Dirty Secrets (20 page)

Luca stood transfixed by Heather’s bountiful breasts on display in her strapless summer dress.  “She wasn’t here last night because of her brains, obviously.” 

“You know I can hear you guys, right?  Just tell me why the David is green, I have a report due on Monday.  Please, Matteo.” 

“That’s not the real David.  That copy is green because of oxidation.  The real David is in the Accademia di Belle Arti.  Boys, did you’re little friends ask their mother’s permission to stay for lunch?”  Felicità entered the parlor with a plate of cheese, bread and ham.

“Nonna, are you feeling alright today?”  Ambrogio clamored around his grandmother. 

“Why wouldn’t I be feeling alright?  The question is will you be feeling alright if I go into your room and find your bed unmade again.  The maids are not your personal errand girls.  I will not have my grandsons growing up unable to make their own beds.”  Felicità said.

“Wait, I’m so confused. What is going on here?  Are we playing a game? Can I join in?”  Heather asked.

“I made some spuntini for you.”  Felcità’s hands wobbled as she put the tray of snacks down on the table. 

“She’s having another episode,”  Ambrogio said.

“You absolutely must go to the Palazzo Vecchio to see the other copy of the David.  The gem, the real David, is a treat best save for last.  Once you’ve seen him at the Academy all copies pale in comparison.”  Felicità straightened cushions and examined antiques for dust. 

Felicità summer tunic floated lightly around her with every twist and turn of her body.  The silver ringlets styled in her hair teased her her lower back when she bent down over Heather to adjust the straps on her dress.  The gesture allowed the girl’s assets to have some much needed support.

Luca clapped his hands together in triumph.  “Nonna, your a genius.  The Palazzo Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo and the Accademia di Belle Arti are where we should look.  I think the riddle is referring to the David, which technically is in three places at once.  One is green, the other stands guard in the middle of city’s old fortifications.” 

Ambrogio finished his brother’s sentence.  “The original is protected by the walls of the Academy.  Robynne will be in one of those places.  The question is where do we go first.”

“Why do we have to choose? Send our guards and the truckloads of contacts we have doing our bidding at the police station to each site.  I think we should go to the Accademia,”  Luca said.

  “I agree.  I have a strange feeling Robynne is there.” Adele said. 

On the verge of crying, Adele knew the more time they wasted, the closer Robynne came to dying.  She quickly chased those thoughts out of her mind. 

Felcità smiled with child-like wonder and ruffled Ambrogio and Luca’s hair.  “How I adore taking you boys to the museum.   As usual, your grandfather cannot come.  His too busy with work to spend time with his family.  We will have to hold hands, you know how you two love to run off.  It took the museum staff ages to find you the last time.  Don’t forget your notebooks.” 

Unaffected by Heather’s pleas to stay and play,  Luca coaxed the vivacious blond to leave.  Ambrogio met with the head of security who doled out teams to all three locations.  Both siblings tried unsuccessfully to convince their grandmother to rest. 

Felicità’s motherly nature drifted over to Adele’s side where she sweetly overtook a few of her wild curls. 

“A child as young as you shouldn’t worry so much.  You will get frown lines before your 18th birthday.”  Felicita said.

Adele’s tears, a constant uninvited guest in every conversation since she arrived in Italy, threatened to fall once more.  She swiped at them, but nothing kept her tears at bay.  “I will try not to worry.” 

“Ambrogio will come around eventually.  You know how boys are.  No tears.  Don’t let him see you cry just yet.  Save those tears for harder times than these,”  Felicità said.

“If there are harder times than these, I don’t want to see them.”  Adele said.

“Believe me, there will be.  Luca and Ambrogio’s parent’s died ten years ago, but they had abandoned the boys at an early age, so they could jet set around the world.  It takes them a while to trust, but they will get there.  Don’t worry.”  Felicita said.

Chapter 31

“The car is ready, Nonna.” Luca took her arm.

“You are such a gentleman.  You listen to me when I teach you things.”  Felicita squeezed Luca’s cheek for emphasis.  Embarrassed, his cheeks darkened to a deep shade of red.  

“I’m so proud of you two.  Someone either ends up coming to me crying or nursing a black eye when you play your little spy games,”  Felicita said.

“Did they tell you about Francesca?”  she asked.

Ambrogio told the driver to speed up.  “There’s no need to delve into stories from the past.  I am sure that my friend doesn’t want to here them.” 

“Watch your tone with me young man.  You have too much of your mother in you.  She eventually learned I don’t allow disrespect in my home.” 

“Yes, Nonna,”  Ambrogio said.

Everyone in the limousine sat back in their seats.  The words frozen on their tongues after Felicità corrected Ambrogio.  She was kind and loving, yet she was not to be toyed with.  Adele’s admiration grew with every minute that she was around her. 

She hoped to have the same effect on her children.  She want them to rely on and benefit from Robynne’s intelligence and wit.  In the end, Adele wanted Robynne around regardless of the circumstances.  She hoped she would have the chance to tell her exactly how important their friendship was. 

Florence did not exist quietly.  Even the sirens were more demanding then the ones at home.  The high pitched warbling was the equivalent to a obscene gesture.  A shrill reminder to get out the way.  Pedestrians were just as lax about rules as drivers were.

Impact proof, pedestrians stepped into the road, car or bus be damned.  Mousey cars were king.  The gas guzzling sport utility vehicles revered in the states would be rendered a nuisance if driven down Florence’s narrow streets. It’s drivers not confined to using the road, Adele witnessed a car creep onto the sidewalk to evade a traffic ensnarement.  Adele drank in the scenery, temporarily inebriated by the organized chaos buzzing around her. 

She’d fallen asleep after a while, Felcita’s shoulder acted as her pillow during the rest of the ride.  If Ambrogio, who gently guided Adele into consciousness, was a quiet alarm, the hustle and bustle of the square was the sound of a gong commanding her to wake at once.  She watched the tourists rotate around the square like pawn pieces, while the knights--the police--stood guard.

Ambrogio’s guards motioned for us to follow him. 

“This isn’t the academy, and those don’t look like the kind of boys you should be playing with.”  Felicita refused to budge until Ambrogio and Luca addressed her. 

“Nonna, this isn’t a game.  Someone’s life is in danger.”  Luca said.  His valiant effort at bringing her around served to confused the fragile woman more.  Adele watched as her brow knitted together in confusion. 

“You’ve lied to me.  What ever this is, it is not a situation for children to be involved in.  Tell me who is in danger and I will call the police.  You will not become involved in any kind of scandal,”  she said.

“You need to stop this, Nonna.  We’re grown.  Ambrogio and I are thirty-three years old.  We’re adults.  The year is 2011.”  Exasperated, Luca grabbed a newspaper from a passing tourist. 

Felicità slapped Luca where he stood.  The newspaper coasted to the ground at their feet.  “I will not tolerate rudeness.” 

Ambrogio secured the reigns on the situation.  “Nonna, can you recite the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno for Luca?  You know he always forgets it.” 

Uncertainty glistened in Felicità’s eyes momentarily.  “It’s my favorite, of course I can.” 

Secure with the knowledge that Felicità was in good hands, Adele and Ambrogio followed the guard past a gallery of statues into the first courtyard.  In a word, the courtyard was creepy.  A small statue of a boy with a dolphin on his back served to center the room.  Carvings on the vaulted ceiling and pillars in the courtyard depicted horrific scenes of death and carnage.  Carnage, Adele hoped, had not touched Robynne. 

They walked the expanse of a room the size of a football stadium.  Art work glorifying Florence’s battles against their enemies, centuries old and delicate, decorated the great hall of the imposing building. 

The guard moved with a sense of urgency, the sound of his urgent foot steps echoed throughout the room.  “According to the caretaker, the
Sala Verde
has been made into quite a mess by the kidnappers. There was construction on the premises.  No one has been allowed in this area for months.  This whole thing is very embarrassing for us.” 

“What do you mean by mess?”  Ambrogio and Adele said together. 

“I will let you discover that for yourself.” 

By all rights and accordances, the
Sala Verde
, couldn’t be called the green room anymore.   It resembled a small slaughter house.  There was blood on the walls, as well as, a few paintings. 

If not for Ambrogio’s quick thinking, Adele would have landed face first in a pool of blood when her knees buckled.  He braced her with one arm and continued to search for clues.

“Could this blood have come from Robynne?” Adele asked.

“There’s no way to tell right now.”  Ambrogio said. 

Food wrappers lay abandoned.  A makeshift bed, complete with an air mattress, pillow and sheets enshrouded in a plastic tarp sat tucked in a corner. 

Adele bit back the bile churning in her throat when she stepped on the scarf Cesare gave her a few nights ago. 

“There’s the scarf you told your assistant to give me the night you and your brother played switched places.”  Adele grabbed the edge of a desk, suddenly needing more than Ambrogio’s sturdy body to hold her up. 

“What are you talking about?  I gave Cesare nothing of the sort.” 

“He followed us out to the car, knocked on the window as we were about to leave and handed me the scarf.  It was a souvenir to remember you by, one you had given to all the women who’ve graced La Borgata’s halls.” 

“I don’t know what your talking about,”  Ambrogio said.

“It was a set up.” 

“If Cesare gave it to you.  How could it have possibly ended up here?”  Ambrogio asked.

“What I refused, Robynne accepted.  She was wearing it when she disappeared.”

They surmised that the kidnappers were to differentiate between Robynne and Adele by the scarf.   When the clues were placed together, side by side, the culprit appeared to be Ambrogio’s trusted assistant and family friend, Cesare. 

“It is highly unlikely.  He can not be involved in this mess. He has worked with our family for years.  His father worked for my father.  It has been this way for generations.  We’ve always treated the Tagliani’s with respect.  They are family.  I cannot understand how this could be,”  Ambrogio said.

The guard, who had been searching the room top to bottom for clues, approached Ambrogio with his jaw flexed.  “Sir, there’s a problem at La Borgata.” 

“What kind of problem?  Have you found Robynne?” 

The guard walked Ambrogio out of Adele’s earshot.  “There’s been an explosion.  Someone is dead.  They are not sure who.” 

“Say nothing else.”  Ambrogio said.

White as a ghost, Adele approached Ambrogio, noting the worry lines now marring his face.  “What happened?”

“It is nothing.”

“You left the room to talk to the guard about nothing?”

“We spoke of Felicità.  Can you accompany her to one of our hotels?  I think she could use a change of scenery.  It might be what she needs to be herself again,”  Ambrogio said.

“You might not be able to make her go.  She’s stubborn on a good day, on a bad day like today, forget it.  She’s not going to budge.  Believe me.  It’s not worth the fight,”  Adele said.

“Do it for me?”  Ambrogio asked.

“I think it would be best for her to stay with family anyway, to be honest with you.”

Ambrogio wouldn’t look her in the eye.  “I know what’s best for my own grandmother.  Do this for me,
per favore
?”

“I’m sure you do.  I’m not questioning that, but--” 

“Just do as I say, for once.”  Ambrogio interrupted. 

“Why don’t you want us to go back to La Borgata with you?  Something happened, I know it.  You can’t even look me in the eye.  It’s Robynne?  Tell me.” 

Ambrogio sent an ancient challis flying across the room.  “There’s been an explosion at La Borgata.  Someone has perished, they do not know who.  I wanted to spare you in case it was--” 

“It isn’t,”  Adele refused to let him finish his thought.

They fled the courtyards and squeezed through the hundreds of tourists flooding the plaza.  They found Luca leaning on the limousine, shoulders folded across his chest.  Felicità was no where in sight. 

“I sent nonna away with the guards when I heard the news.  Come, we must hurry back to La Borgata,”  Luca said.

Ambrogio grabbed Luca’s forearm and squeezed before disappearing into the car.  Adele wished their display of brotherly love didn’t have to occur on such traumatic terms.  When it was her turn to enter the car, Luca planted two somber kisses on her cheeks.