They halted at the corner of a narrow alley that ran between two high stone walls and ended at rocks against which the lake lapped. Bruno strained at his leash, casting back and forth at the corner—far more excited than he’d been to that point.
Toby nodded at the dog. “Evelyn’s been here.”
After a short discussion, the bulk of the searchers remained with Roland, Bryce, and Bruno, while Giovanni led Toby and Diana down the alley to the Barberos’ gate.
Diana felt hope rise as, after stepping through the gate, they followed a neat path to the house’s front door.
Giovanni pulled the bell chain, and in less than a minute, a heavy-set middle-aged man whom Diana recalled from the basket weavers’ stall opened the door.
Giovanni and Toby greeted the man, and Giovanni explained their quest.
Diana smiled in hope and the fervent expectation of relief.
But Barbero looked puzzled, then he shook his head and said something in Italian.
Her heart sinking, Diana looked at Toby. His expression remained impassive, but his gaze, fixed on Barbero, sharpened. Then he posed some question, and Barbero paused.
Then he raised a hand.“Un momento.”What else he said, Diana missed, then Barbero turned and, leaving the door open, retreated into the house and called someone.
Diana tugged Toby’s sleeve. “What did he say?”
Toby dipped his head and whispered, “That he and his wife haven’t seen Evelyn since this morning at the market. But when I asked if he was sure she wasn’t anywhere about the house, he wasn’t certain, and he’s called to his wife to check on their daughter, Dominica.”
Giovanni added, “Barbero said his wife mentioned the girls staring at each other in the market in that way that children have—as if they are communicating without speech.”
“That’s what Evelyn was fixated on,” Diana said. “Another little girl.”
A minute later, they heard a female voice calling from inside, then Barbero, followed by his wife, both obviously now flustered and concerned, returned to the door.
A torrent of Italian followed, and via translations from Toby and Giovanni, Diana gathered that the Barberos’ daughter was also nowhere to be found.
With the Barberos, they returned to the waiting search party.
Giovanni told those waiting that Dominica was also missing. “We think the girls must be together, but where?”
Toby’s attention was drawn to Bruno, still straining at the leash that Roland held.
Roland reported, “He wants to go on along the path.”
Toby looked at Giovanni and Barbero. “Bruno spends most of his time with Evelyn—our little girl. I think the girls must have gone that way.”
Giovanni nodded. “We will continue with our searching, but we will follow the dog’s nose, yes?”
No one argued, and the group followed Bruno as he pulled and tugged Roland on along the path, stopping at the opening of every alley to sniff and cast about, only to continue along the main path.
Diana grew increasingly anxious as they traveled along the circuitous route back toward the piazza without encountering any sign of the girls.
Where could two little girls have got to?
Striding beside her, Toby murmured, “We’re almost back to the villa.”
Just then, without any of his usual hesitation on coming to an alley mouth, Bruno swung sharply left down a narrow, paved way between two high stone walls.
The boys, Giovanni, Toby, Diana, and the Barberos filed quickly in behind, all hoping against hope that they would find the girls there. The other searchers crowded into the alley in their wake.
After cutting around two sharp corners, like all such alleys, this one ended at the lake.
At the sight of the small stone pier running into the water, entirely empty, with no sign of any little girl, the Barberos’ faces fell, and Diana felt her heart sink, it seemed to her shoes.
