Snowfall in Venice

The Confession

MY NAME IS ANTONIO FONTANA, AND THIS IS MY CONFESSION:

I was an artisan glassmaker on the Venetian island of Murano for many years. Although the craft has been practiced on the island for centuries, I was considered one of the best artists.

My special colored glass designs have always been prized by collectors, so I was not surprised to be commissioned by a wealthy businessman to produce a special piece to commemorate the birth of his first child. Because I knew the man to be the head of the local Mafiosi, I did not refuse. The unique piece you now hold in your hands is the work of art I designed for him. I titled it simply, The Birth.

I was instructed to personally deliver my finished work to his villa on December 23rd so that he could present it to his wife as a Christmas present. I planned to do so, but when I arrived at the villa, I saw two ambulances leaving the building at high speed with sirens blaring.

To my surprise, no one answered my knock on the door. I checked, and it was open. The house was empty when I entered. I can only surmise that a medical emergency triggered their immediate departure. I decided to leave the statue along with a note for the owner, Don Lorenzo Benedetti.

I found a room that I assumed was The Don's private study. Upon entering, I immediately saw that the full-length vault door was slightly ajar. I was frightened that someone would return and find me there, but my curiosity got the better of me.

I entered the vault intending only to take a quick look, but the contents of the secured room held me transfixed. It was the wealth of ages. Gold and silver bars stacked to the ceiling, box after box of assorted gleaming jewelry, and an untold fortune in diamonds.

I was about to exit the vault when an all-consuming rage struck me at the injustice of it all. This great wealth must have been accumulated on the backs of poor and hard-working people all over the world. Surely, I thought, there must be some way to use some of this wealth to help the less fortunate in life.

It was then that I lost all reason. Knowing full well that this was the property of a Mafiosi leader, I decided to steal back some of the bounties and put it to good use.

There were sixteen weighty bags of diamonds, eight red bags, and eight blue bags. The stones were sorted so that the red bags contained uncut diamonds, and the blue bags were full of polished stones. I stole five of the blue bags and two bags of heavy gold linked chains, along with several smaller gold bars.

There was an old red leather suitcase embossed with the Swissair logo sitting next to the desk. It was empty, so I used it to pack the valuables.

When I left the property, the villa was still empty. To my knowledge, no one had seen me arrive or depart. I did not deliver The Birth the special glass piece as I had been instructed to do. I also did not sleep well that evening.

The following morning, I went to the downtown branch of Banco San Paolo, located just behind the Piazza San Marco in Venice. I rented one of their new large ultra-secure safety deposit boxes.

To open this new type of box requires the holder to have a safety deposit box key in addition to the key the bank always keeps. The key given to me was engraved with the letter "C" for the customer. The manager, Angelo Cavallo, then showed me a second level of security, recently introduced by the bank.

He took a five-euro banknote and in front of my eyes, cut the note into two equal parts. Each half of the banknote had an identical unique serial number. He passed one of the half notes to me.

He assured me that my box could not be opened by any living person unless the key marked C and the half euro note was presented to the bank. On presentation, the manager would check the serial number against the bank's retained half of the euro note. If they matched, the box would be opened with no further formalities.