“After going to his home and not finding him, officers of the Flying Squad track down Cardace outside a pub and take him to police headquarters. During the car ride, the accused mentions to Sergeant De Tullio, quite calmly, without holding anything back, that he saw his friend Gaglione just a few hours earlier. There is no mention of this in the documents, but you learned it here, in this hearing, no more than a few days ago. Before continuing, I want to ask you a question I’d like you to keep in mind. Does this seem to you the behaviour of someone who has just committed a murder like the one we are dealing with? Keep that question in mind, use it as a general yardstick to interpret what has emerged from this hearing.

“So, Cardace admits quite calmly that he went to Gaglione’s home, and does so before knowing that there was a witness placing him in that area during the afternoon.

“At Headquarters, Cardace is given a gunshot residue test. On this point, we heard the inspector from the forensics team, who proved to be very precise and competent. He explained to us that gunshot residue, in the absence of washing, persists on the surface of the skin and in the nostrils for about four hours. The test was carried out more or less three hours after the murder. So the accused should still have had gunshot residue on his body, unless he had carefully cleaned his hands, arms, face, hair and neck, and even his nostrils.

“We can therefore assert that if, on that tragic afternoon, Cardace fired a gun, he then made sure to clean himself with extreme care and, consequently, with extreme awareness of the risk that he might be subjected to a test.”

I paused for a long time, another rather bombastic pause, and nodded in the direction of the court while I prepared the next stretch of my statement. During that pause a thought 252crossed my mind: I had no more desire to do this work, with all its rituals, its techniques, its dressing up. The fact that this feeling should hit me just when I had to use all my persuasive powers to save a client from dozens of years in prison wasn’t reassuring. Not to me, and certainly not to Iacopo, if he’d known.

“But the same individual, so aware, so careful that he washes his hands, face and hair, and even his nostrils, in order not to risk being caught out by a forensics test, the same individual, I repeat, completely neglects his jacket. He doesn’t get rid of it, he doesn’t take it to the laundry, he doesn’t even hang it up in a wardrobe. No, ladies and gentlemen. This shrewd, aware individual continues to wear it while expecting to be tested, which duly happens.