The Venetian Job (8 page)

T
he men stopped talking, so
I held my breath. I heard the sound of the blanket being taken off.
If I were Superman, I'd be able to see through the door and see
what was inside those silver tubes. They were like the cardboard
tubes you could buy at the post office to hold something you needed
to roll up. Mom kept old tubes to protect our school projects when
we carried them to school. I had to breathe again. As quietly as I
could, I breathed. Then I heard the sound of metal being placed on
the floor. The men began whispering again. The last time I'd used
one of those cardboard tubes was for a painting I did of a bunch of
aliens from different galaxies having a party in my imaginary
Star Wars
movie.

A painting! Could that be it? My mind raced.
Surely not. I was just thinking that because Santo had told us
about that big art robbery. Then I heard the men return the blanket
and leave the room. I had to get back upstairs quick. But I just
wanted to see if there were paintings in those tubes. Real quiet, I
opened the door, stepped out into the light and tiptoed over to
where the tubes sat. I pulled off the blanket and grabbed a tube.
It had a screw top. I unscrewed it and noticed my hands were
sweaty. There didn't seem to be anything in it. I put my hand in to
make sure. It was empty! Were they all empty?

In the distance, I heard Charlie call out,
"Max!"

"Far out." I screwed the top back on,
returned the tube and put back the blanket the same way I'd found
it. Real casual, I walked out. Charlie was at the other end of the
hallway. He waved impatiently for me to be quick. I hurried and
followed him up the stairs to where Santo waited. The filming had
begun again.

"Sorry," I said to Santo, "
la toilette
."

He replied, "Now we go, so we don't get in
the way."

We followed him back to where Luca waited on
the police boat. Now I'd never get to check the other tubes. I sat
down and thought and thought. Should I tell Santo and Luca what I'd
seen? Would Charlie laugh at me? Would they all think I was a joke?
Yeah, definitely.

Charlie would remind me for the rest of my
life what an idiot I was. Dad would tell all his golfing buddies as
though that story was the funniest thing that happened on the whole
trip ... well ... besides the trick Santo played on us when we
arrived at the hotel. Yeah, I'd already been mega-dumb. Mom and Dad
liked to say,
You can't always trust your bad
feelings, Max!

I should forget it; it was probably nothing.
Just my imagination.

I tuned in to Luca, who sounded like a
tourist guide, telling us about every palace on the Grand Canal. I
wasn't interested in different kinds of arches, windows and
decorations. In between telling us about the palaces, Luca waved to
almost every boat driver and gondolier on the canal. He was just
like Santo. Lucky for us, he quickly worked out Charlie and me
weren't into architecture.

He pointed to another palace. "Look. That is
where the famous robbery took place."

Then I remembered what Santo had told us.
You have to notice the detail that doesn't make
sense.

My whole body tingled. I could feel goose
bumps pop up on my arms. That was it! The silver tubes. How did
they make sense? I took a couple of deep breaths. Would I risk
being teased for the rest of my life? I tugged at Santo's shirt and
said to Santo, Luca and Charlie, "I've got a detail that doesn't
make sense."

"
Si?
"

Santo moved closer to hear. Luca slowed the
boat. They were going to listen. I felt stupid, so I said real
fast, "At the film set there were two men who gave me a bad
feeling. In the room on the ground floor they'd covered seven
silver tubes with a blanket. A rolled-up painting could fit inside
a tube." I wouldn't tell them that I'd checked one tube and it was
empty. "And I saw one of those men on the first floor fiddling with
the corner of a painting. He stopped as soon as he saw me."

Now that I'd told them, my story sounded
real dumb. I waited for them to laugh at me.

They didn't. Santo and Luca stared at each
other with their mouths half-open.

S
anto spoke real fast in
Italian. Then he and Luca got excited and raised their voices. They
waved their hands about like they were having an argument. I
couldn't wait to learn Italian.

Then Santo got out his cell and made a call.
Then he made another call. Charlie and me glanced at each other. I
knew we were thinking the same thing. We were going to burst before
they told us what was going on.

Finally, Santo got off the phone and
switched to English. Real serious, he said to the three of us, "The
agency that employs casual staff for the film set hired two new
workers two weeks ago. They help with the props and sets." He
sighed. "The successful art robbery that occurred at the other
palace was in every newspaper and in all the media across Europe.
All police forces across Europe have been put on alert for a
copycat robbery. It's possible ..."

"Where next?" asked Luca.

Santo pointed back up the canal. "To the
film set; we'll check the tubes ourselves."

Luca revved the boat, spun it round and took
off.

Charlie and me looked at each other. He
looked excited and not just because we were in a police boat
zooming real fast down the Grand Canal. I was excited and worried.
Would Santo and Luca let Charlie and me go with them? What if all
the tubes were empty?

Minutes later we re-entered The Cursed
Mansion. Santo hadn't told us to stay on the boat, which was good.
This time we went straight to the room with the silver tubes. My
stomach somersaulted. Maybe Charlie and me should've stayed in the
boat in case these guys were thieves and they had guns tucked into
their socks?

The room was empty; my stomach settled down.
I went straight over and lifted the blanket off the tubes. Each of
us grabbed one. Of course, I didn't choose the one I knew was
empty. I got my tube opened first. I thought my heart was about to
explode through my chest as I stuck my hand in. I felt something
rolled up inside.

"Here," I said to Santo, "can you pull it
out?"

Very carefully, he pulled it out. No one
spoke as he rolled it out. It was an old painting! I sucked in my
breath, so relieved that I didn't look stupid. The painting was of
a few people lounging round on the ground in a forest. Cupid
hovered above them. Actually, I didn't think the picture was that
great, but since it was old it was probably worth lots.

Luca turned to Santo, "Do you know
this?"

Santo shook his head. "Let's assume it's
priceless."

Just then we heard a noise. In a nanosecond,
Charlie and me dived behind some furniture and hid. Santo and Luca
were too slow. Two men strode in with long metal rods pointed at
Santo and Luca. I stopped myself from gasping. Did they know
Charlie and me were here as well? I held my breath.

One of the thieves whispered to Santo in
Italian. Santo and Luca handed over the tubes. One of the men
forced Santo and Luca into the storeroom, locked the door and
slipped the key into his pocket. The two men didn't speak. They
filled a soft black bag with the tubes and left. We waited till we
could hear them go up the stairs before we left our hiding
spot.

I whispered to Charlie, "The thieves have
got the key."

"If Santo had a gun, he could blow off the
door handle." He huffed. "If Santo were a real policeman, he'd
carry a gun."

Through the door, we heard Santo say, "I
heard that."

Then I remembered that time I picked the
padlock of the shed at home, because Dad had locked my scooter in
there as a punishment. "Let's find a paperclip."

Within a minute, we'd found a pile of papers
and five paperclips. It'd been ages since I'd picked a lock. Before
it'd taken me days to get the hang of picking padlocks. I breathed
slowly and concentrated real hard. The first and second paperclips
got wrecked. Charlie was annoyed - I could tell by the way he
huffed and puffed. But I knew he couldn't say anything, because he
was hopeless at picking locks. I'd tried to teach him, but he gave
up and said only criminals needed to know that sort of stuff. Only
criminals and a couple of Aussie boys who needed to save their dumb
Italian policeman Uncle, who didn't carry a gun.

Santo and Luca tried to tell us to go and
get help from André. Lucky we ignored them, because I had the door
open in less time than it would've taken to find André and tell him
what had happened.

Santo looked stunned as I opened the door.
He looked from the paperclip I'd straightened to me and back to the
paperclip, obviously unable to believe his eyes. Then he snapped
into action. "Let's go!"

He ran out the door and to the police boat.
Luca, Charlie and me followed. Actually, we had trouble keeping up
with them. Maybe our Mr. Have-a-chat Uncle wasn't totally hopeless
after all.

We all jumped on the boat. Santo got on the
police radio and yelled into it. I noticed one of the bad guys up
ahead, because of his green Save the Planet T-shirt. They were in a
water taxi, but the guy with the Save the Whales T-shirt was
driving. They must've wasted a bit of time trying to find a boat to
steal. I yelled out to Luca and he revved the engine and took off.
Charlie and me hung on tight.

I felt like I was going to throw up as Luca
swerved in and out of the other boats on the canal. Soon all the
boats were moving out of our way. It was unreal. Every single
person in every boat on the Grand Canal was gawking at us. I felt
like I was at the center of the universe.

Way up ahead I could see the water taxi. At
first we narrowed the gap, but then the thieves saw us and so they
did a sharp left turn down a narrow canal. Luca got the police
siren blaring, and Santo kept yelling into the police radio. Then
Luca made the same sharp left turn and somehow I lost my grip. I
was hurled out of the boat, landing in the water with a crash.

The water was real cold. Far out, I'd freeze
to death. I kept my legs moving and prayed that no sharks hung out
in the Grand Canal.

L
uca spun the boat round
and headed back toward me. Santo stuck his arm out and grabbed me
while the boat was still moving. I felt like a stuntman as he
hauled me over the side. That hurt my stomach, but I didn't
complain. Charlie didn't tell me I was an idiot; instead he wrapped
a towel around me.

Santo asked, "You swallow any water?"

I shook my head.

"Good," he managed to answer before he was
back on the police radio again.

The boat sped up until we were going real
fast again. Lucky the sun was warm and I dried out a bit. "Has
anyone got a plan?" I asked Charlie.

He nodded toward Santo. "He's talking to the
Carabinieri
."

Wow, they could chase the bad guys in their
boat and my story for school would be even more exciting.

Luca yanked the steering wheel right, and
the boat did a sudden turn down a narrow canal. That time I managed
to hang on. Then I saw the bad guys up ahead and we were getting
closer. They saw us too. Lucky there weren't any other boats
between us. Then the bad guy in the Save the Planet T-shirt rolled
a metal drum off the back of his boat and it hit our boat with a
thud. I jumped backward. The front of our boat jerked up out of the
water, then crashed down and the boat kept going.

Charlie and I crouched down and glanced at
each other. I whispered, "What if Santo and Luca catch them?
They'll have to wrestle the bad guys to the ground. They aren't as
young and fit as the bad guys."

"If Santo carried a gun like real policeman
that wouldn't be a problem." Charlie rolled his eyes.

"We should tell Santo we've got junior black
belts in taekwondo. We can help. Four against one." I imagined
Charlie and me impressing Santo with our flying side kicks. Of
course in real life the bad guys could probably pick us up and
throw us over the side of the boat, but if I got a few bruises in a
fight that would make my story for school even better.

Santo hadn't taken his eyes off the bad
guys. Our boat took another sharp turn, which made me feel like
throwing up. We were going so fast everything was a bit of a blur.
The canals got narrower. Had Luca lost the thieves? I stood up
straight again and Charlie did the same. There wasn't any sign of
the water taxi.

"Luca is trying to cut off the their boat,"
Santo said to us.

Seconds after, we turned into another canal
and I almost fainted. The bad guys' water taxi was facing us head
on. It was as if we were about to play a serious game of Chicken on
the canal.

Santo stood his ground, directly facing the
guy wearing the Save the Planet T-shirt. Santo wasn't afraid; that
was good. But the bad guy stood his ground as well and he didn't
seem afraid either. That wasn't so good. I could barely breathe as
I looked from Santo to the thief and back to Santo. No one
moved.

The driver who was wearing the Save the
Whales T-shirt began to reverse his boat, when a different siren
sounded real close. Suddenly behind the water taxi was a boat full
of
Carabinieri
with their machine
guns by their sides. They didn't even bother pointing them at the
two bad guys.

Charlie and me didn't need to speak Italian
to know what was going on. The bad guys stared open-mouthed at the
Carabinieri
for seconds before it
sank in that they were trapped. Slowly, they put their hands behind
their heads and in no time the
Carabinieri
handcuffed them and took the black bag
with the tubes inside.