Rendezvous in Rome by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online

now, she remembered. It could have been that way all afternoon. If not, anyone with a key to the pensione door could have broken into Bess’s room.
    â€œCould someone have seen our room number?” Nancy asked.
    The woman shook her head vigorously. “My rooming list is in the back with me,” she said. “No one came in there. I’d better call the police,” she continued.
    Nancy remembered how unhelpful the police had been. “Would you mind if we talked to some of the other guests ourselves instead?” she asked. She would probably get more information that way.
    The young woman pressed her lips together. “I will talk to the guests,” she finally decided. “But if any other rooms were disturbed, I will have to call the police.”
    After Signora Verona left, Nancy helped Bess get her mattress back on the bed frame. “Who knows our room number?” Nancy asked, thinking out loud. “Did you tell Massimo or Claudia?”
    Bess shook her head. “I didn’t tell anyone. I barely know what the room number is myself!”
    â€œWell, if other rooms were hit, we’ll know soon enough,” Nancy said. “If not, it looks as if the necklace really was the target.”
    â€œSo someone knows I have this real Etruscan necklace,” Bess said anxiously. “And whoever it is must be a criminal to tear our room up like this to try to get it.” Nodding toward her knapsack, she added, “Carrying this necklace around is really making me nervous, Nan.”
    This case was definitely starting to heat up, Nancy had to agree. “I’ll keep it in my shoulder bag from now on, if you like,” she offered. “Meanwhile, let’s go ask Signora Verona if anyone saw anything.”
    The girls found the pensione manager at the front desk. The other guests were mostly young students on vacation, Signora Verona told Nancy. None of them remembered seeing or hearing anything suspicious, and none of the other rooms in the pensione had been disturbed.
    After Signora Verona retreated into the back room, Bess flopped down onto a chair next to the lobby desk. “Now what?” she asked Nancy. “I mean, that proves that the break-in is directly tied to the necklace, right?”
    â€œI’d like to talk to Paola Rinzini, the owner ofPreziosi,” Nancy said. “Maybe she knows where the real necklace came from.”
    â€œBut Claudia told us the store’s closed today,” Bess said, frowning.
    Nancy walked over to the pay phone next to the pensione door. She took some Italian coins out of her pocket. “Oh, I forgot!” she exclaimed. “This phone only takes those special coins, gettóni.” When they had called Claudia on Friday night, Signora Verona had sold them one of the phone tokens. “I’d better buy a few of them,” Nancy said. “We’re probably going to need them.”
    The girls called out to Signora Verona again, and she sold them some gettóni. Then they called Claudia and got Paola Rinzini’s home telephone number.
    â€œPaola’s not home,” Nancy said, hanging up the phone after trying the woman’s number. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow, I guess.” There was a determined glint in her eyes as she added, “But I’m going to keep my eye on Massimo while we’re dancing tonight.”
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    Nancy and Bess had arranged to meet Claudia, Sandro, and Massimo at a club in Trastevere, a neighborhood filled with colorful nightspots. As the pounding beat of the music bounced off the ceiling and came down around them, Nancy tried to spot their friends through the whirling crowd on the dance floor.
    â€œI don’t see them,” she said, leading the way to the bar. “Let’s get some sodas.”
    Bess grimaced as she spotted a familiar face at one of the tables. “It’s Karine,” she moaned. “I hope