Alberto stared down into the car park for a few moments more, then climbed back on top of the tank and opened the hatch again to talk to the others.
"What's out there?" Luca asked.
"Lots of people," said Alberto. "Police, vigili , everybody. There's no way the thieves haven't heard about it." He sat down beside the hatch, and hugged his knees to his chest.
It took a couple of minutes before his friends realized he wasn't getting back in. They climbed out one by one, and sat down around him. Luca put a hand on his arm, and Flavia leaned closer, worried.
"They're gonna hurt Nonna Sofia," he said. "They're gonna know somebody told on them. It's all my fault." Everything he'd set out to do on this trip, he'd failed. He hadn't been able to behave himself, his family hated him, and now this.
"No, it's not," said Flavia.
"Yeah, it is," said Alberto.
"No, it's not ," she repeated. "Last time I went to Nonna Sofia's, Lucrezia stopped by, and she told me if I didn't want to be around people who'd treat me like a freak, I didn't have to show up. Nonna Sofia sent her away, and then she said it wasn't my fault, it was only Lucrezia's. She didn't have to be terrible just because I was there. She chose to and that was nobody's fault but hers. If they hurt Nonna, it's their fault, and nobody else's."
"She's right," said Luca.
Alberto shook his head. "Look, it doesn't even matter whose fault it is! They're gonna do something awful and we can't do anything about it!" He tried to think. There had to be a way to save the situation. He and Luca had been sure they were dead at the Portorosso Cup but things had worked out all right. "We gotta let them know that the police are here for us , not for them ." How ould they do that?
Luca went to the edge of the roof and took a look for himself. He checked the back car park, then the front, and looked down the streets on either side.
"I don't see your Dad's friends," he said. "I see Signor Granchio, though."
"You do?" Alberto asked. They'd left him down at the beach where he'd dropped them off.
"Yeah. He drives that little yellow truck," said Luca. "He's back in the lot in front of the trattoria ."
Alberto went to look, and soon spotted the vehicle Luca was pointing at. Was that really Signor Granchio? Alberto was pretty good at identifying boats, and could spot all the usual ones in Portorosso, even from below. There were not a lot of cars in town, though, so he wasn't as good at those. It did look like Signor Granchio's, but how could they be sure?
The question was answered a moment later, when Signor Granchio himself got out and lit up another cigarette before looking at his watch. He must be thinking it was an awfully long time since they went into the drain.
Maybe Signor Granchio would know what to do. They just had to get down to him.
An opportunity presented itself sooner than anyone had hoped. The police and the firemen hung around, but the employees of the jewellery company had started leaving. The Rossi brothers seemed unhappy about this, arguing with one of the policemen, but it seemed they were overruled. More police were setting up stanchions and cords around the building and shooing at stragglers and sightseers.
With fewer people, the kids began to think they could risk climbing down. They left the safe in the tank, figuring nobody would look for it there, and went back inside, locking the door to the roof behind themselves.
On the second floor, Alberto peeked out of the stairwell to see what was happening. There were more policemen standing outside the Rossi brothers' office, on guard. Sounds and voices told him that there were more people inside the room, probably looking for clues. Alberto wondered what they were finding. There would be filthy footprints all over the carpet, but the kids had all been soaked from the sprinklers – the prints wouldn't be of human feet.
He didn't dare get closer, though. Instead he slipped around the corner again, and they climbed as softly as they could down to ground level. Outside, both car parks still had people in them, so they climbed out a window on the side facing the trattoria , and dropped to the ground behind a row of shrubs. There, they looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and with Luca and Alberto on either side of Flavia to keep her hidden, they dashed across the street to Signor Granchio.
He was astonished to see them coming, and almost shouted to them before realizing that was a terrible idea. Instead, he put his cigarette out and climbed into the driver's seat of his truck, leaving the back door open for the kids. They piled in and slammed it behind them, and then they all sat there panting.
"How'd it go?" asked Signor Granchio.
"We got the diamonds,"s aid Alberto. "They're hidden in a tank on the roof because we couldn't get them out of the safe. But now the thieves know somebody's ratted on them, and they're gonna be mad."
"So what now?" Granchio asked.
Alberto's heart sank – he didn't know what to do, did he? It really was up to Alberto. "I guess we have to find them," he said, but he didn't know how to do that. His head hurt.
"They gotta be somewhere nearby," said Luca. "They'll want to watch the jewellery shop, won't they?"
"Hmm." Granchio drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking about this. "You know what? I know where they are."
"You do?" asked Luca, startled. "How?"
Alberto suddenly had an awful sinking feeling. Everything he knew about stealing diamonds came from movies, and in a heist movie there was always a horrible betrayal at some point. If the story were mostly about the thieves, one of them would turn out to be a police informant. But if it were about the detectives ...
"Are you... have you been with them the whole time?" Alberto asked.
"What? No!" said Granchio. "Don't be ridiculous." He shook his head and started the car engine. "I just know your Dad, and I know his favourite places. He'll be at the Maddalena ."
The Maddalena turned out to be a pub, just a few blocks away down the Via Del Corallo . It was located on the edge of a half-ellipse piazza in front of the church of Santa Maria a Pugliano. A little market was going on there, with vendors selling food and trinkets to both locals and tourists, which made the area very busy. Signor Granchio was obliged to park a block away. Flavia put her coat and hat back on, and they re-wetted her towel in a fontanella before setting off for the bar.
The market in the piazza was something Flavia had never seen before. As they crossed the space, she slowed down to look around at the various tables and their wares. There were magazines and newspapers, shoes and purses and hats and scarves, fruits and vegetables and candy. Granchio had to take her hand and pull her along after him.
"You can't stop, kiddo," he said. "You don't want to let people get a good look at you."
"I know," said Flavia morosely. "Sorry."
Alberto felt his heart clench. He remembered the first time he'd seen something like that – so many different things for sale, many of them completely new to him. It had been so exciting, he'd wanted to explore all of it right away, even though Massimo kept telling him that there would be another one next month and he could come to as many as he liked. How much harder was this for Flavia, who could not come back again?
He was going to have to convince her to visit Portorosso, Alberto decided. It was the only place where she could explore the way she wanted to.
Outside the bar, Granchio shooed the kids behind a little potted tree. "Wait here," he told them. Alberto and Luca stuck close to Flavia to hide her from the crowd, while Granchio leaned around the doorway to peek inside.
A few silent seconds went by, and he straightened up again. "Okay, I see your Dad," said Granchio. "He's with a man with a beard."
"The French guy, Godin," said Alberto. "Where's the rest of them? There should be a short guy with a big nose, and a tall skinny one with no hair."
Granchio looked again. "No, I don't see them."
That made sense, Alberto realized. They would need somebody to watch Polly and Nonna Sofia and make sure they didn't escape. That must be Paolo and Cesare's job.
Another police car went by on the road behind them, its siren wailing impotently as the driver had to wind his way through people and market stalls. Everybody in Portici now knew about the robbery at Fratelli Rossi.
As if to drive the point home, a woman came up and greeted them. "Hello!" she said. "I work for Il Mattino ." That was the name of one of the newspapers in Napoli – Alberto had seen copies of it on the Gennaris' kitchen table. "I'm looking for witnesses to the robbery at the Palazzo di Corallo."
"We weren't there," said Signor Granchio at once. "We only just arrived in town, didn't we, kids?" He looked down at his charges. Luca and Alberto stayed in front of Flavia.
"That's right, Zio Bruno," said Celia seriously.
The reporter looked them over with a frown, perhaps wondering why they were all so dirty, but then she just smiled and thanked Granchio politely before walking into the Bar Maddalena to continue her search.
"This is terrible," groaned Alberto. If the thieves didn't already know, they were going to find out now. Then their hostages would feel the consequences. "What are we going to do? We need to figure out where they're keeping them."
"Maybe Signor Granchio can find out," Luca suggested. "He knows your dad, right?"
"Giancarlo can't tell him anything with Godin right there," Alberto said. "We gotta come up with something before they hurt anybody."
"We have something they want," said Flavia. "Maybe they'll trade with us."
Alberto frowned. "What do we have?"
"The diamonds, obviously!" said Luca, understanding. "We're the only ones who know where they are!"
"The whole point was that they wouldn't get the diamonds!" Alberto protested.
"What's more important?" asked Signor Granchio. "The diamonds or Zia Sofia?"
Alberto wanted to say that there had to be a way they could get both... but he couldn't think of one. Not without knowing where the hostages were.
"We need a plan," he repeated.
" Scusi , Signor," said a man on his way out of the bar. Signor Granchio stepped aside.
That made them all realize that this was not a good place to stand and talk. They went to a gelateria a few doors down, where the edge of the piazza curved. Sitting at an outdoor table there, they could see the entrance to the Bar Maddalena and would know if Giancarlo and Godin left, without being in anybody's way.
To maintain their cover, Granchio bought them each a cone of gelato. Alberto had no appetite for his, even though lampone was his favourite flavour. Luca seemed to feel similarly about his pistachio, but Celia eagerly licked at her fragola . There was some question what flavour to pick for Flavia, who wasn't familiar with any of them, but they eventually decided they couldn't go wrong with cioccolata .
When Granchio handed her the cone, however, she looked at it uncertainly. "Why is it brown?" she asked. "It looks like mud. Or something worse."
Alberto wondered what she was imagining. Had any of the cousins tried to trick her with something they said was gelato but actually wasn't? It sounded like something Lucrezia would do. "It's chocolate," he said. "Here." He licked it himself to show her. "It's good."
Luca nodded. "You'll like it."
Flavia gave it a cautious lick, which reminded Alberto of his own first taste of the treat. He'd picked up the discarded cone, and reasoned that if the old ladies had been licking it, it must taste good. It had been much sweeter than he'd imagined, a wonderful surprise. Would it be the same for Flavia? Chocolate was a little bitter as well as sweet.
She didn't look sure of what she thought. She tried another lick, then a third.
"Well?" asked Granchio, unable to help a chuckle despite the serious situation.
"It tastes weird," said Flavia.
Alberto was already on the edge of panic, and this didn't help. With all the disasters that were happening, he couldn't stand the idea of Flavia not liking gelato on top of it all. "Here," he held out his raspberry-flavoured scoop. "I'll trade out."
She took it, and tried again. Her eyes widened. "Oh, that's much better!"
Alberto breathed a sigh of relief, and took the chocolate cone from her. Not his favourite, but he liked it, and he certainly didn't want Flavia thinking they'd given her a yucky one on purpose. Now he could think about their real problem.
"We can't let them know it's us right away," he said. "They won't take us seriously."
"Right," Luca nodded. "They've gotta think we're rival thieves or something."
"Like in the movies," said Alberto. That meant he and Luca couldn't talk to them. Celia definitely couldn't, she was six, and Flavia couldn't be seen by anybody. That only left... "do they know you at all, Signor Granchio?"
"I don't think so," Granchio said. "At least, I've never seen that bearded man before."
"Okay, you'll have to be our messenger," said Alberto. "You can say the other thieves kidnapped you."
"You know what?" the man said, licking at his own gianduia flavour. "I feel old being called Signor Granchio . Everybody called my father that. I'd rather you kids all call me Zio Bruno . So... I'm supposed to say that some other group wants to give them the diamonds in exchange for their hostages? That doesn't make sense."
He was right – it didn't. Other thieves would certainly care about the gems far more than the hostages. "What do we say, then" asked Alberto.
Bruno thought about it. "I can say I'm here on behalf of the Scorfano family," he said. "That sounds threatening, like you're the mafia or something. And if I say they're very powerful here in Napoli, Giancarlo will back me up on it. We used to play off each other like that when we had a lie to tell. One of us would make something up, and the other would add to it, and we'd go on and on until the grownups realized it was all... all nonsense."
That was better. "Great! So you'll deliver the message and tell them where to meet us. And while you do that, we'll go back to the jewellery factory and get the safe. Make sure you tell them to bring the hostages with them. We won't give them the diamonds unless we see that Polly and Nonna Sofia are safe."
"What about your Dad?" asked Luca.
Alberto swallowed. What about Giancarlo? If they just left him, the thieves would probably do something awful to him – and he'd deserve it, too, but that didn't mean Alberto could let it happen.
"I guess we'll take him, too," he said, "but just tell them the others are more important."
Bruno chuckled again. "I think most of the family would approve of that," he observed.
They the Portici-Ercolano train station as their meeting place. Hopefully the thieves wouldn't be willing to hurt anyone if there were strangers around, and afterwards Alberto and the others could just get on a train and head back to Bacoli. If they were there at eight o'clock, they would have lots of time to get the diamonds, and then shortly afterwards the train would arrive. With that settled, the group split up. Bruno went back to the Maddalena to talk to Giancarlo and Godin, and the kids slipped into a side street and climbed back into the storm drains.
They did not immediately try to re-enter the building. Instead, Alberto climbed up to peek out of a manhole cover in the car park. There were still police around, and it looked like more of them had arrived. They were going in and out of the building and patrolling all around it, trying to figure out how thieves could have gotten in and out without being seen.
The problem was, now they needed to do that again , with all these people around. Getting in would be bad enough, and they'd already done that once. Getting out with the safe in tow was going to be something else.
They crept back inside via the grate in the workroom – somebody had closed it, but hadn't bother to lock the catch. Once again, Alberto poked his head out for a look. Nobody seemed to be there. The craftsmen had left in such a hurry that there were half-finished cameos, tools, and other objects, including at least one pocket watch, lying on the various tables. The kids passed all these by and went straight to the bottom of the stairs.
On the ground floor, Alberto put his eye up to a keyhole to check on what was happening in the actual shop. Unsurprisingly, it was full of policemen, all watching as Patrizia and one other employee went through the cases of jewellery, checking off items to be sure nothing else had been stolen. As quietly as he could, Alberto backed away, and they kept going. They climbed the stairs very slowly on all fours, remembering how it had creaked when they were in here before.
They reached the second floor. Alberto took a look around the corner, and found one of the Rossi brothers in the hallway, answering questions while a policeman took notes. Alberto couldn't tell which brother it was because the man's back was turned, and the only way he knew to distinguish them was that one had a moustache. He started to sidle back out of sight, when the policeman raised his head and looked right at him.
Alberto gasped and shooed his friends up the stairs.
They could not afford to be quiet now, so their footsteps were definitely audible, even loud, as they dashed up to the roof. Alberto could hear the policeman's shoes coming after them as they ran out onto the sun-warmed gravel. Without needing to be told, all four ran straight for the water tank and climbed in, finding it had now refilled. They closed the lid after themselves.
Seconds later, they could hear footfalls crunching outside, and a man panting. For a second that was all, and then he called out.
"Whoever's there, come out now with your hands where I can see them!" the policeman ordered.
Nobody made a sound. Alberto's heart was so loud he was sure the man would be able to hear it.
The gravel continued to crunch as the man moved around the roof, checking potential hiding places. Alberto let himself sink deeper in the tank, and his foot met something hard – the safe was still in here. That was good, anyway. He pushed it to one side, so that if the policeman opened the hatch it wouldn't be in the sunbeam.
It made a scraping sound against the metal bottom. Alberto stopped, terrified.
The policeman's footsteps came closer. He called out, "hello?"
The kids hardly dared breathe.
The tank suddenly echoed loudly as the policeman rapped on the outside. Alberto clapped his hands over his ears, but it was so loud it seemed to shake his bones. Flavia's squeak of terror was lost in the sound.
The metal steps to the top of the tank creaked under the policeman's feet as he climbed them. The hatch swung open, and dazzling sunlight shone down into the water. Everybody ducked away from the beam, and Alberto was relieved to see that it did not fall on the safe. The policeman's face was distorted by the water's surface as he peered inside. He stuck a hand in, then quickly pulled it back and wiped it on his shirt before closing the hatch again. Having not found it locked, he did not lock it afterwards.
Alberto's gills had been clamped shut as he held his breath. Now he relaxed, and then opened to let water across them again. Around him, his friends also breathed out, releasing bubbles.
Then a different voice shouted, "Casalino! What did you find?"
"Nothing," the first man replied. "I know somebody came up here. I could hear them climbing the stairs. There were at least two, but they're gone now."
With that, the entire ordeal began again. Now there were three or four people outside searching the roof, while another ran downstairs to ask the people stationed around the building if they'd seen anyone. How long were they going to be trapped in here?
How long was a worrying question. They'd left themselves plenty of time, but as they sat there longer and longer, waiting for the police to go away, Alberto got more and more worried. He wasn't good with time. It was a very human thing, and people in Portorosso talked about minutes and hours as if they were perfectly natural and well-defined units. Alberto, however, had found they seemed to vary in length depending on what he was doing. An hour was a very short time to watch a cowboy movie, but a very long one for doing math problems. He'd never sat hiding in a water tank before. What if this were one of the things that made time pass faster?
The worst moment was when another police officer opened the tank. This one had a long pole, which she used to poke around inside it. The kids had to move fast, shifting themselves and the heavy safe around so that she wouldn't find them, all while staying out of the sunbeam. They were lucky that it was getting later in the afternoon, and the light no longer fell straight now.
Finally the pole withdrew, and the woman shut the tank with a clank. "It's empty," she declared.
After that, things at last seemed to quiet down. The police concluded that there was nobody on the roof, and went back downstairs to continue their investigation. Luca and Flavia together counted to one hundred under their breaths, just to make absolutely sure none of them were coming back, and then Alberto raised the hatch a crack again.
There was one policeman left. He was leaning against the tank, smoking a cigarette.
Alberto very carefully opened the hatch the rest of the way and pulled himself up to peek over the other side. The tank was right at the edge of the roof at the south side of the building, on the left as viewed from the front car park. When he looked down, he saw a false balcony on the third floor – the windows it fronted didn't open, but there was a very narrow ledge there. Below that and to one side was the actual balcony outside the Rossi brothers' office. Here the doors did open, and they were, with the curtains blowing in the breeze. That room would still be full of policemen, and then there was another storey of drop to the bushes they'd hidden in before. If they could make it there, though, they could follow the Via Del Corallo all the way back to the Lido Arturo and the train station. They would need a way to transport the safe...
Before they worried about that, though, they had to get down. Could they get the safe as far as the balcony without anybody hearing?
Then, for the first time, they had a stroke of good luck. The policeman dropped his cigarette and stepped on it to put it out, then walked back to the door to go inside. It closed behind him.
Alberto opened the hatch all the way and climbed out. While his friends wrestled the safe out of the tank, he climbed carefully down the side of the building from balcony to balcony, and peeked into the office. It seemed the gathering of evidence was over, because there was only one man there now, and he had his feet up on one of the desks, apparently asleep. Alberto considered his options, then carried a chair over and climbed on top of it to very quietly take the thick damask curtains down from the rod. The policeman made some snorting and snoring noises, but he never woke up.
Back on the roof, they used one curtain to tie the safe up in, and braided the others into a rope to let it down. First, they got it to sit on the third floor ledge, with Luca and Flavia holding onto it while Alberto went ahead to make sure the policeman was still asleep. He peeked in the window again and saw the man had not moved, so he waved to his friends to keep going. They let it down the rest of the way onto the balcony.
One by one, Flavia, Luca, and Celia scrambled down after it. They were halfway there. The drop to the bushes was a little further, but if they just let go, it would land softly on the ground instead of loudly on a floor. Alberto and Flavia held it this time, wrapping their tails around the balcony railings for extra grip, while Luca and Celia climbed down to guide it from underneath so it wouldn't go crash in the bushes.
They did this just a little too enthusiastically. When Alberto and Flavia let go, the bundle slipped and made a thump against the wall of the building before falling to the ground.
The policeman snorted and began to sit up. Flavia grabbed Alberto's arm, and both of them, with Alberto still transformed, scrambled over the railing again. As Alberto dropped, he saw the man look directly at him. On the ground, they pushed the safe under the shrubs and backed up against the wall below the balcony, so if the man looked he wouldn't be able to see them.
It worked. They couldn't see him, either, but they heard him call out, "hello? Somebody there?"
"What?" asked another voice. "Did you see somebody?"
"I thought..." the policeman's voice trailed off a bit. "I thought I saw, uh... fish people. You know, like that movie, Il Monstro della Laguna Nera ? One was purple and one was yellow."
There was a short pause. Then the second person said, "fish people."
"Yeah."
"Were you sleeping on the job again?"
"No!" said the man, offended. "I would never!"
"Right, right. I'll take over from here." There was a pause. "Weren't there curtains?"
Another silence.
"Evidence must've taken them," said the man who'd been sleeping. "I'm surprised they didn't take up the floor, too."
After that, there were no more voices.
"Whew!" said Luca. "Now what?"
"Well, we can't drag it in curtains all the way to the train station," Alberto said. "We'll need transportation. I'm gonna go find something. Luca, you get some water, we gotta keep Flavia wet."
"Right," said Luca.
Alberto poked his head out of the bushes. There was another policeman standing guard at the corner of the front car park, so Alberto went the other way, up the Via del Corallo towards the coast. There were several vehicles parked on the street outside the doors of various buildings. They would need something inconspicuous, with a place to stash the safe...
Then he saw it: a shiny, powder-blue Vespa with a one-wheeled trailer hitched behind it for cargo. It was just the right size, as if it had been waiting for them. With a grin, Alberto climbed onto it, and go to work – he'd watched his father start a stolen moped during their trip across Spagna last year, and he was pretty sure he remembered how to do it.
The Vespa puttered to life, and Alberto had to grin as he drove back up the street to where his friends were waiting. He didn't dare beep the horn to get their attention, but he kept the engine running as he waited for them to come out.
Luca was the first to emerge, and his eyes were huge. "Where'd you get that?"
"Back that way," Alberto said casually, pointing with his thumb. "It was parked in front of the lavanderia ."
"You stole it?" asked Luca.
"No, I borrowed it," Alberto replied. "We're gonna put it back where we got it when we're done." Giancarlo was a thief. Alberto wasn't like him.
Luca looked skeptical, but did not argue – possibly because he knew very well they'd already stolen the diamonds and, technically, the curtains too. Instead, he and Flavia manhandled the safe into the trailer, stuffing the curtain in with it because they didn't want to bother untying it. Celia climbed on in front of Alberto and Flavia behind, while Luca sat on top of the trailer and held on for dear life as they drove off.
While a very long time seemed to have passed in the tank, it was no time at all to reach the train station. Alberto parked the Vespa, and the kids piled off and pulled the safe out. There was a clock there, and to Alberto's relief it was only six thirty. They still had plenty of time.
Now Alberto could relax. They hid the safe in the storm drain, and then he and Flavia poked around the now-empty beach, looking for spare change people had dropped. They found a few coins, and Luca took those to a nearby snack stand and brought them all some frittatina di pasta , which were patties made of maccheroni , ham, cheese, and peas, all fried up together. The kids sat in a row on the gravel below a retaining wall, where nobody would be able to get a good look at them, and ate.
"What do you think of this one?" Alberto asked Flavia.
"It's good," she said with a smile. "You couldn't take this in the water at all. It would just fall apart."
Alberto nodded. "If you come and visit us in Portorosso, you can try the focaccia. The Ottonello bakery near the Pescheria has all kinds."
"And the Latteria has sixteen flavours of gelato," Luca added. "You can try them all."
"And we'll get sweets from the confetteria in San Giuseppe!" Alberto agreed. "But the first thing you have to try is Uncle Massimo's trenette al pesto. It's amazing."
"It's really good," Luca agreed. "You gotta come."
"My Dads will probably want to come with me," said Flavia. "Is that okay?"
"Sure," said Alberto. "If I'm allowed to bring Luca, who's not even related, you can definitely bring your Dads. Just don't bring Aunt Diana or any of the others," he said, making a face.
Flavia giggled. "I won't."