In the morning, Alberto and Luca were up bright and early. The clear skies of last night had given way to big, fluffy clouds with blue gaps in between them, which let long sunbeams through to sparkle on the surface of the gulf. The boys ate their breakfast and ran back upstairs to grab their swimsuits. Alberto double-checked to make sure he had all his stuff, while Luca took a long look at his book of things to do in Naples, and then carefully set it back on the dresser.
"Uh... Luca?" Alberto asked.
"Yes?" Luca's voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "Yes?" he repeated.
For a moment Alberto had nearly panicked, thinking his friend was about to cry. Now it seemed like it was only puberty... he hoped. "I'm sorry we're probably not gonna see the stuff from your book," he said.
"It's okay," Luca told him. "I can come back and see that stuff some other time. Your Nonna might even invite us back next year."
Alberto hadn't even considered that. If Nonna Sofa invited him back next year, would he come? It would mean his father hanging around being terrible, and Lucrezia hanging around being terrible... but it would also mean seeing Carlotta's sharks, and getting to hang out with Flavia and Nonna Sofia. Maybe he could put up with the other stuff in order to do more of that.
"All right," he decided. "If she asks us back next year, I promise we'll go to Pompei Scavi, no matter what. Deal?" Alberto offered Luca a hand.
"Deal!" Luca said, and shook it.
They swam out to the shipwreck where Carlotta fed her sharks, and found Flavia and Uncle Leonardo waiting for them there. Flavia had brought some chum of her own to feed them, but this was in a bucket with the lid on tight, and she waited until after they'd greeted her before peeling the lid off so the sharks could smell the contents.
"I didn't want to start without you," she explained.
The sharks gathered around to be fed, rubbing up against the sea monsters like enormous, slippery cats. Flavia scratched their chins and patted their heads, giggling delightedly, and then watched in awe at their vanishing act when the food was gone and they returned to their camouflaged hiding places.
"Perhaps later in the summer you can help to keep an eye on their eggs," Carlotta suggested. "Mike is very interested in their reproduction because humans still don't know much about it."
"I would love to!" said Flavia eagerly.
"Wonderful! I guess you don't have much use for money," Carlotta noted, "but we'll figure out some way to compensate you for your time, and you'll get a credit."
Flavia frowned, puzzled. "What's that?"
"Your name on what he writes," Carlotta explained. " Data collection by Flavia Scorfano . Something like that."
"Like you're one of the authors!" said Luca. "That's so cool!"
Alberto nodded. Even if Flavia couldn't go to the land, that was a way for her to interact with at least one person who lived there, and to share her love of animals.
With all the fish gone, they moved on to Procida. When they reached the top of the stairs in the cliff, Nonna Sofia was in the garden waiting for them. She was dressed in her gardening clothes today, with her hair tied back under a scarf. As each of the kids came through the gate she gave them a hug – Alberto first, then Luca, and then Flavia.
"Here you are, dear," she said, draping a wet towel around Flavia's neck. There was a bucket by the door with another one soaking in seawater, so that it would be ready when this one got too dry. "I've sent Lucrezia on an errand. She's shopping for a gift for a human friend of mine, and I gave her money for lunch, so she shouldn't be back until the afternoon. I'm not expecting anyone else this morning, so we've got plenty of time for cooking."
"Thank you, Nonna," said Flavia.
"Of course, Flavia. Now." She brought her hands together with a smile on her face. "I've found the perfect recipe for us to all make together! It's not the season for it, but I think we'll all have a good time and they'll be delicious when they're done. What do you think of gingerbread cookies?"
"I've had gingerbread!" Luca exclaimed, excited. "A friend of Signora Marcovaldo's had been to a special market in Baviera at Christmas time, and she brought some back for Giulia and me!"
Nonna Sofia laughed. "Well, I doubt ours will be quite that good. Bavieran gingerbread is legendary. But I do have cookie cutters and we can decorate them with icing, and we'll just pretend it's December. What do you think?"
The kids cheered.
Carlotta kissed Celia goodbye and headed into the town of Procida, where she would be meeting with a friend. Uncle Leonardo hugged Flavia and promised to pick her up after lunchtime, then returned to the sea. With them gone, Nonna Sofia took the kids into the kitchen. Luca opened the recipe book and helped Celia to read aloud the list of ingredients, while Sofia and Flavia got each item out of the cabinet or refrigerator. Flavia seemed to know exactly where everything was in her grandmother's kitchen. Alberto took out the bowls and measuring spoons, and turned on the radio so they would have music to listen to.
They'd just gotten the first few dry ingredients in the bowl and Celia was mixing them with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm, when the doorbell rang. Nonna Sofia turned the music off and motioned for the children to stay in the kitchen, and went to see who it was.
Alberto, Luca, and Celia were happy to stay and keep working on the recipe – Luca tried to coach Celia on not spilling things, while Alberto took a piece of foolscap and began drawing out designs for turning their gingerbread men into gingerbread monsters . Flavia, however, hovered by the doorway, nervous about who might be calling and wanting to listen in.
Flavia was not the one who recognized the visitor, though. The door opened and Nonna Sofia politely asked if she could help the caller, and the voice that replied was Polly Sorrentino's.
"You're Gianni's mother, right?" she asked. "I need to speak to him. Right now."
She sounded upset. Alberto left his drawings and went to join Flavia at the doorway. She was hiding behind the wall, afraid of being seen, but he leaned to look out. Polly was taller than Nonna Sofia, and he could see her face over Sofia's shoulder. It was very red, as if she'd been crying.
"Um... yes, I'm Signora Trombetta," said Nonna Sofia. "Gianni's not here, though. He doesn't live here anymore."
"Where is he living, then?" asked Polly. "I need to see him. Right away. It's important."
"I can pass on a message," Sofia offered.
"No, I need him here in person !" Polly pleaded, on the verge of tears again. She leaned closer to Sofia and said something else, but in a much lower voice. Alberto couldn't make it out.
"Won't you come in?" asked Sofia.
"I can't," Polly whimpered.
Sofia glanced over her shoulder. Alberto quickly straightened up, out of sight.
"Wait there," Sofia said. "I'll call him, shall I?"
She did not return to the kitchen. Instead, she stayed in the sitting room, where Polly would be able to see her from the door. Alberto moved again so he could watch her pick up the receiver and pretend to dial – but she didn't actually touch the rotor at all. Instead, she put the phone to her ear, and her mouth moved as she counted to ten under her breath.
"Oh, good!" she said, as if someone had picked up. "Gianni, it's Ma. There's a young lady here to see you. She says it's awfully important. She'll be waiting on the front step. Please come right away. Thank you very much. I'll see you soon." Then she set the phone down again, and looked directly at where Alberto and Flavia were hiding. He ducked out of sight again, but it was clear what she wanted him to do.
Now being careful not to make a sound, Alberto turned around to look at his friends. Luca and Celia were still at the counter, but no longer interested in baking. Alberto went and opened the cupboard under the stairs.
"Celia," he whispered, "get in here and hide. Don't come out until Nonna says it's okay."
"Why?" she wanted to know.
"Because something dangerous is happening," he told her. Celia climbed into the cupboard and sat down among the mops and brooms, and Alberto softly shut the door, then took Luca's and Flavia's hands. "We gotta go get Giancarlo," he told them.
"What's going on?" Flavia asked, as they crept out the kitchen door into the garden. "Who's that lady?"
"She's my father's girlfriend," said Alberto with a scowl. "But something's wrong, and Nonna wants us to go get him." It was the only explanation. She hadn't actually called anyone, and she'd known Alberto was there. There wasn't anybody else she could have been talking to.
They hurried down the steps and into the water, heading directly for the island where Giancarlo was hiding. The whole way, Alberto's stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots. It was possible that Polly had just decided it was time to confront Giancarlo about Theresa, but that didn't seem very likely. Something else must have happened, and Alberto suspected it had something to do with those diamonds. Had Giancarlo's human cronies, unable to get him to help them, decided to just steal them themselves?
At the island, Flavia stayed in the water below while the boys scrambled up the stone steps, which were slippery from the retreating tide. At the top, they found a tent set up in the ruins, in a sheltered corner formed by two half-crumbled walls. A campfire had been built outside the tent, but it was only smouldering now. Giancarlo was sitting next to it on a rock, wearing clean clothes and flipping through a magazine while he smoked a cigarette.
Alberto was about to call out, but then stopped, because he realized he wasn't sure what to call. He wasn't going to say Dad because he'd decided never to address Giancarlo that way again, but it didn't feel right to shout out his father's name. Mr. Scorfano wasn't quite right, either, and he certainly wasn't going to say Sir like Luca would.
He still hadn't decided when Giancarlo noticed him first.
" Gesù Christo !" Giancarlo swore, making Alberto jump. "What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"
"Sorry, Sir!" said Luca.
Giancarlo closed his magazine and took a long drag on his cigarette. "What do you want now?" he asked.
Alberto very nearly just turned around and walked away. If Giancarlo was going to be so rude, then maybe he didn't deserve to know! But... if Alberto didn't tell him, there was a real possibility that somebody might get hurt. Polly had sounded frantic. So he took a deep breath, and said, "Signorina Sorrentino wants to talk to you."
Giancarlo had already been raising his hand to shoo them away, but now he stopped. "Polly?" he asked. "Where is she?"
"At Nonna Sofia's house," said Alberto. "She came to the door crying and said she needed to talk to you right away, so Nonna sent me to find you."
"At Ma's? What's she doing there? The last time I saw her she was mad at me." Giancarlo glared at Alberto, believing that this was his fault. He thought for a moment, then put his cigarette out on the rock, and got up to approach the boys. "What did she say exactly?"
"Not much," Alberto replied. "Just that it was really important for her to tal to you, and she wouldn't let Nonna Sofia invite her inside."
Giancarlo swore again, this time much worse than simply taking the Lord's name in vain. The priest in Portorosso might have fainted if he'd heard it. "All right," he said. "Let's go."
They got back in the water, where Flavia was waiting for them, and all went together back to Procida. By now they'd been gone for almost an hour, and Alberto was getting worried. What if they took too long, and the bad guys escaped with the diamonds? Or what if Polly was upset about something else , and by the time they arrived it would be too late to help?
His father must have been worried about something similar. At the cliff, Giancarlo took the steps two at a time to the top, and had to stop to catch his breath in the garden. He didn't stay there long, though, and before going inside, he turned around to talk to the kids.
"Don't come in," he said. "No matter what. Stay out here, even if you hear something bad happening."
"What's going to happen?" Flavia asked, her voice trembling.
"It's not your problem," Giancarlo said. "It's my problem. I don't want anybody to get in trouble because of this except me. I've done way too much of that." He opened the screen door, straightened his shoulders, and headed inside. "Polly?" he called out. The door banged shut behind him. "Ma?"
"In the front room, dear!" Nonna Sofia's voice replied. Giancarlo passed through the doorway into the hallway, out of sight.
"Okay, come on," Alberto whispered to his friends. He eased the door opening again.
"He told us to wait outside!" Luca protested, taking Alberto's hand.
"I never do what he says anyway," Alberto replied. He slipped inside. Luca followed him. Flavia held the door for them so it wouldn't creak or bang again, and then closed it softly behind them with her tail.
Alberto had expected to hear the sounds of an argument, maybe even a physical fight, but there was nothing. He made his way as quietly as he could into the kitchen and peered around the corner again, and was just in time to hear the front door shut and lock.
The door had a glass panel in it, so Alberto crouched down to stay out of sight as he approached. Very slowly, he brought his head up to peek out.
There were two cars in the street. One was already pulling away, while the front passenger door on the other one was just closing. The engine started, and it followed the other. Alberto couldn't see who was in any of the vehicles, but there seemed to be at least four or five of them. Then they were gone, and the house was silent.
Or was it... was somebody crying?
It was Flavia who opened the cupboard under the stairs, and found Celia curled up in there with tears running down her face. Her cheeks were all scaly and turquoise, and she continued to bawl as Luca and Flavia helped her out and gave her a hug.
"I could hear them," she said through hiccups. "They took Zia Sofia away and they told Alberto's Dad that they were going to hurt her if him and the other lady didn't help! I was so scared they were gonna find me."
Luca looked at Alberto. "We gotta do something," he said. "We gotta call the police!"
"No," said Alberto firmly. "The police will take Giancarlo back to prison if they catch him." Alberto didn't like his father, but he didn't want that for him. Nothing he'd done was so bad that he deserved to be in that awful place.
"So what do we do, then?" Luca asked.
Alberto didn't know. Nonna Sofia had told him that he needed to ask grownups for help rather than trying to handle this stuff himself, but who to tell? If this had happened in Portorosso, he would have told Massimo. His first choice in Napoli would have been Nonna Sofia herself, but she had been taken away, so it couldn't be her. There must be somebody in this family who would know what to do. After all, there'd been a family meeting not that long ago, in this very house. If Nonna Sofia had a plan, she would have told it to everybody, right?
"We gotta go find somebody to help," he said.
"Like who?" asked Luca.
"One of my aunts or uncles, I guess," Alberto decided. "We'll try Flavia's dads first, then Aunt Diana, and then I guess if we can't find any of them we'll find the twin uncles."
"What about Celia?" asked Flavia, who still had the little girl clinging to her.
"We can't leave her here all by herself," Luca agreed.
"Then we gotta take her with us," Alberto said. Leaving Celia by herself wouldn't be quite as bad as dousing her in petrol, but it would still make Mike and Carlotta angry. Alberto didn't need anybody else angry with him right now. "Come on. Andiamo!"
They hopped back into the water at the bottom of the cliff, and headed first for the sunken boat where Flavia and her fathers lived. She went ahead as they approached, calling out.
"Papa Leo! Papa Giorgio! Uncle Giancarlo is in trouble!" she shouted.
Her three pet fish came swimming out to meet her, sticking themselves to her arms and legs, but there was no sign of anybody else. Flavia darted through a doorway into the boat and they heard her calling again as she searched the inside, but after a few minutes she emerged again, shaking her head.
"They're not home!" she said. "Papa Leo must have gone somewhere on land, and Papa Giorgio is probably out looking for problem fish."
"We don't have time to look for them," Alberto decided. "Let's try Aunt Diana."
Flavia stuck her lumpfish to the hull of the boat, and they set out for Aunt Diana and Uncle Umberto's house. They arrived there to find a gathering in the garden out front – Aunt Diana herself was sitting there with one of the Aunts Bettina, having snacks and weaving seaweed into nappies for the baby. Several children were playing out front, and these saw Alberto, Luca, and Flavia coming. As they approached, they found themselves quickly surrounded.
"Look who's here," Cousin Allegra said. "I thought Flavia wasn't allowed to go anywhere without one of her dads holding her hand."
Alberto had no patience for this. "Get out of the way," he said. "We need to talk to Aunt Diana."
"You don't have to be rude about it," sniffed Allegra, but she moved aside. Her younger sister, Beatrice, had also come to see what was going on, but Allegra stopped her from approaching. "Apparently Alberto's in a bad mood today," she said.
"Alberto's always in a bad mood," Beatrice said.
"If Uncle Giancarlo was my Dad, I'd be in a bad mood, too," Allegra told her.
Aunt Diana herself had now come to see what was happening. "Are we fighting over here?"
"Nobody's fighting except Alberto," said Allegra.
"I'm not fighting!" Alberto said. They didn't have time for this. "Giancarlo's in trouble. The criminals he robbed the bank in Spagna with have come back, and they kidnapped him and Nonna Sofia. They're going to make him steal diamonds for them!"
"Uncle Giancarlo robbed a bank?" asked Allegra.
"What?" Aunt Bettina also came to join the conversation, shooing her daughters aside. "They were kidnapped? Are they all right?"
"We think so, so far," said Alberto, relieved that somebody was going to actually listen to him. He'd been worried he'd be told to leave, or that they would think he was making it all up. "Celia heard them talking. She said they weren't going to hurt anybody unless Giancarlo refused to help them."
"That's right," said Celia earnestly. "He told them to let Zia Sofia and the other lady go, but they wouldn't, because they said they'd just call the police."
"And we can't do that," Alberto added, "because the police would just take Giancaro back to prison!"
"I wouldn't call the police in any event," said Aunt Bettina. "They're all land monsters, after all. We don't want them involved in our business. Don't you think, Diana?"
"Definitely not," Aunt Diana agreed.
"We gotta do something, though," Alberto insisted. "We know where they're going! It's the jewellery shop in Portici. Didn't Nonna Sofia have a plan or something?"
"I don't know," said Aunt Diana. "I can't get involved, Alberto. Umberto and I have to think of our egg!" She looked at Aunt Bettina.
"Well, it seems to me the best thing to do is nothing at all," Aunt Bettina said.
"What?" Alberto and Luca protested in unison.
"You said they're not going to hurt anyone unless somebody tries to stop them," she pointed out. "If nobody does that, then they'll let Sofia go and the only one who gets in trouble is Giancarlo – and is that really such a problem? He's nothing but trouble for the rest of us anyway."
"Bettina!" Diana gasped.
"Well, he is," Aunt Bettina sniffed. "Do you want him around your boys, Diana? When your egg hatches, do you want the baby growing up seeing what your brother gets up to? I think we were all better off when he was in prison."
Diana opened her mouth, then closed it again, too horrified to say anything.
"Beatrice, Allegra," Aunt Bettina gestured for her daughters to come with her. "Leave Alberto and his friends alone. We don't need to get involved in their nonsense." She escorted them back to the garden.
"I..." Diana turned to the boys, embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, Alberto," she said. "I wish I could do something for you, but I... I have to think of the egg."
Alberto couldn't believe what he was hearing. Aunt Diana had seemed like the one who most wanted to help Giancarlo – she was the one who'd smuggled him into the family picnic he'd been forbidden from attending! She wasn't willing to do anything?
Luca seemed to have an idea, though. "Signora Sgombo," he said, "where does the other Aunt Bettina live? Lucrezia's mom?"
"Just off the coral meadow where we had our family picnic," Aunt Diana replied. "Right near where I brought Giancarlo to meet Alberto. I doubt she'll want to be involved either, though."
"Well, she never agrees with this Aunt Bettina, does she?" Luca said. "That's what Lucrezia told us. Maybe she'll help if we tell her the other one won't!"
"Wait," Flavia protested. "What if Lucrezia's there?"
"Nonna Sofia sent her shopping, remember?" Luca said. "She didn't think she'd be back.
"Or if she shows up, just bite her," Alberto said. He had a bit of an idea of how to deal with Lucrezia, but that wasn't important right now. "Let's hurry." If he'd felt like they weren't moving fast enough on their way to find Giancarlo earlier, it was ten times worse now. What if Giancarlo tried to do something the thieves didn't like, and they hurt somebody?
They found their way to the meadow, and searched the hollows and spaces around it until they found the house where the other Aunt Bettina and her husband lived. Lucrezia was, fortunately, not there, but the twins, Andrea and Emilia, were playing out front, poking a pufferfish with sticks to bounce it back and forth between them without risking a prick from its spines.
"Where are your parents?" Alberto asked them, breathing hard from the exertion of so much fast swimming.
"Dad's gone to Napoli to talk to a schoolteacher," said Andrea. "Because your friend told him I was sick! I'm not sick!"
"I didn't tell him you were sick," Luca corrected. "I said you had trouble recognizing letters. Your Dad is hoping the teachers can make it easier for you."
"What about your Mom?" asked Alberto.
"I'm right here," said Aunt Bettina, appearing in the doorway. "What can I do for you, Alberto? Are you here all by yourself?" She looked over the group of him, Luca, Flavia, and Celia, perhaps wondering, as Allegra had, why they didn't have an adult with them.
Once again, Alberto got right to the point. "My father's in trouble," he said, and explained what had happened all over again. "We can't find Uncle Leonardo, Aunt Diana won't leave her egg, and the other Aunt Bettina says Giancarlo is better off in prison, but somebody needs to help!"
Aunt Bettina grimaced. "I would never say anyone's better off in prison," she said, "but it sounds to me like this is something your father got himself into, and it's not my problem. Or yours, Alberto – you're not responsible for him. He ought to be responsible for you, and he's clearly failed at that!"
"I know," said Alberto, "but I don't want him to go back to prison! It looked awful in ther, and I don't know how he made it as long as he did without the humans finding out he's a sea monster. They'll probably kill him if they do. I can't let him go back."
"I'll talk to Girolamo when he gets home..." Aunt Bettina said with a sigh.
"We can't wait that long!" Alberto protested. "This is already taking forever!"
"... but it really doesn't sound like we want anything to do with it," Bettina finished her sentence. "You shouldn't, either. Would you four like something to eat?"
Alberto was fuming now, to the point where he was almost surprised the water around him wasn't starting to boil. "No, thank you!" he said, snarling a little, and turned to swim away.
Luca and Flavia said quick goodbyes, then grabbed Celia and hurried after him.
Alberto wasn't going anywhere in particular, just away. He swam out into the middle of the open meadow and stopped there, scowling. Nonna Sofia said families were supposed to forgive and help each other, and Luca kept saying that being part of a family meant that you sometimes had to do things you didn't want to do, but it seemed like nobody had told the Scorfanos any of that! Alberto had been so worried about whether his family would like him, but right now it was him who hated them, all of them!
"What do we do now?" Luca asked.
"I guess we just go to Portici ourselves," grumbled Alberto – but he knew they couldn't do that. They didn't know the way, and they didn't have a car or a motorcycle to get there. The Gennaris wouldn't take them. They didn't know where the buses went. The only person who could get them there was...
... that was right! They did know one more adult who just might help them with this. One person who'd said he couldn't seem to stop saving Giancarlo from his own stupidity.
"We gotta find Signor Granchio," Alberto declared. "He's our last hope."
"Signor Granchio?" asked Flavia. "I've heard Papa Leo and Papa Giorgio talk about him. He's the one who doesn't go in the water. How will we find him?"
"Don't worry, we know where he works," said Alberto.
They made their way to the shipyards, staying deep in order to avoid the traffic in the harbour. The bottom was littered with all kinds of human stuff, things either lost or purposefully discarded from passing ships. On any other day, Alberto would have wanted to stop and investigate some of it, but today he passed it by. The unused drydock where Signor Granchio had dropped them off after their first visit to the jewellery factory was still empty, and open to the ocean. The kids were able to swim right in.
At the inland end was a ladder so that people working in the bottom could climb in and out. Alberto climbed up first, with Celia after him and Luca bringing up the rear to catch her if she fell – and at the top, Alberto found something that gave him an idea. Somebody had left a large hat and an old, patched coat draped over a concrete block, perhaps a worker who'd taken them off after the rain stopped the previous afternoon. Alberto grabbed them, and went back to the ladder to call Flavia.
"Come on up!" he said. "You can wear these, and people won't be able to see you unless they really look.
Flavia grabbed the rungs of the ladder, then hesitated. "What about my gills? They gotta stay wet, or they start to itch and then it gets hard to breathe."
"We'll dunk the collar for now and find something else in a minute," Alberto said. "Signor Granchio might have an idea." He didn't want to leave Flavia behind, not only because that would have been mean, but because he thought they were going to need all the help they could possibly find.
The coat and hat were both much too big for Flavia – the former trailed on the ground behind her, while the latter fell forward over her face – but that was a good thing. It meant they covered her up, so the humans wouldn't be able to see her face or hands. With her tail curled around her legs, she could make her way along in reasonable anonymity. Alberto and Luca held her hands on both sides as they went to the shipyard offices.
Alberto marched up to the desk. "Hi!" he said. "We need to see a guy named Granchio."
The secretary frowned at the four children. "Is it an emergency?" she asked.
"Yes," said Alberto firmly.
"What kind of emergency?"
"That's none of your business. Just us and Signor Granchio."
The woman shuffled through some paperwork until she found what she was looking for. "B. Granchio?" she said. "Here we are, he should be in drydock two. You'll have to yell – he's a riveter."
"Thank you!" said Alberto, already on his way out the door.
There'd been very few people at the far end of the shipyard where they'd come out of the water, but there were lots around the offices, and plenty, too, where they were actively working on building ships. Fortunately, all these people seemed to be very busy, and while they got some odd looks – particularly Flavia, who was clearly in disguise somehow – nobody had time to stop and bother them.
The drydock where Signor Granchio was working contained a metal skeleton that would someday be a big cargo ship. As the secretary had predicted, he couldn't hear them over the construction sounds. They stood on the edge, and Alberto, Luca, and Celia shouted and waved their arms while Flavia partially hid behind them, until another worker noticed and tapped Granchio's shoulder.
He turned his head to look up at them. The kids waved.
Granchio visibly groaned, but he sad something to his companion, then put down his equipment and climbed the rickety scaffolding stairs to talk to them.
"I can't get away from you kids, can I?" he asked, then did a double-take when he saw Flavia. "Uh... you must be Flavia," he said. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be out of the water!"
"I'm fine," Flavia told him. "My collar's wet."
"We'll get her a towel or something," Alberto said. "Listen, you need to help us. Giancarlo's in trouble again."
"Of course he is," sighed Granchio. "What's he done now?"
Alberto explained, again. Granchio's eyes got wider and wider as he heard the story.
"All right, all right," he said, "but what do you want me to do about you? You've already said if we call the police then they're gonna hurt Polly or your grandmother. I don't want anything to happen to them, either."
"We want you to take us to Portici again," said Alberto.
"And what are you gonna do there?"
"We'll figure it out."
Granchio shook his head. "This is... this is way too much! I know you love your dad, kiddo, but you can't get involved in this!"
"Somebody has to!" Alberto told him. "Silenzio Bruno!"
Grownups were often confused by Silenzio Bruno, and Alberto groaned inwardly as he reaized he was going to have to explain the phrase again. But then he realized Granchio wasn't puzzled. Granchio was staring at him in open surprise, and then he scowled.
"That's it," he said, turning around. "I'm out."