Free Rendezvous in Rome by Carolyn Keene

all, being in the apartment as a guest gave him pretty good access to the safe.
    Nancy shook herself. It looked as if one person was responsible for all the thefts, and she seriously doubted that Sandro would steal a necklace from his own mother.
    She and Bess chatted with the De Lucas and Sandro while they finished their iced tea, but no one could shed any more light on the evening’s events. After promising to call Signora De Luca the minute they uncovered anything, the girls left.
    As she rode back to their pensione Nancy felt frustrated. She hadn’t unearthed a single clue in this case. There were never any signs of forced entry and no telltale marks on the safes. It was as if a ghost were pulling off the thefts.
    Nancy was exhausted, but that night she couldn’t get to sleep. She tossed in bed, trying to figure out how everyone fit into the latest crime. Massimo knew the apartment would be empty. Was it more than a coincidence that he had canceled his plans to join Sandro and Carlo? And where did Sandro and Claudia fit in? They had been acting weird, too.
    Nancy groaned, throwing her arm over her face as she rolled over in the twisted sheets yet again. How was she ever going to get to the bottom of this case?
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    â€œBoy, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to leave Rome and give up eating those delicious pastries every morning,” Bess said the following morning as she and Nancy finished their breakfast at the café near their pensione. “So what do we do today?”
    Nancy stifled a yawn. Even though she had slept late, she didn’t feel very rested. This case was starting to get to her. “We could try to find out where the stolen jewelry is going,” she suggested. “I also want to go back to Preziosi to look into the store’s finances. They don’t seem to have many customers, did you notice?”
    After breakfast Nancy called Claudia at thestore. “Are you busy right now?” Nancy asked. “I wanted to ask you a couple of questions.”
    â€œNot that busy,” Claudia told her. “Things are quiet, and Paola is out looking at merchandise this morning.”
    â€œActually, I was going to ask how well the store is doing,” Nancy said. “But if Paola’s not there . . .”
    â€œYou want to see the accounting books?” Claudia guessed. She hesitated, then said, “If you come now, it will be okay. Paola won’t be back until after lunch.”
    â€œWe’re on our way,” Nancy said, then hung up.
    Claudia was helping a customer when Nancy and Bess arrived. She motioned for them to go into the back, then returned to the woman who was looking at leather bags.
    In the back room Nancy saw a ledger sitting in the center of Paola’s desk. Claudia had obviously pulled it out for them.
    â€œThat was my first sale of the day,” Claudia said a moment later, joining Nancy and Bess. “Lately sales are even slower than usual.”
    She sat down at Paola’s desk and gestured to the ledger. “Before you came I looked through this book to see if I could see anything that did not look right, but it is pretty much the usual business stuff. No large sums of money.”
    â€œSo if she’s selling stolen jewelry over the counter, the books don’t show it,” Bess said. “Not that you would expect them to.”
    Nancy had been glancing at the figures, trying tomake sense of them. “If I’m reading this thing correctly, these numbers don’t show a bustling business either,” she observed. “The store is barely breaking even.”
    â€œThe rents on via Condotti are very high,” Claudia said with a sigh. “The tourist trade is not enough to carry us anymore. Paola is trying to change our merchandise to attract more local customers.”
    â€œSo she may need more money to keep the store afloat,” Nancy said. “But so far