Meet Me in Venice Read Online Free PDF Page A

because how could she possibly know about the safe, or its combination? And anyhow she had no compunction about stealing from her friend. She needed the money so she took it.
    This morning, however, always attuned to Lily’s moods, she sensed something was going on, and instead of setting off on the errand Lily had dreamed up for her, she lingered on the cellar stairs, thanking fate that Lily had reminded her to remove her shoes. In her bare feet she made no sound as she crept closer. And, as she had done before, she took a photograph as this time Lily removed the flat jewelry case from the safe.
    Lifting her cell-phone camera, Mary-Lou snapped quick silent pictures as Lily opened the case, but she was scarcely able to hold back a gasp of astonishment when she saw what it contained.
    She had never seen jewels like that: the massive emeralds, diamonds and rubies, and the pearl the size of a robin’s egg. Where, she wondered, astonished, had Lily gotten her hands on it?
    She stole silently back up the stairs, her pulses throbbing with excitement, adrenaline flowing. The necklace must be worth a fortune. All you needed was the right buyer. Hah! Of course, that was the call Lily had been waiting for. She had a buyer in mind!
    Mary-Lou hurried out onto the street where her little car was parked. She got in and drove quickly away so Lily wouldn’t come out and find her still there and suspect her of spying. She drove aimlessly, her mind ticking over. It would be easy to steal the necklace, but first she needed to find a buyer.
    THE NEXT DAY WHEN LILY was out, Mary-Lou went down to the basement and opened up the safe. She took out the necklace, letting it slide through her fingers, marveling at the weight and clarity of the jewels, and the size of the glowing creamy white pearl. Her eyes opened even wider when she read Lily’s note about the provenance. It would be worth even more than she had hoped.
    The fact was that the necklace could end all of her woes; it would give her the millions she needed for the good life she waited and believed she deserved. It was worth any risk. If Lily gave her any trouble, she would deal “appropriately” with her. Mary-Lou had no fear of that. Her only problem now was to find that buyer.

SIX
    A few days later, Mary-Lou was coming out of the diamond cutter’s office, on the second floor of a mean little building in a bad quarter, sandwiched between a cheap “massage parlor” and one of those half-hidden stores where gamblers came to buy lottery tickets, hoping for the big win.
    The building was shuttered behind double steel gates and the narrow street flickered with vivid neon signs hung, sometimes three deep, over tacky bars and teahouses that smelled of fried eels and sheeps’ brains and of rice swimming in a thin pungent broth. Ragged men down on their luck or simply drunk or stoned, squatted on the sidewalks, their backs pressed up against the building, smoking and staring into space, occasionally hawking and spitting up gobs of phlegm.
    Mary-Lou’s perfect nose curled in disgust. She hated coming here. She knew she attracted attention with her exotic looks, that was why she always dressed down in jeans and a T-shirt, no jewelry, not even a watch. Even so, she feared for her car, small and cheap though it was. Nothing was safe on these streets and it made her nervous, especially with what she had hidden in her pocket. Two diamonds each of about four carats, stolen from a wealthy family, that had just been reçut by the backstreet diamond cutter, losing some of their carat weight in the process but it meant they were now untraceable. Using Lily’s money, she had made a deal with the thieves and now the diamonds were hers to sell on.
    Putting on her dark glasses, she stepped into the street. She had parked her car right outside the building but now an old truck was parked in its place. She let out a howl of rage and swung round, glaring accusingly at the street bums. They glared back