Black Bridge Read Free Page A

attendant with a portable phone. “You have a call.”
    â€œUrbino!” Urgency charged the Contessa’s voice. “I hate to bother you in the midst of your mud”—her light laugh sounded strained—“but there’s a problem. Everything is at sixes and sevens! Bobo is being threatened! You have to come back to Venice immediately and do something!”
    â€œWhat’s happened?”
    â€œHave some sense! I can’t go into detail over the phone. Come back to Venice. I’m counting on you.”
    Urbino sighed. Suddenly, illogically, he didn’t want to leave Abano. What was the Contessa pulling him back to? And what did it have to do with the Barone Bobo?
    â€œAll right, Barbara. The train will get me in at seven-fifteen. Have Milo meet me with the boat.”
    Urbino could feel the Contessa’s relief over the line.
    â€œI’ll make up for dragging you out of the mud like this, caro . I promise.”
    2
    When Urbino joined the Contessa in her salotto blu at the Ca’ da Capo-Zendrini, her face was becomingly flushed and the bridge of her nose was slightly sunburned, something she had never allowed to happen for as long as he had known her.
    â€œBobo is resting at the Gritti. He’s been through so much in the past six hours, poor dear—and so have I! There we were at the Cipriani, having such a pleasant time with Oriana and John! Little did we know what was brewing for poor Bobo!” She sighed and shook her head, displaying brighter highlights in her hair than three days ago. “Would you make me another g-and-t?”
    The Contessa’s request and the empty glass she held out to him were the most vivid evidence she could have given of her strange state, for tea, mineral water, and wine were her accustomed drinks. Gin-and-tonic was for only special and not always the most auspicious occasions. Urbino knew very well that he should avoid alcohol because of his condition, but he felt he needed a drink to get him through whatever lay ahead. He fixed two gin-and-tonics. The Contessa took a sip of hers and narrowed her gray eyes as if she had just had a dose of medicine.
    â€œSome envious, mean-spirited person is trying to undermine Bobo’s success.”
    She stared at Urbino for a few moments as if she suspected him of the deed.
    â€œYou mentioned that he received threats.”
    â€œNot directly—not yet anyway. One was put in the bocca di leone at the Doges’ Palace.”
    Bocche dei leoni —or Lion’s Mouths—had been placed throughout the city during the iron rule of the notorious Council of Ten. Denunciations against citizens had been deposited in the marble boxes sculpted with lions and had often led to inquisitions, torture, and death. The ones at the Doges’ Palace were among the few still left in the city, these days usually crammed with gum and cigarette wrappers.
    â€œHere’s a copy.”
    She unfolded a white sheet the size of typewriter paper and handed it to him. Several sentences were printed in Italian in block letters in the middle of the sheet:
    THE BARONE ROBERTO CASAROTTO-RE IS AS IMMORAL AS GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO, THE MAN HE USES FOR A MASK. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT D’ANNUNZIO IS DEAD AND CAN NO LONGER HARM ANYONE. THE TRUTH WILL COME OUT .
    â€œThe original was on red paper, folded, and slipped into the bocca ,” the Contessa explained. “The director of the Doges’ Palace called the police. The Gazzettino got the same sheet in the mail with fifty thousand lire. The manager assumed it was meant to cover the cost of an ad but he didn’t print it. He called the Questura, too.”
    â€œWhat does the Barone say about it?” Urbino asked, handing the sheet back.
    â€œBobo is being brave, the dear man! He’s trying to brush it off as a prank but he’s upset. Who wouldn’t be?”
    â€œAnd he has no idea what it’s