Moretti and Falla Mysteries 2-Book Bundle by Jill Downie

Author:Jill Downie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2014-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

September 22nd

“Vacca! How did you get in?”

Instead of going for Giulia, Monty Lord grabbed Sydney and held the knife against her throat. She wanted to cry out, but she couldn’t breathe. Monty Lord spun round, holding Sydney across his body. She could now see Giulia. She looked tough, dressed in her motorcycle leathers, but she didn’t appear to be carrying any kind of weapon. Then she saw that Giulia was laughing, actually laughing.

“This is my place, Signor Lord. I know every nook and cranny. There are some alcoves in the Martello wall.”

“How the hell did you get past me?”

“I was already here, and I’d picked up Sydney’s message on my machine — I screen all my calls. I heard you break the window upstairs, Monty, and then come down the stairs. Before I could do anything, Sydney was letting herself in the door, so I hid. You set me up as a suspect, didn’t you?”

“Sure, it was convenient you rode a motorbike and took your runs near the hotel. And Bella does — did — your voice very well. Created some confusion with the local constabulary. But don’t tell me you’re going to do something heroic for this baby — she’s got the hots for the cool-cat copper.”

“So she told me.” Giulia smiled at Sydney, shrugged her shoulders and turned back to Monty Lord. “Hey, Stefano, don’t you want to hear the rest of the story? Why they didn’t want your mother to marry anyone, let alone your father, a penniless schoolteacher?”

“Of course I want to know. Don’t play games with me.” Monty Lord brought the knife up to Sydney’s throat again, and she couldn’t repress a cry of fear. Ed Moretti must have heard, because he called out, “Tell him, Ms. Vannoni — do what he says, for God’s sake.”

“I will.” Giulia looked at Sydney and smiled again. Her eyes darted toward the bronze sculpture on her white translucent cube. “But first you have to let Sydney go. Put her over by the statue — looks a bit like her, doesn’t it? — where you can watch her, and I’ll tell you.”

Sydney felt Monty Lord’s arms relax around her body. He pushed her toward the statue, and her legs almost buckled under her as she went over to it. She rested her body against the cube, thinking desperately about the door in the black wall. All Monty Lord’s attention was now on Giulia Vannoni, but she remembered another of the skills he had boasted about to her and to Gil at one of their drunken dinners: his brief sojourn in a travelling circus performing a knife-throwing act. She prayed Giulia also knew the story, but it was unlikely.

“Why?” Curiosity and eagerness filled his voice.

“The oldest, most sordid, reason in the world, Monty. Money, money, money. Soldi, soldi, soldi.”

Giulia Vannoni moved slowly toward the black leather sofa that was between Monty and Sydney. “I’m going to sit down — okay?” she said and did so. Monty Lord watched her.

“What’s all this about money?” he asked.

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