“It is something your neighbour, Justinia Erizzo, said to me. Now, I know she is scatterbrained, and has been a little inclined to get emotional about death since her husband died.”
“Spit it out, Cat.”
“She said she saw Tiepolo’s soul flying away from the fire just at the end when the flames had reached him in the topmost room.”
“What? Out of the window?”
Cat frowned, and swirled the dregs of her wine in the bottom of her goblet. The sediment rose and with a grimace she put the goblet down.
“No. That was the oddest thing. She said she saw his soul fly out of the back door. You know her house faces that alley between your house and San Giuliano Church.”
Katie laughed at the idea of a soul using a door, but Zuliani had a serious look on his face. This wasn’t just a foolish woman’s whimsy. He felt sure there was something of substance about the vision. He waved his hand in the air, trying to urge his tumbling thoughts into some sort of order.
“This vision of a soul. How was it made up? Did she say?”
“Well no. A soul is … a soul. What should it look like?”
Katie stared at her grandfather. She was beginning to understand what he looked like when he was on to something. His body tensed, and he scowled.
“What is it, grandpa?”
Zuliani groaned.
“I hate it when you call me that. Call me Nick like you did before all this family stuff came up.”
Cat hid a smile behind her slender fingers. Zuliani was clearly discomfited by all this personal closeness. He had always preferred to be a free agent. But Katie would soon cure him of that — he couldn’t resist her charms — and Cat herself fancied getting as close as they had been all those years ago. The truth was she yearned to bed him. For now, she concentrated on the mystery of Tiepolo’s death.
“I too know when something is bothering you, Nick. So get it off your chest.”
Zuliani squinted at the two women, and shook his head decisively.
“Not yet. Not until I have verified a few more facts.”
Cat rose from her chair and stamped her foot.
“I swear, Niccolo Zuliani, you are even more exasperating now than you were forty years ago. I am not going to let you out of my sight until I get the truth out of you.”
Zuliani pushed himself out of his chair too, his bones creaking alarmingly.
“Then you must both come back with me to Ca’ Zuliani. But it is too dark now, and Justinia will be abed.”
“You intend to ask her about this nonsense about Tiepolo’s soul?”
Zuliani nodded.
“If it is nonsense, then I will have lost nothing by asking. But if it is not … I will have solved the whole mystery. But first, I need some sleep.”
Katie led him to where he would sleep that night, and then tripped down the passage to her own room. He stepped wearily into the room and was about to close the door, when Cat’s face appeared in the gap. She smiled knowingly.
“Do you need your sleep, old man? Or can you put it off for an hour or two?”
Zuliani grinned wolfishly.
“Only an hour or two? Your appetites must have diminished, granny.”
Cat growled, grabbed his arm and dragged him to her bed-chamber.
Zuliani arose early the next morning and tiptoed to his own room. He had no wish for Katie to know of the carnal nature of her grandparents. But it seemed his circumspection was all in vain. When he descended the stairs having splashed his face with cold water and dragged his fingers through his unruly hair, there she was in the main hall grinning from ear to ear.
“You look tired out, grand … Nick. Up all night, were you?”
Zuliani had no doubts about her meaning, and even blushed a little.
“You should be more respectful to your elders, Katie Valier. I am refreshed and ready to go. Are you?”
Cat entered the room, and yawned.
“So early? It is such a cold morning, why do we have to go now?”
Zuliani grinned at the two mystified women.
“I have a reason, but I can’t tell you now.”
Katie turned to her grandmother with a questioning look.
“Did you get nothing out of him last night?”
Cat withered the girl with a stern look.
“That is not how I brought you up, young lady.” She then paused, and laughed. “But you are correct. I got nothing out of him — from an informational point of view. He always did play his cards close to his chest. That was because, if he told no one his opinions, when he turned out to have got it wrong, no one could tell him so.”
Zuliani was beginning to wonder if he wanted to be bossed around by two women. But then he looked at the two of them and knew, for different reasons, it was worth it. Still, he decided he would string them along a little longer.
“If you ladies are ready, we should get moving.”
“Where are we going?”
It was Cat’s question, and he took delight in answering it in his own way.
“To my house first to look for something that is probably not there. And then to the docks to find something that we thought was no more.”
Before they could ask what he meant, he was out of the door and into the chilly morning where a thick mist swirled around the streets. The two women had to hurry to keep up with him as he crossed the Rialto Bridge and made for his own house in the Castello district. The morning mist made them seem like three wraiths flying through the
“Where are you going?”
His voice carried over his shoulder as he almost disappeared in the mist.
“An urgent errand. You go on to Ca’ Zuliani and I’ll meet you there.”
“Yes, but what are we looking for?”
It was too late. Zuliani was gone. Grumbling at his erratic behaviour, Cat stalked through the streets with Katie at her heels. When they got to the blackened shell that was Zuliani’s home, she turned to her granddaughter
“What the hell are we looking for, Katie?”
The girl shrugged her pretty shoulders.
“Something that won’t be there, he said.”
“Then how are we going to find it?”
“I don’t know for sure, but let’s go up to the top floor. That’s where Nick kept his treasures. If anything is missing, it is likely to be one of them. He showed me everything, so I may be able to recall if one of them is not there.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Cat touched the metal lizard on the newel post. She had the same thought as Katie had a few days ago.
“A salamander, perhaps? It didn’t help put out the fire though, did it?”
Katie gasped.
“Grandmother, you are a genius.”
She ran up the staircase, leaving a puzzled Cat at the bottom.
“Me, a genius? What did I say?”
She followed Katie up the stairs at a more sedate pace. When she got to the top room, she was appalled by
