Part 5 (1/2)
”Please, please, Rafael,” Jordan told him. ”Go ahead, and take good care of your friend.
I've taken up way too much of your time.”
”Come for an espresso with Lynn and me,” Anna Maria said. ”Then come back and make your choices.”
”Her choices are made,” Raphael said flippantly. ”But you must come back and admit that I am right. And the vinyl... you should take that now. It is such a zoo here, it may take time to get the costumes to your hotel.” Raphael hurried down the stairs. ”You'll come for an espresso, cappuccino?” Anna Maria said.
”I should go back. I rather ran out on my cousin-in-law this morning.”
Anna Maria shrugged philosophically. ”Cindy is a dear. I will call her; tell her you're here, getting costumes.”
”Then I'll come. I'll just hurry out of this ...” She indicated the jester's costume she had thought a possibility.
Anna Maria nodded. ”We'll be on the street-puffing away,” she said.
Jordan changed back into her day clothes. When she came down the stairs, she saw that Raphael was talking to a moderately tall, dark-haired man. When the man turned around, she realized she had met him. He had been one of the cops at the station last night; he had come in with the contessa when she arrived with Jared and Cindy. He had done little talking to her, not being the officer who spoke such flawless English. He smiled now, somewhat gravely. ”Buon giorno, Signorina Riley,” he said pleasantly. His name was Capo, she remembered, Roberto Capo.
She felt her cheeks flood with color; all of the police had been aggravated with her by the end of last night. This man had watched her with deep, searing dark eyes throughout most of her babbling and the other man's questioning.
She saw him struggle for a moment; he had the kind of knowledge of English that she had of Italian-every word had to be recalled and thought out.
”Today ... you are fine?”
”Yes, thank you, grazie. But ...” She lifted her hands. ”It was very real.” She had said those words so many times.
He nodded. ”It is ... understand.”
”Understandable,” Raphael corrected.
The handsome young officer flushed. ”Understandable. Charades ... masquerades ...
they get...” His voice trailed off and he looked at Raphael.
”Carried away,” Raphael supplied.
Capo nodded. ”In Venice ... it is beautiful. We try not to-to throw up too much, you know? Not like your New Orleans.”
Jordan wanted to defend New Orleans, a city she loved, but before she could do so, Capo was speaking quickly again. ”New Orleans is a good city. Carnevale is-different.
Here ... the masks, the gowns ... it is a show. Sometimes, the show is too much. There is bad that happens. The contessa should not play at murder and blood.”
Jordan smiled at him. ”Thank you,” she murmured.
”Sono-I am Roberto-”
”Roberto Capo, I remember.”
”Roberto, please.”
”Roberto. Thank you.”
”Prego. Please. I am sorry for your trouble.”
”Again, thank you, Roberto. Well. I'll let you get to your costuming.”
She started out, but Roberto stopped her, calling to her, striding to touch her shoulder, then blus.h.i.+ng slightly again. He was very good-looking, she noted, with his endlessly dark eyes, cla.s.sic features, and a taut build. ”If you are ever afraid, please, come to me. I will not...” He gave up and spoke quickly to Raphael in Italian.
”He will not laugh at you, or be angry with you,” Raphael said.
Roberto spoke again quickly, and Raphael translated.
”It's always better to investigate; please don't hesitate to go to him, and if he ever thinks that you might help him, he hopes he may come to you,”
She arched a brow to Raphael, surprised, then looked at Roberto. ”I would gladly help him at any time. Except that the police did go to the palazzo. It was a charade. Right?”
Roberto Capo had understood her. ”A charade, of course. And still ...”
She smiled, nodding at him. ”Thank you. I'll remember to ask for you if I have any trouble at all while I'm in Venice. And if you wish to ask me anything, you know that I'm at the Danieli.”
Roberto nodded gravely. ”I would like to know more ... how you came to the stazione.”
”Boat,” Jordan reminded him with a shrug.
”You ran from the palazzo.”
”A wolf-” she hesitated, realizing that there was a language barrier and she was to insist that a wolf had leaped with her from a balcony. ”A guest, dressed like a wolf, brought me to the boat,” she said.
”Who was the guest?” Roberto quizzed her. ”You have not thought if you know him, he offered you no name?”
She shook her head. ”I'm afraid not.”
Last night, it seemed that those words had made them all stare at one another, certain that she had truly given way to madness or-too much champagne. But today, this particular officer seemed to believe her.
”If you see this man, if you find him, I'd like to speak with him. You must tell me.”
”I'm afraid that if I saw him, I'd never know him. He was wearing a mask.”
”But you knew his voice.”
”If I hear his voice in the street, I will be delighted to let you know,” Jordan a.s.sured him. She bid him and Raphael a quick good-bye, and slipped out on the street.
”Ah, you are here!” Anna Maria said.
”I'm sorry to have been so long-”
”Thank you for being so long!” Lynn protested ”It's a longer break from that madness.”
”This way, down the street, you'll get the best to drink and eat at the cheapest price.”
Anna Maria led the way past the popular shops to an alleyway Jordan wouldn't have explored on her own. They pa.s.sed a few workers and a woman sweeping the tiles in front of her shop, and Anna Maria greeted them all.