Good Thief's Guide to Venice by Ewan Chris

Author:Ewan, Chris [Ewan, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847399601
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

TWENTY-TWO

Victoria was still asleep when I snuck back into my apartment. I left her to snooze for a short while longer, busying myself with stuffing my torn coat into the waste bin and packing my things. Fifteen minutes later, my suitcase and holdall were full to bursting, and I carried them through to the hallway before preparing to wake her.

Calling her name from her doorway didn’t work and, apparently, neither did entering her room and switching on her bedside lamp. It was little wonder that Graziella had been able to creep in and snip a lock of her hair. Her slumber was so deep that I was starting to ask myself if Martin had medicated her too.

Reaching out a tentative hand, I tapped the crown of her head. Nothing. Her eyes remained firmly closed, her face turned away from me, jaw hanging loose. I tapped again. Still no joy. She was wearing a skimpy vest top and her bare shoulder was exposed above the duvet covers. I placed my hand on her freckled skin, intending to shake her, but she surged up and around, surprising me with a feral yell just as something fizzed and sparked before my face.

I felt a puff of air close to my ear, followed by a thud and the splinter of wood. Turning, I caught sight of two metal darts embedded in the back of the door. The coiled wires connected to them glowed a quite alarming shade of orange, but that was nothing compared to the determined grimace on Victoria’s face as she held tightly to her Taser gun.

‘Holy crap,’ I said, staggering backwards. ‘You nearly bloody got me.’

‘Charlie? Oh my God. I’m so sorry. What are you doing in here?’

She was still clenching the trigger, discharging voltage, and her shoulders were quaking, almost as if she’d accidentally electrocuted herself.

These were curious times indeed. It wasn’t often I had two women hold a weapon on me in the middle of the night.

‘I was trying to wake you.’ I raised a hand to the side of my face. ‘I felt that thing go right past my ear. You almost shot me in the face.’

‘Well what the hell did you expect?’ she snapped. ‘I thought you were one of the bad guys.’

Semantics aside – I had just agreed to kill a man – I didn’t think I’d changed sides just yet. Ducking under the coils of wire, I moved across the room to turn on the main light.

‘You might want to let go of the trigger now,’ I suggested.

‘Oh, Christ.’ Victoria did just that, dropping the gun as if it had scalded her. ‘I don’t know how you get the wires back inside.’

‘I’m guessing it helps if you use a pair of pliers to remove the darts from the back of the door.’

‘Oops. Sorry, Charlie.’

‘That’s okay. It’s better than having you fish them out of my throat, I suppose.’

Stepping over to the bed, I gingerly picked up the Taser and tossed it away across the floor. I shuddered.

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