The Venice Conspiracy Read Online Free PDF

where it was okay to say all girls didn’t stink and all boys aren’t pigs. He has a vacancy for a captain in his unit and they are both good candidates.
    Vito claps his hands to get their attention. ‘Come on, cut the family gossip! Tell me quickly so my entire day isn’t ruined.’
    They turn towards him and move aside. The victim is laid out on black sheeting. A mass of mutilated flesh, oozing canal water and clusters of insects from every wound and orifice.
    ‘Female, fifteen to twenty, stabbed too many times to count,’ Antonio reads from a notebook. He’s late twenties, small, slim and unshaven. Doesn’t look anything like a cop. Tries hard not to. He usually works undercover and was only a day away from a new job before this call caught him on the hop.
    Vito glances at the dead girl, then puts his hand reassuringly on the shoulder of the female lieutenant. ‘You okay, Valentina?’
    ‘
Si
.
Grazie
, Major.’ The twenty-six-year-old covers her mouth and prays she won’t hurl. ‘
Scusi
. It’s just’ – she looks at the young girl’s eyes, part-digested by crustacean and fish – ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’
    Vito feels her pain. Remembers his own first floater. Stomach churning. Head and heart full of mixed-up emotions. ‘None of us has ever seen anything like this. Go back to the station, Valentina. Write things up. See if you can figure out who this dead girl is.’
    Antonio touches her arm comfortingly as she turns away from them. She feels a little ashamed that she isn’t yet experi enced enough to swallowher shock and just get on with the job. ‘
Grazie
,’ she calls. She exits in style. Strong strides. Head high. Shoulders straight. Just in case her boss is watching. And she knows he will be.
    ‘She has a sister of about the same age,’ explains Antonio, defensively. ‘It kind of made it personal.’
    Vito pulls on latex gloves and crouches by the body. ‘It
is
personal, Antonio. You don’t get any more personal than the taking of someone’s life.’
    ‘Si.’
    Vito’s eyes trace the wounds. Dozens upon dozens of them. ‘
Cazzo!
What in God’s name went on here?’
    ‘The ME is on his way. I counted more than three hundred stab marks, then you arrived and I stopped.’ He looks worried. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure
where
I stopped. Not really certain where to pick up from.’
    Vito smiles. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll describe them as multiple wounds.’ Antonio says something but the major doesn’t hear him. The girl was pretty before some lunatic took a blade to her. The kind of daughter he and his wife would have loved to have had, if only God had chosen to bless them with children. ‘Wait five minutes then call Valentina and make sure the squad is doing the basic work. Check last-minute bookings for flights out of Venice. Put teams on the train and bus stations. Look out for lone, male travellers, anyone seeming edgy. Have someone ring around hotels for early check-outs.’
    Antonio scribbles in his notebook. ‘We’ve already got search teams looking for bloodstained clothing and the knife.’ He nods towards the canal. ‘What do you want to do about the water?’
    Vito stands up. ‘Get dive teams in there and examine every drop of it. Like I said, murder is personal.’

CHAPTER 9

    When Valentina Morassi gets back to headquarters the dead girl’s father is waiting in the cold reception area. He’s reported her missing and still doesn’t know the awful truth.
    Valentina quickly learns that the victim is fifteen-year-old Monica Vidic. A Croatian schoolgirl, visiting Venice with her dad as something ofa bonding trip. An ugly divorce had ripped the family apart and forty-two-year-old Goran had thought the trip would help his daughter deal with it.
    They’d gone to St Mark’s together, and then she’d stormed off after dinner while arguing about where she wants to spend her weekends. The father thought he’d find her back at the hotel but she never