The Last Gondola by Edward Sklepowich Read Free Book Online Page B

Urbino had been suffering from the same dream for the past two nights.
    Rebecca dashed across the square toward Lino Cipri. The painter had caught sight of her and was waiting for her to join him.

12
    At three o’clock the next morning, Urbino made an attempt to loosen Possle’s grip on him. Even sleep provided no relief because of his troubling dream. He had awakened from it a few minutes ago, and the faces of Possle and the Contessa were still swimming toward him, encircled by bright flames. He would not be able to get back to sleep easily. He needed to chase Possle away.
    Fortified with a glass of the bourbon he saved for special occasions, he went to the library. He put Elgar’s Symphony Number One on the player and sank into an old leather armchair that had once stood in his New Orleans house. Serena settled herself in his lap a few moments later.
    Encouraged by the noble theme introduced in Elgar’s first movement, he devoted himself to considering the Contessa’s problem. He reviewed what he had learned from her staff and from the Contessa herself. The more he went over the details, few as they were, the more he realized that he needed to know several essential things before he could even hope to make any progress.
    He put a time frame around the Contessa’s loss of her items. She had worn the mauve-and-blue tea dress on the afternoon they had gone to the film festival on the Lido. If he remembered correctly, she had also had her slouch hat with her. It was a bit battered, but it was a personal favorite of hers. The film festival had been in early September. She had decided on the silver cascade necklace for the Feast of the Salute. That had been on November 21.
    She had noticed the necklace missing in the middle of January, and in quick succession she had discovered that the other items were gone. There seemed to be a period of four and a half months. Anytime during that period her things could have been taken. He now had a rough framework to work with. In one way or another, the previous autumn was the crucial period.
    As the allegro molto movement of the symphony began, Urbino reviewed the Contessa’s schedule the past autumn. From what he could remember, she had been at the Ca’ da Capo-Zendrini all that time, except for day trips to Florence and Milan, three days in Rome in late October, and a week in Geneva in early December for her medical tests. Whenever she was away for extended periods of time, Vitale gave extra vigilance to the house, or he was supposed to. Urbino had no doubt that the majordomo would emphatically inform him that he had done just that.
    Urbino tried to recall the Contessa’s houseguests during this period. Two young English cousins had spent several days at the Ca’ da Capo-Zendrini at the time of the Regata Storica. That had been in September after the film festival. Between Christmas and New Year’s the Conte’s grandniece and grandnephew had stayed with her.
    All these visits had fallen during the period when the objects had disappeared. He didn’t think that any of the Contessa’s guests had taken them, but their presence in the house would have meant less attention to security with their comings and goings.
    The lyrical adagio movement began. Urbino leaned back and closed his eyes, stroking Serena. It was the most perfect thing Elgar had ever done, and Urbino found encouragement in the fact that he had done it in his middle years.
    When the movement was over, Urbino returned his thoughts to the Contessa’s items and ran through the tentative time scheme that he had put together. There would have been many opportunities for an enterprising and lucky thief to have got into the less-than-secure Ca’ da Capo-Zendrini and taken the dress, scarf, hat, and necklace. But there was some comfort in having established some points of reference that could prove to be useful as he continued to look into the matter.
    After awaking Serena,