Liana & Ken
TRAVELLING DETECTIVES
THE VENICE ENCOUNTER
DEEKSHA KHAN
liana and ken – Travelling detectives
LIANA
17 May 2001
Dear diary
Today I and my brother Ken are in Venice. Ken says he`s getting `ever SO bored`, but I think it`s a beautiful city for our first case out of L.A. . Before this, we used to solve cases in our home city -L.A., or Los Angeles. This is our coolest case ever. I clearly remember that day when a phone call came from Venice asking for Miss Liana, sister of Master Ken. Yuck! Master Ken indeed. So here we are in the one and only Venice.
KEN
17 May 2001
I am not one of those people who go round practically sleepwalking writing their diaries all the time. My little sister Liana is one of them and for a fact, I am her opposite. So at the end of the day, I write down whatever has happened and my comments on the events of the day.
12:34 AM- We arrived in Venice
2:49 PM-We had a sumptuous lunch. OH YUM!
4:26 PM- We, oopsie, I went for a horrendously fast motor boat ride with my bestest friend whom I suddenly bumped into.
8:35 PM- We had dinner. I just ate a lovely seafood dish whose name I didn`t know. I asked the waiter serving us "What`s the name of this whoopsie-doopsie?" But the old sucker just scowled at me. I`ve never liked waiters. (Sigh)
10:45 PM- Liana went to sleep yawning like a grampus. I am writing in my diary.
10:59 PM- I am going to sleep too...zzzzzzzzz.
LIANA
18 May 2001
Dear diary
Today we are going to tell you the details of our case. I have written the thing down for safekeeping.
The victim of the whole case- Senor Luigi
What happened- A difficultly easy case, this. Senor Luigi, a Spanish-Italian chef, is getting threats from a burly voiced man. BY PHONE.
Current threats- "I shall see to it that your restaurant is invaded soon by my men. I have strong forces in my control. Hand over all your dollies or I shall have a raid on you!"
"Luigus, I know you have those children as detectives. They are like mice in front of a tiger if you have themon a case. If you think we will be caught by the police then you are wrong. I know you think they will trap us and the story of two bravechildrenwill be published in our `Italy today`. What childish thoughts of yours! I hope you give up soon. HA HA HA HA HA!"
Hmmmm...There is such a catch. I haveto ask Senor Luigi about this soon. And, I have to tell Ken. G`Bye for now!
KEN
18 May 2001
Liana has begun having serious thoughts about this case of ours. Senor Luigi is less troubled than Liana, in fact. Why, now she sleep talks about the phone calls! To describe things fully, I must break my usual diary rules. Point one: Liana is really troubled about finding out who makes these phone calls from the post office. Point two: I guess it`s really hard on a thirteen year old like Liana to scroll on a such a difficult case. Point three: She can`t seem to enjoy taking a teensy break for fifteen minutes. Good God, I`m feeling badder for her than I`ve ever felt... she is my sister after all. She just told me that the caller used to call Senor Luigi `Luigus`. "...Which means he knows Luigi." She concluded. "How do you know that?"I asked, amused at her amount of IQ. "Luigi`s real name, Luigus, is known to only close friends and family, Ken... I have a feeling this is a friend. And he is calling and threatening...Um, out of jealousy for Luigi!" "Why would anyone hate friendly, sweet old Luigi?" "Ken, like I said, it`s jealousy for friendly, sweet, rich, and famous Luigi-Luigus." I still didn`t understand Liana the great`s lecture. "Linsy, HOW would the so-called friend snatch all Luigi`s wealth and fame by just dialing a number?!" "Ken, he couldn`t snatch it, yeah, but he could disturb it largely, you know, by disturbing Luigi internally, couldn`t he." Now I understood the logic of this conversation we had been holding. The thing was dangerous! Italy would lose a fine chef as well as a celebrity, for our friend Luigi was an actor too... As time needed said but nothing really done yet... though I do have a smashing plan on the tip of my tongue... and it`s all mine to sketch out.
LIANA
19 May 2001
Dear diary
Ken just told me his plan to catch the cruel caller. And it`s very childish for a fifteen year old like Ken. It`s like this-
We spread Luigi`s spies all around, ready outside each and every telephone booth in Venice. A few shall be on the outskirts as well;
All of them will carry Enfield guns with them. We shall be outside only likely telephone booths, you know, the ones me and Ken suspect...And having too many suspects is like not having any at all;
The whole plan is like; we wait outside telephone booths, listening hard to every conversation. The crude caller comes and dials Luigi`s number. We pounce on him and take him by shock. We knock him out and call the cops... Which will be quite easy, seeing as we`ll be in a telephone booth. We are going tomorrow to carry it out. Hope we can do it and zoom home or go for a vacation to take a long break.
KEN
19 May 2001
We are finally going to carry out my plan tomorrow. Whoopee! Hooray! Liana and I are grinning from ear to ear now. I am going to take Liana out tonight for her favorite kind of dinner, brimming with Italian cuisine, milkshake, and ice cream. She is out playing `Battleship 101`. Her favorite video game. She is a total cyber geek. From the time when she was a decade old. Luigi is going to play Ping Pong with me in the afternoon. Right now I`m tapping out some e-mail for Mum and Dad. They would be biting their nails off about us right now, `cause they`re sending so much mail the whole inbox would burst. I`d like to go to sleep early today `cause we`re going to be out the whole day tomorrow.
LIANA
19 May 2001
Dear diary
I`ve just finished playing the 34th level of `Battleship 101`. Ken`s come into the cyber café. I am in the cyber café near the Rialto Bridge... CCs in Venice are expensive. Ken`s taking me out for dinner today. I really hope it`s Italian cuisine... brimming with milkshakes and ice cream. I`d like to have some tuna sandwich too, corn and tuna with mashed potato. Venice looks beautiful in the evening... I just keep worrying about tomorrow. It could be dangerous or even fatal. Two kids against a fully-grown man... I will keep getting the thrills tonight. And this is the 2nd time I am writing in my Diary. That's a sign I`m truly scared.
KEN
20 May 2001
Okay, no noise now, there`s another man coming into suspect zone. Yep, we`re outside a very highly used telephone booth. Like, on a scale of 100 %, its population would be 99.98 %. Liana is biting her small nails at a speed of, like, 9900 km per hour. I dunno if I`ll soon have a sister with stumps as nails. We can hear him. "...Marcus is scheduled to call that fruitcake of a chef at 10:53 pm on Wednesday, 9:48 on Friday and 11:39 pm on Sunday. This way it`ll be more than effective... disturbing his beauty sleep. Ha ha ha ha!" I think we got the right one. "Sprint, Liana! Go catch that fatty!" I cried. Then as he stepped out of the booth and Liana grabbed him, I felt someone grab me by both wrists and pull me aside. Boy, whoever it was, must be pretty strong... I felt pain surging and pounding through my arms. Suddenly, I wasn`t able to see or hear anything. I dunno how to describe that horrific feeling I had right then... that my sweet, intelligent little sister was going through the same experience. Images floated in my mind: Mum and Dad, Grampa, Gramma, Uncle Joey, my friends at L.A., Liana`s pet parakeets, Mimi and Mamba, my St. Bernard, Bandito and closest to my heart, Liana.
LIANA
20 May 2001
Dear Diary
You must have read all that happened to us in Ken`s diary entry. Now we`re in a big mess. I did say Ken`s idea was not born in Galileo Galilee's mind, didn`t I? Now see, we`re kidnapped, stuck in an anonymous hut hidden away in Venice, Italy. Cool, you say? Ha ha ha ha ha. I am not laughing. I am being extremely sarcastic. What actually happened to me and Ken was claustrophobia+asphyxiazation. We are claustrophobic and were pushed into a tiny, tight van after being sprayed with what I call Spray death. I couldn`t hold that fat grubby man down any more. I was sprayed in time to see Ken fainting. The man we`re taken prisoners by is called... I can`t pronounce his name: it sounds like a sneeze. And not in a good way (are sneezes good?). Zen is just coming to. Whew! Thankfully holding one of his smelly socks to his nose worked goody. Hey! Is the effect of that spray still on?! He`s hugging me! Tight! I feel bowled over. It`s been months since he hugged me. The last time he did, he stuck a piece of gum on my sweater. Before that, he burst a big paintball on my jeans and said it looked really good. All pranks! So it`s pretty different from before. "Are you okay? D`you need a glass of water? Or Coke? Fine. Soooo, hearty welcome to rat heaven!" I said. "Where are we? What the... Are we still in Venice?" He asked confusedly. "Yeah, and I don`t think we`ll ever get out. Remember that spray you were treated to, bro? We`re kidnapped!" I blurted. "Holy cow! Where`s that fat man you caught, Linsy? You didn`t let him go, did you?" He asked excitedly. "I did, Ken, I couldn`t hold him down any more. He was pretty wriggly and strong as well. And he grabbed me, sprayed me, sprayed you, and here we are in an anonymous shack hidden away in Venice." Just then, the door opened, and in came Mr. Blah Blah with... Luigi! Yes it was Luigi! "Jumping Jehosophat! How`d you get here, Luigi?" I cried out. "Crikey! Ol` Luigi! How did you get here, pal?" Asked Ken. "Same way as you did, just that they grabbed me inside the house." "Which house? I thought you lived in your restaurant`s backside, you know, you do have a house built in the back." "No, it was another one, my grandfather`s. What baffles me is how they found me there. Almost nobody knows about my ancestral home. At least, they don`t dare to go there." "What do you mean; no one dares to go there? It`s not a haunted villa, I should think. Huh, Luigus?" I asked. "Well, you are right, Liana. It`s not. But since my grandfather disappeared mysteriously, everyone thinks it is." "Ooh, tell us the whole story, we don`t wanna miss out on anything." And so Luigi sat back, settled down, cleared his throat, and began. "My grandpa was an active doll-collector. He had many dolls in his house by the time I was born. Precious dolls, they were. And beautifully crafted and painted too. What grand clothes his Japanese dolls wore! Green, red, blue and jade-colored kimonos would twinkle at you when you entered his museum, as he called it, for many dolls were antique too. And he also had dolls of rare French makes, in beautiful dresses. His dolls were practically giving you a tour of the whole world from India to Kenya! But no good thing lasts long. Many people were after his dolls. And they didn`t hide their desire. They threatened my grandpa almost every week, what with his collection growing. But grandpa was not one to give up. He placed his hands on his hips and stoutly refused to give even a doll`s shoe. So they said "We`ll steal, and we won`t delay, so give up your dollies, old man." They didn`t even know the D of doll, so obviously they were working for money promised to them. Then I was to go to college, and there wasn`t any good college in view, so papa enrolled me in a college pretty far away, in Eraclea, and all of us: Ma, papa, and big ma had to travel north-east and stay for a while to settle me down. Grandpa was alone in dear old Venice, so I think it was a golden chance for the doll thieves to do away with grandpa and steal his dolls. I proved 100% right. Ma refused to believe me. She said it was a Massive Stroke. Or he just plain passed away like real old people do. Thing is, detective that I was, I didn`t try to snoop about." At this point, Luigi paused for a breather. "Carry on, don`t stop! What`s next?" Ken cried. "Well, I didn`t snoop about very much, but I did check on his dolls. Sure enough, about thirteen or fourteen were missing. As far as I can remember, they were French dolls, Japanese dolls, and little porcelain flamenco dancers. Well, so today evening, I was there in grandpa`s house. I go there often to gaze at the beautiful dolls and clean the house and dust the doll-shelves so that grandpa`s ghost will be at peace. I don`t know how they found out I was there. I think, they are related to those doll thieves. Also, I didn`t tell you about one latest phone call they made. Okay, now listen to this pretty thing rumble on. It`s evidence for the police, if they happen to look into this case. He pulled out a tape recorder. It started-"Luigi, you and the kids are in trouble. Not to mention your dolls. Your grandpa was easy to do away with. Now it`s your turn to die.". I was foolish to drag you two kids into this guetapens. Sorry." "No problemo, amigo. We`re happy when we have adventure in front...It`s our kind of thing." We said simultaneously. Suddenly, Mr. Sneeze comes in. We made the 'Ssh now' sign to Luigi.
KEN
21 May 2001
Today we are still in that shack. We are making plans for escape and then catching these crooks. By the way, we found out how those crooks kidnapped Luigi! We saw a 3 c.m. steel thing on his coat. Aena thought it was a bullet and started getting a bit scared, but I saw it beeping and flashing a small light. I knew in a flash what it was... And how they found Luigi, too. I exclaimed "It`s a tracking device! Luigi, you had a tracking device on yourself! But how did they pin it on you? You would have known!" suddenly, a cook from Luigi`s restaurant came in. "I stuck it on, kid. That`s why I got a job in the first place." he smiled an ugly, crooked smile.
LIANA
21 May 2001
Ya know about the ugly chef from Luigi`s restaurant? Ken slowly got up to hit him but fell down again because he had an injured foot and was limping. Then I did the bravest thing I`d done in my life. I got up and whacked that man about the head with this diary. He fell and found Luigi on top of him, strangling him to death. The man fell unconscious and I smirked. Ken patted me on the back and said in awe "I didn`t think you would do it, ever! Cool, huh?" I smiled. Ok, one enemy was out, there were four left. We had to fight them. Ken, with his limp, couldn`t, but I could handle two and Luigi could handle two. And I`d handle any guards if possible. I told my plan to Luigi and Ken and told them we`d do it at 5:30, when the weaker kidnappers would be doing their shift. Then, hearing the screams, the stronger ones would follow. We`d knock all of them flat and then handle the guards. Cool plan eh? And then we`d get outta here. Hopefully, by 7:00, we`ll get to the police or get in contact with Mom and Dad. Or maybe Gramma or Grampa. Whatever. But we know, for sure, we`re gonna show them what we got. Today.
KEN
22 May 2001
Liana has a cool idea. In fact, a great idea. Much better than mine. See where it landed us. But now, Liana`s idea`ll get us soooo outta here. Today evening we`ll carry it out, because the sooner the better. Anyway, and I`ll not write `bout the Big Fight `cause Liana will. I`m super excited! But they won`t lemme fight. Sigh. But, look on the bright side, we`ll get out of Venice into L.A. At least. And sadly, my planned trip with friends to Miami has been cancelled. Or rather, missed. Ugh!
LIANA
22 May 2001
We`re out of the room, at least. Luigi picked the lock with my hairclip. Ken`s limp is better. And he`s been dragged out the room with us to see the fight. And deliver some trips and punches in the leg. And I have to admit, he has experience. Two are down, two to go. I biffed this one right now. And Luigi`s there punching with all his might. This one`s down too. One to go. There! Luigi`s slapped him in the eye. And he`s down too! Picking another lock. Ah! It`s opened! Good to see sunshine again. Even Ken is standing up. We`re out! And there`s a police van outside, about 2 kilometers away. I run to it and blabber "Sir, we`ve been kidnapped. My brother`s limping and Luigi D`Costa is with us. Please help us!" and I faint. The last thing I see before fainting is Ken, limping toward me.
KEN
23 May 2001
The kidnappers are in jail, Liana is in bed and we are back home. My limp is okay now, and we`re famous all over Italy! We`re famous in our local newspapers and in our country too! I and Liana are being treated to many parties, treats, and celebrations! Whoooohooooo! And our lives are changed forever. Okay, I`ll let Liana have the last word- she`s saying "One case is equal to a lifetime! Or... maybe not!".