“Inspector, I call on your experience. Has it ever happened to you that you carried out a test on a suspect and obtained positive results on the clothes and negative ones on the body – hands, face, etc.?”197

“Yes. I remember at least two other cases.”

“When these individuals were put on trial, what was the outcome?”

At this point it was up to me to object. It was a clever question, and a dangerous one.

“Objection, Your Honour, it’s not possible to introduce —”

Marinelli interrupted me. “Avvocato Guerrieri, this is a line of questioning you yourself initiated. The prosecution is entitled to take it further. Then we can each draw our own conclusions. Objection overruled. Please answer.”

“In both cases the defendants were found guilty.”

“Partly on the basis of the forensics evidence.”

“Definitely.”

“Thank you, I have no further questions.”

For a moment I thought of asking him some questions about those two cases. Ask him for further details, explore the differences there probably were between those cases and ours. Then I decided against it. Firstly, I didn’t know what territory I would be stepping into: I had no idea what those cases had been about, I’d be asking questions blindly and didn’t know what might emerge. Secondly, I would be giving the impression that Gastoni’s questions had upset me because they might weaken the theory I was constructing at this hearing.

Marinelli adjourned until the following Monday, when we would call our other witnesses. That is, Lorenza, the woman from the cafe, and Rafaschieri, who had run a gym with Gaglione.

On Wednesday the defendant would testify, then, unless anything new emerged that required further checks, no further witnesses would be called and we would adjourn until the following week, after Easter, for closing statements.198

I put my papers in my briefcase together with my folded robe and turned to go. Consuelo had already rushed off to be present at a preliminary hearing we’d both forgotten about.

Lorenza was at the back of the courtroom; she must have just come in. She looked at me as if she was about to say something. But if she was, it went no further.

199

Lorenza

By now it was summer.

Once – it might actually have been the night of the solstice – we went to the villa of a friend of hers, just outside Polignano. There was a little gate from which you had direct access to the sea. The air was sharp, and a light wind was blowing that at times made you shiver and gave you a sense that this was an unrepeatable moment.

After eating – somebody had prepared a huge tiella of potatoes, rice and mussels – I’d gone and sat down a few paces from the water with a cigarette and a glass of wine.