I simply nodded, avoiding stupid remarks. Annapaola is the kind of person you want close to you if you have to face serious danger. Ottavio was right: she was in a special category.

The professor left before five. We said goodbye, saying we would meet again there at the Osteria, one of these nights.

For breakfast, I had a coffee and a slice of chocolate and coconut cake made by Ottavio the previous afternoon. Then I returned home with an annotated edition of Montaigne’s Essays. I was as wide awake and rested as if I’d had a full night’s sleep.

159

15

Twenty days before the date set for the start of the appeal hearing, Consuelo, Tancredi, Annapaola and I met again to assess the situation.

Consuelo began.

“For me, there’s no need to present additional grounds. The appeal is unremarkable, it sticks rigidly to the main points, but it doesn’t stop us from bringing up others. It questions the undervaluation of the defendant’s mother’s testimony, as well as the reconstruction of Cardace’s movements that afternoon. It could have been better, but it’ll be material for the closing statement. On the other hand, I haven’t found any procedural irregularities. In particular, the phone taps were properly authorized. Not flawless, as you said, Guido, but there are no grounds for suggesting they’re unusable.”

“Yes, we’d only make them nervous if we brought up the question of irregularities,” I said. “They’d be convinced we don’t have any real arguments.”

“If you all agree,” Consuelo resumed, “using what Annapaola and Carmelo have found out as a basis, I’d like to go over some aspects of the investigation to highlight what wasn’t done, things we could bring up at the hearing.” Nobody made any comment. “Everything revolves around the fact that, when Gaglione calls 118, the police are listening in and immediately link it to the quarrel he had with Cardace a 160few hours earlier. It was the most natural assumption to make. The problem, which we need to highlight at the hearing, is that from then on, as far they’re concerned, the hypothesis that Cardace was responsible for the murder becomes the one possible truth. We can’t even say they stop considering alternative hypotheses. They don’t consider them in the first place. A few minutes after the murder, they’re already sure about what happened and have no doubts as to who the guilty party is. They just have to find a bit of corroborating evidence. In my opinion, to introduce an element of reasonable doubt we have to emphasize the fact that potentially important checks weren’t carried out, because they were basically convinced that the case was already solved.”