Venetian Victory

Ned stared at Nancy in utter surprise. “Are you serious? ”

“Yes, I am, ” the young detective replied. “You see, if I stall them long enough, you’ll have time to get help.”

“And you expect me to leave you on this island alone—without me to protect you? ” “Look, Ned, it’s our only chance to find out where Filippo is, ” Nancy insisted. “The minute you get back to Venice—”

“Why don’t I stay here, ” Ned cut in, “and send the boatman for help? ”

“I don’t know if we can rely on him. Besides if the police doubt his story, he may not persist enough to convince them.”

“What’ll we do with the duchessa? ”

“We’ll have to leave her here for the time being. Ned, please, it’s the only way. Believe me! ” Nancy urged.

“Whatever you say, ” Ned replied in a quiet voice.

“I’ll keep the men talking as long as I can, ” the girl said, pulling a small brush from her handbag. She worked the dark powder out of her hair and wiped off her makeup with a handkerchief before scurrying up the ladder.

“Be careful, ” Ned said anxiously.

“I will. I promise. Now please, don’t worry.” Easier said than done, the boy thought, but he lay the duchessa on the floor again and prepared for his own departure while Nancy slipped out of the building and onto the grassy walkway that led to the showroom. She slowed her pace only a moment when she heard Ned’s feet on the pavement going in the opposite direction toward the dock, then sped forward again.

Upon reaching the showroom entrance, however, she did not ring the bell but stepped softly inside, the thick carpet shielding her from detection.

They must be upstairs, she decided and climbed to the landing.

To her surprise, all doors on the second floor were locked. Men’s voices, however, came from one room. They were muffled by the separation of the wall, but as the young detective listened, she realized there were four people speaking in English. One of them was an American. The second was the manager of the glass factory, Mr. Chiais, and the third, Erminio Scarpa!

“Now, Erminio, this is Beppe Alberini talking to you as a friend, ” the American said, but his words were cut short by a disbelieving laugh—Scarpa’s, Nancy surmised.

“You have nothing to worry about, ” Alberini continued. “So long as the other clerk was willing to give you an alibi, no one will believe some stupid amateur detective.”

“But her friend—the one I took to the basilica— she can identify me; and Lucia says Nancy Drew knows where we live.”

“But you and Francesco will be out of the country before we get caught. We’ll see to it.”

“That’s right, ” the manager said. “As soon as we get what we want from Signore Dandolo—”

He’s talking about the formula, Nancy thought.

“—we’ll join you. It’s all very simple, ” Chiais finished. “Don’t worry about the girl. She is only a nuisance, nothing more dangerous than that.”

Nancy felt her skin tingle in disgust as the conversation continued. The fourth man in the room, she found out, was Scarpa’s brother Francesco, who was in business with Alberini; and it was he, Alberini, and Erminio who had tried to kidnap Filippo’s father. But when they couldn’t find him, they took Filippo instead. Their plan was to ruin the Dandolo business. After that, they would take care of a contact in the United States by the name of Giorgio, a man whom they had induced into partnership.

It sounds as if they want to create their own little monopoly, Nancy thought, and push all the competition out by any means possible.

When the men started to talk about more casual matters that were of no further interest to the young detective, she knocked firmly on the door.

A chair slid back in response, and Beppe Alberini snarled, “Who’s there? ”

“Nancy Drew, ” the girl said cheerfully. “I’m looking for the duchessa.”

“Ah, yes, of course, ” the man replied and opened the door. He had a round face, balding black hair and a sarcastic smile on his lips as he pulled Nancy inside. " You know these gentlemen, I believe.”

Nancy nodded even though she had never met Francesco Scarpa before. “I would like to see the duchessa, please.”

“In a moment, ” Alberini said. “First, I’d like to know how much you have been able to figure out about our operation.”

The girl’s mind raced. Should she tell the men what she knew? Perhaps it was better not to, yet it might be the only way to stall them!

" Well, I know one of you broke into the Artistico Vetro showroom on the night of our arrival in Venice, ” she began. Then she voiced a hunch she had had all along. “Since nothing was stolen, although a chandelier fell off the ceiling, I suppose your purpose was to bug the duchessa’s apartment.”

“Brava! ” Alberini exclaimed. “You are, indeed, a clever girl.”

“Who did it? ” Nancy inquired, but when no one responded, she answered her own question. “I would say Erminio Scarpa. Now I’m sure you’re wondering how I figured that out.” She watched the men’s rapt faces, stringing out her words slowly. “When Mr. Scarpa came to our room later that night, I noticed that the bottoms of his pants legs were wet.” Now Nancy turned to the night clerk. “You pulled that little job, didn’t you, just before you came on duty at the hotel? Your boat must’ve been leaking just enough to leave those telltale wet marks on your trousers.”

Furious, the man glared at her but did not speak.

“You were probably the one who also tried to push me off the vaporetto the next day, ” Nancy accused him.

Alberini smiled. “A young lady with your brains and good looks would be an asset to our company. Perhaps, when we’re all finished here, we’ll offer you a job.”

“Thank you, but no thanks, ” Nancy said coldly. She stared at the man with disgust, then let her eyes roam across the room. They settled on a cap hanging on a coatrack. It was similar to the one Ned had found on the bridge near the Hotel Excelsior after the boys’ boat had been attacked.

“Who’s cap is this? ” she asked, walking toward it.

“Mine, " Alberini said. ‘“Why? ”

It’s quite new, isn’t it? ” Nancy went on. “You bought it after you lost your other one when you did your rope trick at the bridge, trying to sink my friends’ boat.”

Alberini’s lips spread into an evil grin. “So you found my other one, eh? I’ll be glad to take it back. I can always use two.”

Where you’re going you won’t need any, Nancy said to herself, adding aloud, “We’ve also figured out that it was Erminio Scarpa who went through the other hotel room—the one my Emerson friends were staying in.”

“Yes, he was looking for something that belonged to us, ” Alberini admitted.

“Was it a beautiful glass horse, perchance? ” “Obviously. Francesco had flown to Vienna to sell it to a prospective customer, but unfortunately the deal fell through. He couldn’t very well leave it aboard his plane but naturally he was afraid to bring it back through customs since he assumed the officials had been alerted. So he planted it in the boy’s suitcase.”

“He must’ve overheard Ned say he and his friends planned to stay at the Gritti Palace Hotel, ” Nancy put in.

“Exactly, Miss Drew. And since Erminio had access to the rooms there, it would be easy enough to retrieve the statue, or so he thought. By the way, what did your friends do with it? ” “The customs people broke it by accident.” “Oh, what a shame, and it was such a lovely piece, worth quite a bit of money, too.” Alberini sighed.

“One thing puzzles me, ” Nancy addressed the hotel clerk. She riveted her eyes on his. “You probably knew the boys had been arrested and you must’ve realized that the police wouldn’t have permitted them to leave with an expensive glass sculpture that they had allegedly smuggled into the country. So—why did you bother looking for it? ”

“Because Alberini told me that he had fixed it with the police to let the boys keep the piece. He said he paid off the captain—” Scarpa’s words faded as he stared at his accomplice. “Why did you tell me that? ”

“I know why, ” Nancy said. “Because he wanted you to steal the statue from Ned’s room and then have you arrested for it. It was a frame-up to get you out of the picture. He probably intended to get rid of your brother as well by a similar scheme.

Now it was Francesco Scarpa’s turn to glare at Alberini. “Why, you double-crossing—” he roared. “You lied to us! ” A string of Italian utterances spewed angrily from his mouth until he swallowed hard and stopped. “Oh, why did we ever listen to you? You even fooled Lucia and Antonella.”

Antonella, Nancy thought, must be his younger sister. “I saw Antonella’s photograph, ” she said, hoping to bring the duchessa’s nephew back into the conversation. “She was standing next to Filippo Dandolo.”

“It was through her that we were able to persuade Filippo to do some designs for us, ” Erminio Scarpa said. “It was all Beppe’s idea. He gave the designs to an American business associate. He wanted to expand his operation to the United States.”

“Shut up! ” Alberini hissed, “or we’ll all end up in jail. Let’s silence this little busybody and get out of here before her friends alert the police! ”

But he had barely finished his sentence when a flurry of noise stirred outside. Then the door flung open and a team of uniformed officers, followed by Mr. Drew and Nancy’s friends, dashed forward.

“Dad! ” the girl cried, running into his arms as Ned and the others circled her. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you! ”

“I hope we didn’t interrupt an interesting conversation.” Her father grinned.

“Not at all. The interesting part just finished. They were about to get rid of me, and I think they meant for good! ” Nancy said, as Ned pinched his eyes in worry.

“I knew this plan of yours was risky! ” he said.

“But it worked, didn’t it? ” Nancy exclaimed jubilantly. “I can tell you their entire scheme—everything! ”

Mr. Drew, however, held up a hand. “Before you do, there are a few other people who would like to hear it, I’m sure, ” he said.

A moment later, Andreoli stepped into the room followed by another police officer and the duchessa.

“Oh, Duchessal” Nancy exclaimed, hugging her and helping her to a chair.

“I’m afraid I wasn’t too coherent before, was I, my dear? ”

“Nonsense, ” the girl said.

“That’s kind of you to say, ” the woman said, sinking back wearily. “But the drugs seem to have worn off now and I should be able to understand everything much better. First, I want to thank you, Nancy. You saved my life, you know! ”

Nancy did not reply, however, as she lit on Ned’s gaze. “I’m not sure your life really was in danger—”

“But it was, ” Andreoli insisted in perfect English. “You see, my sister is not very strong, and another night in that awful, damp cellar would have been detrimental to her health.”

“Your sister? ” Nancy and her friends repeated, gaping at him.

“Yes. You see, I’m Filippo’s father.”

What? ’ Bess cried, as the man pulled off the black beard he had worn, now revealing the distinguished face of a man in his early sixties.

“I put this on so no one would recognize me. Only Maria knew of my disguise.”

“But when she asked us to help her, why didn’t you tell us? ” George inquired.

“I was afraid to. Suppose you had fallen into the hands of our adversaries? They could have pried the information out of you.”

“It’s not that we didn’t trust you, ” Maria Dandolo interjected. “We simply felt it wasn’t essential for you to know where Claudio was, and we wanted to avoid even the slightest slip on anyone’s part.”

Then, she turned to the manager. “I had no idea, Giuseppe, that you were part of all this. How very sad. How very, very sad indeed.” Her listener merely looked away, unable to respond.

“And now, where is Filippo? ” Signore Dandolo asked at last. He fired an angered glare at the men who remained defiantly closemouthed until Erminio Scarpa spoke.

“What’s the use? ” he said, coughing out the answer. “He’s on Torcello, in a room behind the museum there.”

“Opposite Santa Maria Assunta? Yes, I know it well There is a stone on the wall that bears the winged lion. I can still see Filippo’s face when I took him to the island as a small boy. He loved it so, and I believe that was what he had in mind when he adopted the symbol as his artist’s signature.”

Instantly, the police captain ordered some of his men to the island.

“Before we leave, ” Mr. Drew said, “I have a question for Francesco Scarpa. Just what is your connection with my client, Giorgio? ”

The man scowled. “You figure it out.”

“I think I already have, ” the attorney replied. “You planned to push Giorgio out of a very successful business by accusing him of stealing designs that you forced Filippo to create under threats of harm to the rest of his family. You showed the designs to Giorgio and his sales people, then gave them to another American manufacturer who began to mass market them. Correct? ”

Erminio’s brother did not answer.

“That was all he and Alberini needed to start a lawsuit, ” Burt added.

“Actually, ” Mr. Drew continued, “they had no intention of going through with it. That’s why I got no action from the lawyer in Rome and why Giorgio sent me over here to look into things.”

“But then what were they after if not damages from a lawsuit? ” Bess asked.

“A settlement.”

“And don’t forget Giorgio’s business! ” Dave concluded.

“With the Dandolo formula in hand, they could double it quickly and successfully all over the world, ” Nancy observed.

“By the way, where is the formula, signore? ” Ned asked Filippo’s father. “Safe and sound, I hope.”

“It’s right here, ” the man said, tapping his forehead. “I destroyed all the written copies, even my sister’s, just to make sure no one could possibly get hold of it. Unfortunately, she left for Murano before I could tell her what I had done.”

“I—I could not stand the pressure and the threats any longer, ” the woman admitted. “I feared for Filippo’s life, which, for both of us, is worth much more than anything else in the world. You understand that, Claudio, don’t you? ”

“Of course I do, ” the signore said gently. “Were the men at your apartment when I called you yesterday and you said you needed not only me? ” Nancy asked the duchessa.

“Yes. That’s when I was going through my desk looking for the formula. When I couldn’t find it, they brought me here.”

“We came to the factory this afternoon, ” Nancy said. “I saw someone in the inner storeroom who resembled you. Was it you? ” The woman closed her eyes for a moment. “I tried to get to the window to attract your attention, but the men pulled me away and out of sight before I succeeded.”

Now, as the prisoners departed, Nancy wondered whether her next mystery would pose as much of a challenge as the one she had encountered in Italy. She would find out very soon when she found herself caught in a Race Against Time.

Meanwhile, though, she was more than happy to see Filippo reunited with his family. He proved to be an attractive young man in his thirties with sparkling eyes that betrayed his sense of humor.

Later that evening when everyone gathered for their last dinner in Venice, Nancy presented one question that only Filippo could answer.

“How did you manage to send the note with the winged lion on it to your aunt? ” she asked.

“Before they took me away, I heard one of the men say we were going to Torcello, ” the young man said. “I had a piece of paper in my jacket and I always carry pencils in my shirt pocket. So I quickly scribbled the note and Aunt Maria’s address and dropped it on the street. Apparently someone found it and delivered it to the house.”

“That was clever of you, Filippo, ” George complimented him.

“I wanted to write a message, but as you can imagine, I didn’t have time. Once I had put down the address and the symbol, I realized the men were watching me. I told them I had an idea for a new design and stuck the paper back in my pocket for a second. Then, when they weren’t looking, I pulled it out and dropped it.” “Unfortunately, neither I nor Claudio connected the message with Torcello, ” the duchessa said, chiding herself.

“Now, now, ” Filippo said, “let’s not talk about all this unpleasantness anymore. Especially since this dinner is really in honor of my favorite detective.

“Only one detective? ” his aunt asked brightly. I count six of them!

“Well, my dear aunt, I intend to make five more of these, if you’ll all accept them?

“Oh, my goodness. How wonderful! Bess cried, watching the veil of gauze fall away from a magnificent glass etching.

On it was the artist’s famed signature—a large winged lion—and underneath the words, My most grateful thanks to Nancy Drew.

“And ours, too, ” the duchessa said on behalf of herself and Filippo’s father.

“This really belongs to all of you, ” Nancy told her friends, rising to accept the gift.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! I said I will make more! A hundred of them, if you like! ” Filippo exclaimed, bringing a round of applause and laughter.

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