Bunny Elder Adventure Series: Four Complete Novels: Hollow, Vain Pursuits, Seadrift, ...and Something Blue

by J. B. Hawker

  “Yes. The food was yummy,” Taffy responded, pointedly ignoring her sister’s childish rhyme.

  “The mushroom risotto was the best I’ve ever had, but you know, I think I enjoyed the atmosphere almost as much as the food. A bar here in Italy is nothing like bars back home. It is so much more of a gathering place for family and friends...sort of like I always pictured English pubs, only more so, and with an Italian flair.”

  Bunny shook out a rumpled blouse, looking at it ruefully, “Speaking of Italian flair, have you noticed how stylish everyone is? And how slim! The only really heavy people I've seen since we landed in Venice have been tourists; mostly American or German.”

  “You’re right. I’ve noticed that, too. I don’t know how the Italians do it with all this wonderful food.”

  “Say, Buns, I’ve been thinking,” Taffy continued.

  “Just staying two days in each city isn’t really long enough. How about if we skip our stopover in Bologna and travel straight through to Pisa? That would give us two extra days to spend in Naples, or in Pisa or Rome, if that is what we decide. What do you think?”

  “That’s a great idea, if it won’t mess up our accommodations. We’ll need to cancel Bologna and change the reservations for Pisa. How about if I call and see about arriving earlier in Pisa and, if we can manage it, then we will skip Bologna? If not, we’ll just keep to the original schedule.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  

  “We have men tracking down the package from Verona right now, Zio.”

  Felice, his darkly handsome Roman features creased with worry, hesitated and then continued, “Enzio is downstairs. He wishes to make his apology in person, if you will allow it."

  Felice would not want to be in Enzio’s place. The little man had made a serious error and would feel the full weight of Don Parma’s displeasure.

  “Have you heard his apology? Or his excuses? Eh, Nephew?”

  “He swears he was told to give the package to the woman with a large bandage on her right hand. This he did. It was only when the girl arrived to pick it up he realized his error. He ran out in pursuit of the woman immediately, but she and her companion were nowhere to be found. He says the mix-up only happened because the girl was late. He claims no one told him we would be using one of the children.”

  “Perhaps we should reconsider our practice of using these young ones, Uncle. I know they cannot be prosecuted if caught, but they may not be reliable enough for such important assignments.”

  “Enzio is an ugly little man with an irritating voice. Seeing him and hearing his excuses can add nothing to his case. The girl is not at fault. Enzio will make amends in the usual way. See to it,” Parma commanded.

  Felice turned to carry out his uncle’s terse instructions, but paused when the old man raised his hand.

  “What is known about the women who intercepted the package?” Anthony demanded.

  “Who are they working for? How did they know to come at just that time, in just that way? Who has betrayed us? Is it ‘ndranghetisti down from Calabria or mafiosi from Sicily? Who challenges Camorra? Are the families at war, now?”

  “Enzio said the women were just stupid tourists bumbling in where they are not wanted, as usual. He said the rather pretty one with the bandaged hand spoke with an American accent. This was just a tragic mistake, Zio, an accident.”

  “Perhaps. But it is just such accidents which cause much bloodshed in our world. We must be sure. And we shall get that package back. Our friend wants the entire shipment. He will not pay for less than all.”

  

  Bunny and Taffy had almost missed the morning train. They overslept and rushed out without breakfast.

  Fortunately, this train featured a dining car and the two were now seated at a little table enjoying creamy, rich cappuccino with hazelnut biscotti as they sped through the Italian foothills.

  “I am so glad the convent hotel in Pisa was able to change our reservations, Bunny. We’ll stay two nights there and save our ‘extras’ for Rome and Naples. From all I’ve read, we could spend our full time in either of those cities and only skim the surface.”

  “I thought there might be a fee for changing the reservations, but there wasn’t, so this won’t cost you anything extra. I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t thank you enough for making it possible for me to come with you on this trip.”

  “Don't be silly! You’re doing me a favor by coming. Now, don't mention it anymore.”

  A few hours later, as the train was leaving the Bologna stazione ferroviaria, Bunny was pressing her face up to the window, trying to see as much of the city as possible.

  During their short lay-over in the station she screwed up her courage and persuaded Taffy to leave the train with her for a brief foray into the town.

  Fear the train might leave without them kept them from straying far, so she was trying to get a few more glimpses of this European cultural center.

  As she and Taffy had made their quick sortie into the city, Bunny caught sight of its two famous central towers, the torre Asinelli and torre Garisenda.

  “Look, Lind..uh, Taffy! Is it because Pisa is our next stop that I am imagining those towers are leaning?”

  “Why, you’re right, Bunny, I see it, too. They seem to be tilting away from each other, as though they just had a spat. How funny! I thought the only leaning tower in Italy was in Pisa. Oh, look at the time! We must get back to the train.”

  Safely back in the coach, the sisters continued to observe the country flying by and commented animatedly on everything they saw.

  They were overcoming some of their feelings of discomfort at being foreigners here and were beginning to whole-heartedly enjoy their Italian adventure.

  

  Anthony Parma was just arising from a brief afternoon nap when his nephew tapped lightly on the door of the master bedroom.

  “Are you awake, Zio?” he asked softly.

  Felice did not begrudge his uncle the use of his own bed chamber, even though it was cramped for Paola and him to share the smaller bed in the spare room.

  This would be only a temporary inconvenience, after all.

  “Come in, Nipote. What news do you bring me?”

  “I am sorry to intrude, Zio, but our men in Verona have traced those tourist women to the hotel where they stayed in Venice. We thought we had caught up with them in Verona, but must have just missed them.”

  “Tell me.”

  “We are certain these are the women we seek. They spent their first nights in Italy at the monastery hotel of the Madonna Dell’Orto church. The suore religiose described them just as Enzio did. And, too, it was known their travels took them next to Verona. They are merely American tourists, as we hoped. It should be easy to track them down and recover our merchandise. They foolishly left their itinerary with the nuns. It doesn’t say where they plan to stay, but we do have the cities and dates.”

  “What did you say? Dell’Orto? When were they there? Tell me!”

  “Our men were told the women stayed only two nights, then continued to Verona by train.”

  “But when were they there, at Dell’Orto?” Parma demanded.

  “Well, the last night of their stay was the same as the night the icons were removed from the church, but surely that can be only a coincidence,” Felice urged.

  “Coincidence? I think not. I find it difficult to believe it is an innocent happenstance that two women come to the Madonna Dell’Orto monastery hotel on the very night when we are acquiring the icons and those same women just happened to appear in Verona on the day we were transferring these items, in the very shop where the items were being kept and wearing the exact identifying signal of a clumsily bandaged right hand. In fact, I find it impossible to believe. This is worse than I feared.”

  Signor Parma began to pace about the luxuriously appointed bedroom, his silk robe flapping about his boney knees.

  “We shall eliminate these women and retrieve our prop
erty. But, first we will find out who sent them. We must know who our enemy is and how they came to know every detail of our plans. Do we know where these women are now?”

  “They mentioned to the nuns in Venice they would be traveling to Verona, Bologna, Pisa, and Roma, and then flying back to the U.S. from Napoli,” Felice replied.

  “Naples! That settles it. They know everything about our dealings. But, if they are traveling by train, they should be easy enough to locate. I want our best men on it. You will lead them, Felice. Go now, and do not return until your work is done.”

  

  “Isn’t this room lovely, Bunny? It seems the farther south we go, the nicer the convent hotels become.”

  “They even have Wi-Fi access in the rooms. I should have brought my laptop computer with me. We could be sending emails to Jean and Nick, back home, to let them know all about our trip. Much better than postcards. The ones we sent from Venice may not get there until after we are back at home.”

  “That reminds me, our big sister wants us to bring her back a necklace or earrings from the Corso Italia. She heard about the famous jewelry shops in Pisa on one of her TV home shopping networks and is determined to have a piece purchased there. It isn’t out of our way. Apparently, the Corso district is a pleasant walk from here and the best place to shop in Pisa, and not just for the jewelry. I hope I can find something nice for her that’s fairly inexpensive.”

  “We can make it our first priority in the morning, then. We should have time before our sightseeing tour begins,” Bunny said.

  The women enjoyed a relaxing dinner in the convent hotel dining room and took a stroll around the garden before returning to their room.

  As they walked, arm in arm against the chilly night air, Bunny noticed her sister seeming to struggle against tears.

  “Lin.., er, Taffy, are you okay?”

  Taffy sniffed a few times, swallowed and replied, “Oh, I’m fine. It’s just that ever since we began this vacation I find myself thinking, Walt would love this, or, I can’t wait to tell Walt about that. Then I remember he’s gone and won’t be waiting for me when I get back home. It’s like losing him all over again every time.”

  Bunny didn’t know what to say, so she just gave her sister a quick hug.

  They finished their walk in silence and, on an impulse, joined the nuns for their evening devotions in the chapel.

  The service was in Italian or Latin, Bunny wasn’t sure which, but it wasn’t necessary to understand the language to feel the spirit of peace and comfort enfolding her.

  Bunny prayed that Taffy felt it, too.

  After the final, “amen,” they returned to their room and were blissfully asleep well before the 10:30 p.m. curfew.

  Chapter Five

  …the mariners and all the sailors will stand on the shore.

  Ezekiel 27:29

  Felice Parma and several of his men drove into Pisa the next morning.

  Parking his black Alfa Romeo easily in an impossibly small space on the narrow street, Felice instructed his men to fan out and begin the search for their quarry.

  They would search first at the convent hotels, in case the women were maintaining their earlier pattern.

  Each man had memorized the women’s descriptions and an innocuous story for needing to find them.

  The men understood their assignment was first of all to recover the errant shepherd boy, next to learn who the women worked for, and only then to dispose of them.

  

  Max was a little sad to be leaving Sardinia.

  The past three days in port at Ponza had been a perfect break from the days at sea. He had been able to relax and enjoy fantastic snorkeling in the clear blue waters off Palmarola, while Tenny saw to some business and took care of repairs to the sloop.

  Crewing in the Mediterranean was less arduous than in the open sea.

  Max had begun to feel his age more than he had anticipated during the long days on the Atlantic.

  His Dutch friend was making this trip to Naples to pick up some mysterious cargo for friends of his in Venezuela and was anxious to arrive at the appointed time, so they couldn’t linger in port any longer.

  It seemed to Max, since there was so much urgency, these friends should be shipping their precious freight commercially. But, he supposed it was none of his business and he was enjoying the trip, for the most part. It was a good diversion, too, as the days of retirement on Bonaire had begun to drag a bit.

  He wondered if it would have seemed so monotonous if Bunny had agreed to join him in his Caribbean paradise.

  

  Bunny and Taffy began their morning shopping for jewelry for Jean as planned.

  They wished their older sister could have joined them, since she was the master shopper of the family.

  Jean would have had great fun wandering in and out of the delightful little shops with their rich hoard of baubles and bangles.

  Taffy’s hand was mostly healed and she had discarded her bulky bandage.

  She and Bunny had a merry time trying on gorgeous and expensive rings and bracelets, while picking out their sister’s more affordable gift, a sweet heart-shaped Murano glass pendant.

  Joining a guided tour of the highlights of the city in midmorning, they had reached their saturation point of beautiful ancient churches filled with glorious art, explored the Field of Miracles, visited the twelfth century Duomo with its famous bronze doors, and dutifully taken turns with Taffy’s camera snapping each other’s photo “holding up” the famous Leaning Tower.

  “Bunny, I don’t know why you always pack a camera on trips and never remember to take it out of your luggage,” her sister remarked.

  “I know. I am just hopeless when it comes to photography, anyway. Perhaps that explains why I don’t carry the camera with me. I’ll try to do better for the rest of this trip, though. I promise.”

  The women were pleasantly exhausted when they returned to their hotel to rest before dinner.

  They had been trying to acclimate themselves to eating dinner at the later European hour.

  Neither sister expected to be able to return to this beautiful part of the world, so they were trying to immerse themselves in the culture.

  In the corridor as they approached their room Bunny noticed the door was ajar.

  “Oh dear, Taffy. I was sure the maid would have finished with our room by this time. But, let’s not bother her. We can go and eat now, rather than later.”

  “That’s a good idea. I get so hungry waiting to dine fashionably late. This is as good an excuse as any to indulge my appetite.”

  The sisters turned around without even looking into their room and went in search of exotic and unfamiliar Italian dishes to tempt their palates and satisfy their desire for adventure.

  Inside the room two rough-looking men were so intently pawing through the sisters’ belongings they failed to hear the women in the hallway.

  The larger, swarthier, and more muscle-bound member of the duo grumbled to his companion, “It’s no good, Lucca. There’s nothing here but old lady clothes, pills and snacks. The description of the women who are staying here sounded like the ones we are looking for, but there’s nothing here.”

  Lucca, a younger, more stylish fellow, with a slightly more intelligent expression on his equine, pock-marked face, seemed to consider his companion’s comments before replying.

  “You may be right, Roberto. We have searched every inch of this room. There is no place left to hide the statue, and nothing we have found could belong to anyone capable of pulling off such a trick on the Parma family.”

  “Yeah, this is just a lot of tourist fluff, Lucca! Let’s go.”

  Roberto nodded his oversized, shaved head toward the door, urging his companion to leave.

  “Va bene. Perhaps our friends have had better luck this day. Felice does not want to return to signor Parma with empty hands. Andiamo!”

  

  “Oh, I am stuffed, Taffy. I shouldn’t have let y
ou talk me into that tiramisu,” Bunny groaned with her hands on her stomach, as though to prevent it from exploding.

  “But you do have to admit it was worth it, don’t you? And we won’t ever eat like this again. We can diet and exercise like army recruits when we get back home.”

  “Look! That maid left the door open all evening! She might have been long gone when we were here before. I should have at least checked and then I could have locked up,” Bunny said.

  “I don’t suppose we need to worry about anyone taking our stuff here in a convent hotel, Bunny. Maybe they don’t always bother to even close the doors, let alone lock them.”

  “Maybe so...Oh no! Lind-uh, Taffy! Our room is a mess! What’s happened?”

  “Have we been robbed, Bunny? Should we call the police or polizia or whatever they have here?”

  “Let’s just go down and speak with the Sister at the front desk. Maybe she can help us sort this mess out. We could really use a hand cleaning everything up.”

  “I’ll say! It looks like a tornado was in our room, Bunny. Living in Idaho, we sometimes have sand devils twist through, but nothing like this. I’d better stay here while you go get someone.”

  Bunny hurried down the wide marble stairs to the lobby and scurried up to the reception desk.

  “Scusi, suora. Someone has ransacked our room upstairs! It’s a terrible mess.”

  The nun called her supervisor over and that woman went upstairs with Bunny to review the situation.

  Taffy was already in the room looking over the chaos while being careful not to touch anything.

  She had watched too many TV crime dramas to risk mucking up the forensics.

  “You know, Bunny, I don’t think anything is actually missing. Your camera is even still here and, although all our toiletries, papers and clothes are scattered around, I don’t think anything is gone.”

  “What about our souvenirs? Was the little statue you liked so much broken?”

  “I’m so silly! I just realized it was still in my tote bag. I’ve been carrying that thing around with me for days wondering why my bag was so heavy. I was blaming jet lag!”