“He said something like: ‘And who are you, my mother, always checking if my phone is on or off?’”

“But what about the problem you’d had with the man from the gym?”

“I don’t even know if he quite got what I was talking about. Anyway, he cut me off and said he’d call me right back.”

“And did he?”

“No. After half an hour I called him again.”

“Do you remember what the two of you said during that second call?”

“He wasn’t very pleasant, he said I was pissing him off, he’d told me lots of times that I said too much on the phone. I replied that I was going straight round there, that way he couldn’t use the phone as an excuse.”

“How was your tone? Calm?”232

“No, I was pissed off.”

“And what about Gaglione?”

“He said: Come on then. Here I am.”

“In a challenging voice?”

“I’d say so, yes. He was angry too.”

“What happened then?”

“I went to his place.”

“By car?”

“Yes, of course. We live near the Russian church, and Gaglione lived in Fesca.”

“What time did you start out?”

“About half past five.”

“What time did you get to his place?”

“About six, more or less.”

“How did the conversation go? Was it heated?”

“At first a little, then we cleared things up. He said he’d check up on that consignment, and that if I was right he’d give me my money back. If not, we’d go and see the guy at the gym together.”

“How long were you in Gaglione’s apartment?”

“Half an hour.”

“How did you part?”

“What do you mean?”

“On friendly or hostile terms?”

“Friendly – we’d sorted things out.”

“Did Gaglione give you anything before you left?”

“Yes, he gave me some Ecstasy pills. He said they were very good, something special that had just arrived.”

“Why did you meet at Gaglione’s apartment and not in a bar, for example?”

“It was a time when Gaglione was going out as little as possible.”233

“Why?”

“He was working as a bouncer. Sometime before there’d been a fight in a disco.”

“Can you tell us which one?”

“Chilometro Zero. Anyway, this fight had broken out, the security people had intervened and he’d hit one guy who’d been especially violent. But it turned out he was someone dangerous, I mean, someone who belonged to a dangerous group.”

“Did he tell you about it himself?”

“Yes, he was worried, he was scared they might do something to him, as punishment. So he was avoiding going out if it wasn’t necessary. He even thought of going to stay with a cousin of his in Milan for a while.”

“Who was the person he’d had this fight with?”

“He didn’t tell me. He just said ‘dangerous people’ and I didn’t ask him any more questions.”