”
    â€œHim or her, you say, but it must be a woman. Remember what I’m missing.”
    â€œI take nothing for granted. If someone came into the house that way or some other way, my guess is that it was when you were up in Geneva. Or when you had Alvise’s relatives