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

truth. All my dreams of seeing real action and catching
real bad guys weren't sounding too likely.
    Santo looked uncomfortable for a second
before he rubbed his chin. "We don't have much day-to-day crime,
but three years ago there was a clever theft of twelve priceless
paintings. I'm surprised no one has made a movie about it."
    "Really?" I said too loud as we entered a
narrow alley. "Were you on duty?"
    Santo laughed. "The night it happened no one
realized there was a robbery. This is what we think happened. The
mastermind of the robbery knew that every year a very famous
composer, who owned a palace on the Grand Canal, hosted a big New
Year's Eve party."
    "Mozart?" I asked as Santo opened a big iron
gate for us.
    Charlie elbowed me. "He's dead!"
    "The composer's name is Pierre." Santo
continued. "I suspect the mastermind even went to one of those
parties and that was where he got the idea. We are sure that over a
year before the thefts, he began to plan. He arranged for his own
people to work in the organizations that looked after the New
Year's Eve party. Pierre used the same businesses every year,
because they knew what to do and they understood his taste."
    I nodded, but part of me wondered if he was
making up a good story.
    "The accomplices took all sorts of jobs. One
did the flowers, a couple were involved with the catering, two
helped set up the orchestra and the most important person of all
was in charge of security."
    We stepped out into Piazza San Marco. It was
early, so there were lots of pigeons and hardly any people. "Wow!"
I wanted to run through the middle of the piazza and make the
pigeons fly off, but Santo headed away from the piazza. "Are they
in jail now?" I asked.
    Charlie elbowed me again. "Don't jump to the
end. I want to hear the story as it happened."
    Santo grinned. He loved that we couldn't
wait to hear the whole story - I could tell. He continued, "The
brilliant part was that none of the accomplices knew the others
were accomplices before the night of the theft. They each had a job
to do and they did it. On the night, they identified each other by
a silver ring they wore on the middle finger of their right
hand."
    "You must have caught them, if you know
that!"
    "No," said Santo, "I worked that out from
the security tapes." He sighed. "Anyway, what we think happened is
that the man in charge of security was able to deactivate the
alarms protecting the stolen paintings. He did it one by one during
the course of the night. Nothing was done in a hurry. It was done
slowly and carefully."
    Charlie sounded impatient. "So how did they
take the paintings without anyone noticing?"
    "When the alarm had been switched off, the
lookouts who were security guards made sure no one was nearby and
the painting, including the frame, was switched. We're pretty sure
copies were made up and they were brought in by either the men who
set up the orchestra or the caterers."
    "When did the owner of the palace discover
the paintings were fakes?"
    "Over a week later. When there was no trace
of the thieves. They'd all left their jobs and they'd used fake
names and identities. We had no leads at all. The mastermind,
whoever he was, was very clever."
    "Does that mean you didn't see the detail
that didn't make sense?" I asked.

4. THE CURSED
MANSION
    " N o," said Santo. "The
mastermind pulled off the perfect crime."
    "I'd love to catch a mastermind." I imagined
standing in front of my class and telling them about it.
    It just so happened that
Princess Mary was also on holiday in Venice with the prince and
their children. They were kidnapped ... but Charlie, Santo and me
found the kidnapper's hideout and rescued the royal
family.
    After the whole class agreed I'd made up the
story, I'd hold up the front page of the newspaper with our photo
in it.
    "Yeah, that's exciting," Charlie said to
Santo about the art theft, "but what do you do day to day?"
    "As I said, most of the time, I satisfy
myself that life in Venice is in order." He