“He was already ill, and a few weeks ago he died. In his last months he wasn’t the same any more. He may just have been worn out, but that’s not the basic point. The basic point is that, to all intents and purposes, Cardace didn’t get proper representation. There was practically no evidence presented in his defence, apart from his mother’s testimony, and there was no cross-examination. Guilty or not guilty, the kid has a right to a decent defence.”

Nobody said a word. They seemed less sure of themselves now.

“We’d need to ask for new evidence to be admitted, if we found any,” Consuelo said, in a more conciliatory tone than before. “Except that the time limit’s already up. The hearing’s in ten days.”

As almost always happened after an initial argumentative phase, she was starting to think like a lawyer and not like an inquisitor.

“We’ll have to ask for an extension. I’m going to see Judge Marinelli tomorrow to let him know.”

“As long as he’s prepared to compromise,” she said.

“I’ll tell him clearly what the problem is, assuming he doesn’t already know. I think he and Costamagna were friends, or at any rate knew each other well. I imagine he knows what the situation was like in the man’s last months.”

“You haven’t met the kid yet, have you?” Annapaola asked.

“I’m going there today for an initial interview. We’ll see what kind of person he is.”63

“What do you want us to do?” Tancredi asked.

“First of all I’d read the phone intercepts carefully to get an idea of the context and see if those two conversations between Cardace and Gaglione just before the murder really are so unambiguous. Then I think we should look at the question of the forensics test. It’s an indisputable fact that they found powder residue on his jacket, but in statements he made the kid said he’d been shooting a few days earlier, wearing the same jacket, and that would explain it. We need to establish if that’s at all possible.”

“Theoretically, yes,” Tancredi said. “Gunshot residue can stay on fabric for up to a few days. That said, the story he told can’t be used. The judges were right not to take it into account. It’d be interesting to know a little more about this phantom shooting session. If there’s any truth to it or if it was just something his lawyer dreamed up to create a bit of doubt.”