Santo spoke real fast in Italian. Then he and Luca got excited and raised their voices. They waved their hands about like they were having an argument. I couldn't wait to learn Italian.
Then Santo got out his cell and made a call. Then he made another call. Charlie and me glanced at each other. I knew we were thinking the same thing. We were going to burst before they told us what was going on.
Finally, Santo got off the phone and switched to English. Real serious, he said to the three of us, "The agency that employs casual staff for the film set hired two new workers two weeks ago. They help with the props and sets." He sighed. "The successful art robbery that occurred at the other palace was in every newspaper and in all the media across Europe. All police forces across Europe have been put on alert for a copycat robbery. It's possible ..."
"Where next?" asked Luca.
Santo pointed back up the canal. "To the film set; we'll check the tubes ourselves."
Luca revved the boat, spun it round and took off.
Charlie and me looked at each other. He looked excited and not just because we were in a police boat zooming real fast down the Grand Canal. I was excited and worried. Would Santo and Luca let Charlie and me go with them? What if all the tubes were empty?
Minutes later we re-entered The Cursed Mansion. Santo hadn't told us to stay on the boat, which was good. This time we went straight to the room with the silver tubes. My stomach somersaulted. Maybe Charlie and me should've stayed in the boat in case these guys were thieves and they had guns tucked into their socks?
The room was empty; my stomach settled down. I went straight over and lifted the blanket off the tubes. Each of us grabbed one. Of course, I didn't choose the one I knew was empty. I got my tube opened first. I thought my heart was about to explode through my chest as I stuck my hand in. I felt something rolled up inside.
"Here," I said to Santo, "can you pull it out?"
Very carefully, he pulled it out. No one spoke as he rolled it out. It was an old painting! I sucked in my breath, so relieved that I didn't look stupid. The painting was of a few people lounging round on the ground in a forest. Cupid hovered above them. Actually, I didn't think the picture was that great, but since it was old it was probably worth lots.
Luca turned to Santo, "Do you know this?"
Santo shook his head. "Let's assume it's priceless."
Just then we heard a noise. In a nanosecond, Charlie and me dived behind some furniture and hid. Santo and Luca were too slow. Two men strode in with long metal rods pointed at Santo and Luca. I stopped myself from gasping. Did they know Charlie and me were here as well? I held my breath.
One of the thieves whispered to Santo in Italian. Santo and Luca handed over the tubes. One of the men forced Santo and Luca into the storeroom, locked the door and slipped the key into his pocket. The two men didn't speak. They filled a soft black bag with the tubes and left. We waited till we could hear them go up the stairs before we left our hiding spot.
I whispered to Charlie, "The thieves have got the key."
"If Santo had a gun, he could blow off the door handle." He huffed. "If Santo were a real policeman, he'd carry a gun."
Through the door, we heard Santo say, "I heard that."
Then I remembered that time I picked the padlock of the shed at home, because Dad had locked my scooter in there as a punishment. "Let's find a paperclip."
Within a minute, we'd found a pile of papers and five paperclips. It'd been ages since I'd picked a lock. Before it'd taken me days to get the hang of picking padlocks. I breathed slowly and concentrated real hard. The first and second paperclips got wrecked. Charlie was annoyed - I could tell by the way he huffed and puffed. But I knew he couldn't say anything, because he was hopeless at picking locks. I'd tried to teach him, but he gave up and said only criminals needed to know that sort of stuff. Only criminals and a couple of Aussie boys who needed to save their dumb Italian policeman Uncle, who didn't carry a gun.
Santo and Luca tried to tell us to go and get help from André. Lucky we ignored them, because I had the door open in less time than it would've taken to find André and tell him what had happened.
Santo looked stunned as I opened the door. He looked from the paperclip I'd straightened to me and back to the paperclip, obviously unable to believe his eyes. Then he snapped into action. "Let's go!"
He ran out the door and to the police boat. Luca, Charlie and me followed. Actually, we had trouble keeping up with them. Maybe our Mr. Have-a-chat Uncle wasn't totally hopeless after all.
We all jumped on the boat. Santo got on the police radio and yelled into it. I noticed one of the bad guys up ahead, because of his green Save the Planet T-shirt. They were in a water taxi, but the guy with the Save the Whales T-shirt was driving. They must've wasted a bit of time trying to find a boat to steal. I yelled out to Luca and he revved the engine and took off. Charlie and me hung on tight.
I felt like I was going to throw up as Luca swerved in and out of the other boats on the canal. Soon all the boats were moving out of our way. It was unreal. Every single person in every boat on the Grand Canal was gawking at us. I felt like I was at the center of the universe.
Way up ahead I could see the water taxi. At first we narrowed the gap, but then the thieves saw us and so they did a sharp left turn down a narrow canal. Luca got the police siren blaring, and Santo kept yelling into the police radio. Then Luca made the same sharp left turn and somehow I lost my grip. I was hurled out of the boat, landing in the water with a crash.
The water was real cold. Far out, I'd freeze to death. I kept my legs moving and prayed that no sharks hung out in the Grand Canal.