“With Costamagna. He said things were looking bad and we had to at least try something. But we needed an alibi. I had to say something that didn’t fit the prosecution case, or it would be no use.”

“Obviously Iacopo knew that.”

“Yes.”

So I had discovered that Iacopo was innocent, something I’d been convinced of for a while. And yet I had also defended him using a false testimony. A false alibi.

“I had no choice,” Lorenza resumed. “I had no idea how you’d react and I couldn’t take the risk that you might not take the case, or that you’d take it but stop me going on the stand and giving that testimony.”

There are moments when everything turns upside down, when the coordinates all change abruptly and the brain takes paths that are hard to interpret. Just one question came to my lips. A rather incongruous one, to be honest.

“When did you vow to quit smoking?”284

“Just before the appeal hearing. When I saw what you were all doing, the investigations and all the rest, and I thought maybe you’d succeed in getting Iacopo acquitted.”

“So why didn’t you tell yourself: I’ll quit smoking if Iacopo is acquitted?”

A brief laugh escaped her. Actually not much more than a gasp. “I know it’s an absurd argument, but which of these arguments isn’t? I knew you’d get him acquitted. But I also wanted him to be innocent and I wanted to know he was innocent. I didn’t want to waste a wish.”

I thought of going to get a cigarette from the rubbish bin and lighting it. I didn’t.

“You mentioned coffee.”

She shook herself as if from a kind of torpor. “Of course. I’ll make it right away.”

She filled the pot and we waited in a suspended silence for the coffee to rise. Lorenza poured it into two brown cups, the kind that were used in cafes all those years ago and, still in silence, we drank it.

“I have to go now.”

“Guido…”

“Iacopo will be out in a few weeks maximum. I’ll let you know from the office when we have more specific news. I assume you’ll go to the prison to give him the news, so I won’t need to.”

“Guido, listen…”

“I’m going. I’m glad your son’s getting out. I’m really glad. Personal disappointment is just a detail, one of many. And details aren’t important.”

It isn’t true; details are important. But I didn’t say this.

She hugged me at the door of the apartment. She held me tight and I smelt her smell and felt her thin body up against 285mine. I responded to the hug, thinking that we had never had such intimate contact all those years before.