The Venetian Job by Sally Gould Read Free Book Online Page A

something suspicious was going
on?"
    He shrugged. "Who knows what the Carabinieri do? To this day, I am
yet to work that out."
    "Why aren't you a Carabiniere ?" I asked. "They have smart
uniforms."
    "I wear I smart uniform!"
    I asked, "So you don't think tomorrow
there'll be any bad guys or any action at all?"
    Santo stared straight into my eyes. "Keep a
look out for the detail that does not make sense and you might get
to see some action. Anything is possible in Venice."

3. THE PERFECT
CRIME
    C aterina put on a special
dinner for us. There were no other hotel guests at dinner, just
relatives. It was weird suddenly meeting about ten more relatives.
Some of them didn't speak English, so Charlie and me sat next to
Santo. He interpreted for us when the oldies got excited and broke
into streams of Italian. Everyone talked and ate and drank at the
same time. The long table overflowed with loads of different
dishes; I wished we'd eat like this at home.
    Santo was glad we played real football. I
didn't tell him I barracked for Manchester United; he might want me
to barrack for an Italian team. He was very polite for someone
who'd played such a devious trick. I was warming to him, even
though he'd made me worry about catching a contagious disease.
    Charlie and me had to answer lots and lots
of questions. Even before we'd finished the main meal, I'd repeated
sixty times how old I was, my favorite sport and my favorite place
in Italy. I reckoned you didn't really know someone just because
you knew a bunch of facts about them. Important stuff was that you
didn't hog the ball in a game, because you wanted to win the game
more than you wanted to score a goal. Or whether you could crack a
joke in some boring class with some boring teacher and make the
class and the teacher laugh. Or whether, at school, you took the
punishment alone when only you got caught pulling out the leads for
the DVD player, because no one wanted to watch a dumb documentary
about rare frogs.
    Everyone sitting at the table told us what
we must see in Venice. I kept my mouth shut. They wouldn't want to
hear that I wasn't interested in checking out art, churches, towers
or islands, because I liked doing, not looking. Mom and Dad were
going to some boring modern art museum first, because a wonderful exhibition was about to
finish.
    We were lucky to be able to help Santo with
his job, because we might find bad guys, crime and action.
    ***
    The next morning, after breakfast, Charlie and me
met Santo in the hotel foyer. He wore a police uniform; it wasn't
as good as the Carabinieri uniform,
but I didn't mind because he'd arranged for us to go on his police
boat.
    Caterina came out of her office to say
goodbye. "Santo will show you the real Venice. When you're out and
about, look past the historical buildings and the tourists. Look
for the ordinary and you'll see Venice is a city of people without
the cars."
    Frowning, I whispered, "I don't want
ordinary. I want action!"
    She patted me on the head as if I were four
years old. After we said goodbye to Caterina and she was too far
away to hear, I asked Santo, "What sort of criminals do you
catch?"
    "We have very little crime." He stood taller
and smiled down at me. "Venice is a pleasant place with pleasant
people. Sorry, Max."
    "So what do you do?" I asked as we left the
hotel and went out into a stone-paved courtyard.
    "Yeah," repeated Charlie, "what do you do?"
    Charlie and me stopped walking and waited
for his answer. The courtyard was empty, except for a couple of
pigeons. Still it felt like the different-colored two-storey houses
surrounding us were leaning in to listen.
    "I keep my finger on the pulse of Venice. I
talk to the residents." Santo stuck his chin in the air and kept
walking.
    Charlie frowned and ran to keep up with him.
"So you're a public relations officer?"
    Santo shook his head. "No, no. It's my job
to look out for the detail that doesn't make sense."
    "Have you ever solved a crime?" I had to
know the