Reasonable Doubts gg-3

by Gianrico Carofiglio

  “And so Mother and I thought of suing everyone in the building. And then” – she leaned slightly towards me across the desk, conspiratorially – “the money we’re awarded in damages we’ll share with you, Avvocato, fifty-fifty.”

  My brain was working frantically to find a way out. Without finding it.

  In the meantime the old lady had woken up. “Are you the dentist?”

  “No, signora, I’m not the dentist.”

  “… Because I have an abscess, just here…” and she opened her mouth and stuck a finger inside, so that I could get a good look at the abscess, and everything else.

  “He isn’t the dentist, mother. He’s the lawyer. Do you want another sweet?”

  This lasted for at least half an hour, during which the old woman asked me another four or five times if I was Marietta’s son or Signora Marzulli’s nephew. And especially if I was married.

  Whenever she asked me this last question, she would wink cunningly at her daughter.

  Finally I had a stroke of genius.

  I would be happy to take on their case, I said. And of course, what was happening in their building was a scandal. Something would have to be done as soon as possible, and I would do it. There was just one small formality to be got through first. To bring a lawsuit, you had to pay an advance of-I tried to think of a really off-putting figure – let’s say five thousand euros. Unfortunately that was the law, I lied. So I asked the younger Signora Pappalepore to pay me five thousand before I could proceed. Cash was best, though a cheque would be fine too. But I had to have it at once.

  She became evasive. Obviously she didn’t have that much cash on her, and unfortunately she’d left her chequebook at home. I told her she had to bring it in as soon as possible, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest. As I said this, I tried as best I could to look like the worst kind of money-grubbing crook. The kind of person you’d want to get away from as quickly as possible, and never approach again.

  “Shall we make an appointment for tomorrow?” I said, with a greedy expression on my face.

  “I’ll phone you tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.” She was worried now. She’d ended up in the hands of an unscrupulous opportunist and wanted to get out of here as quickly as she could.

  “All right, but please, no later than the day after tomorrow.”

  Of course, she assured me, no later than the day after tomorrow. And now I really must excuse her, but she had to go, because it was time to change her mother’s incontinence pad.

  In that case, I wouldn’t keep her any longer. Good evening. Good evening to you too, signora.

  And no, I’m not Marietta’s son, not even Signora Marzulli’s nephew.

  And thank God, I’m not the dentist.

  20

  It was very cold in Foggia that morning, so it felt good to enter the restaurant, which was not only warm but full of wonderful smells. Colaianni was already there, sitting at a table with two disreputable-looking individuals: his police escort.

  We hugged, and exchanged the kind of small talk you’d expect from men of a certain age who’d been students together. The two policemen stood up without a word and went and sat down at another table, close to the entrance.

  “How many years have you been in Rome now?”

  “Too many. And I’m getting really pissed off. Especially with working in the anti-Mafia field. We keep arresting traffickers and dealers, we spend hundreds of thousands of euros on phone taps, we constantly interview people who’ve turned State’s evidence, or are pretending to, and absolutely nothing changes. I ought to find myself an honest job.”

  Right, I thought. Exactly the same thing I had said to myself a few days earlier, leaving the prison. Here we were, the finest examples of a generation at the height of its professional success.

  I didn’t say any of this and he continued. His tone wasn’t jokey any more, it had turned bitter, in a way I would never have expected from Andrea Colaianni.

  Unlike me, he had always been passionate about his work, had really believed in it. He had thought that working out of a Prosecutor’s Department, you could change the world. But life is a little more complicated than that.

  “I’m increasingly uncomfortable with this job. Do you remember how I was just after the examination?”

  I remembered it very well. At the time he had passed his public examination, we saw each other every day. At twenty-five he had already achieved his main aim in life. To be a magistrate. Whereas I was still young and footloose and would stay that way for a while longer.

  “I couldn’t wait to start. I couldn’t wait to be a prosecutor. I was ready to change things. To bring about justice.” He looked me in the eyes. “Big words, eh?”

  “How does that song go? The one by De Gregori? You were looking for justice and you found the law.”

  “Exactly. When I started I felt like an avenging angel. Now – would you believe this? – I feel sick every time I have to arrest someone. A few days ago, in the corridors of the courthouse, I ran into a prisoner in handcuffs being led by a guard. He was a man of about sixty, who looked like a stationer, a grocer, whatever. I’ve seen hundreds of people in handcuffs. All kinds of people. Scared, arrogant, dazed, indifferent. All kinds, and I should be used to it. It shouldn’t have any effect on me. The guard was walking ahead of him and he was behind. At a certain point he slowed down, or maybe he just couldn’t keep up. I don’t know. Anyway, the guard gave a jerk on the chain, just like you do when you’re walking your dog and it stops too long to sniff something. It was only for a moment, because then the man walked quicker and caught up. I stood there in the corridor watching them walk away. I felt a knot in my stomach. That, too, was only for a moment and then the guys in my police escort asked me if anything was wrong and I walked on. Maybe you understand.”

  I understood perfectly what he was saying. He made a gesture I had seen many times in the past few weeks. He rubbed his face, hard, as if trying to wipe out something viscous and unpleasant. He didn’t manage it. No one ever does.

  “If I could, I’d change jobs. Obviously I can’t. My destiny is all mapped out. Another few years and I’ll be able to ask for a transfer to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, where I won’t have to do a damn thing. I’ll learn to play golf, take a lover – maybe a young secretary? – and happily carry on to the end.”

  “Hey, hey, hold on. What’s happening to you?” It was a stupid question. I knew perfectly well what was happening to him.

  “Nothing. A mid-life crisis, I suppose. Have you already had yours? I’m told they pass.”

  Had I had mine? Yes, I’d had it, and I didn’t know if it really had passed. But compared to him I had an advantage. I’d felt out of place my whole life, so I was used to it. For someone with his convictions it must have been very hard.

  “Anyway, fuck all that.”

  At that moment the waiter came up behind me. We ordered buffalo mozzarella, grilled beef, and red wine from Lucera.

  “I asked a few of my colleagues about Avvocato Macri, but no one’s ever heard of him. I also asked a few defence lawyers I know, but none of them have heard of him either. In itself that’s not particularly strange in a place like Rome. But it’s not quite normal either.”

  No, I thought, it wasn’t normal. The world of criminal lawyers and magistrates, even in a big city like Rome, is a small community. Like a village where everyone knows everyone else. If you live in that village and no one has ever heard of you, something’s not right. It means you don’t work much, or at all. And if that’s the case, how do you make a living?

  “So I thought I’d do a little research in our databank. It contains documentation on all the anti-Mafia investigations, along with all the court proceedings, over the past ten years, in the whole of Italy. I said to myself: if this Macri has defended anyone in that kind of trial, I’ll find him and then we’ll get a better idea of what’s going on.”

  “And did you find him?”

>   The waiter arrived with the wine and filled the glasses. Colaianni emptied his, in a way I didn’t like. Nor did I like the way he refilled it immediately.

  He looked me straight in the eyes. “Obviously this conversation never happened.”

  “I never even came to Foggia.”

  “Good. I found our Signor Corrado Macri. But he wasn’t in our databank as a defence lawyer. He was there as a defendant, arrested three years ago by an examining magistrate in Reggio Calabria, for associating with the Mafia, drug trafficking and a number of minor charges.”

  “What did he do?” As I asked the question, it struck me how the roles people play influence the things we say and even the things we think. If Macri had been my client, I would have asked what he’d been charged with and certainly wouldn’t have taken it for granted that he had done anything.

  Colaianni took a few sheets of paper out of his bag, chose one and started to read the charge sheet.

  “Let’s see… Ah, yes. Corrado Macri, benefiting from his position as defence counsel of a number of prominent members of the organization – there follows a list – and having been specifically appointed for that purpose, acted as a link between the imprisoned bosses of the organization and those still at liberty. In particular, gaining access, thanks to his position as defence counsel, to various penal institutions – there follows a list – in which the above-mentioned were confined, he proceeded to inform them of the most significant events that had happened in the organization, agreed with their plans and criminal operations, and proceeded to communicate to those members still at liberty the decisions and orders of the imprisoned bosses.”

  He stopped – he’d been struggling a bit, and I thought he should have put on his reading glasses – and looked at me.

  “He was the go-between,” I said.

  “Yes. Do you want to know what happened?”

  I wanted to know and he told me. Our friend Macri had been taken into custody on the testimony of two grasses. He had spent several months inside, until one of the grasses changed his story and retracted everything. The case fell apart. Macri was released on the grounds of insufficient evidence. A few months later he opted for the fast-track procedure and was acquitted.

  “And how did he end up in Rome?”

  “I don’t know. After his acquittal he had his name taken off the register of the Reggio Calabria bar association, and for some reason registered in Rome. Where, as I said, he doesn’t seem to put in many appearances in court.”

  He left the last words hanging in the air and again emptied his glass. He refilled it and then refilled mine.

  My brain was working overtime. Macri was the key to the whole thing, I was sure of it now. One way or another, the drugs found in Paolicelli’s car belonged to some of Macri’s clients – or rather, some of his accomplices. When Paolicelli had been arrested, they had sent for the lawyer to keep an eye on what happened, to check what was in the file, to make sure that the investigation didn’t lead back to the drugs’ real owners.

  And then there was the matter of the lifting of the sequestration order. The fact that he had gone personally to get it out of the pound. There must have been something still in the car that the customs police had missed, something that had to be disposed of as quickly as possible.

  That was if Paolicelli really had nothing to do with it. Because it could also be that Macri had been sent by the organization to safeguard a member – Paolicelli – who’d had the misfortune to end up in the clutches of the law.

  I told my friend what I was thinking and he nodded. He had been thinking the same.

  “And now what are you going to do with this information?”

  Right. What was I going to do?

  I said I would have to think about it. Perhaps, with this as a starting point, I could find out more, maybe by hiring a private detective. The fact was, I hadn’t the faintest idea what to do.

  When the time came to say goodbye, Colaianni told me he’d really enjoyed seeing me again and talking to me. He said it in a vaguely frightened tone, as if he didn’t want me to go. I felt both saddened and embarrassed.

  And I wanted to get away. Away from that unexpected fragility, that despair, that sense of defeat.

  As I took the ramp to get onto the autostrada I was thinking about my friend Colaianni.

  About the things he’d said to me – other than the information about Macri – and the glimpses of distress that he could barely conceal. I wondered what would have become of his life – of our lives – by the next time we met.

  Then the half-deserted autostrada swallowed everything.

  21

  What did I want to do with this information? Colaianni had asked me.

  I didn’t know, I’d replied. And it was true, I didn’t. I had no idea what I could do with it. I knew now that Macri was an associate of Mafiosi and drug traffickers. But, when you came down to it, this didn’t greatly improve our situation.

  I didn’t know what to do and that was why I didn’t go to see Paolicelli and tell him what I’d found out. If he was innocent I didn’t want to arouse any unfounded expectations. And if he was guilty – my doubts had returned with a vengeance, as I’d talked to Colaianni-I didn’t want to play the sucker any longer than I had to.

  For the same reason, and for others I didn’t want to admit even to myself, I didn’t call Natsu. Even though I had to restrain the impulse lots of times.

  I thought of calling Tancredi, but then I told myself I’d already taken more than enough advantage of our friendship. And besides, I didn’t know what to say to him, apart from asking him for advice yet again.

  Several days passed in this absurd way.

  Then one evening, as I was leaving my office to go home, I heard my name being called. I looked up and saw Natsu in an off-road vehicle. She gave me a shy smile, and made a gesture with her hand, inviting me to join her. I looked round, like someone who has something to hide, crossed the road and got in the car.

  Yes, I did have something to hide.

  22

  “Shall we drive to the sea?”

  I said yes. We went along streets that were unusually free of traffic. She drove smoothly, sitting comfortably, deep in her seat, both hands on the wheel, her eyes on the road. For a moment it occurred to me that this was the car in which the drugs had been carried. Then I remembered that the police reports had mentioned a different make and model.

  “You’re surprised.”

  It was a statement, not a question. So I didn’t reply, just shrugged my shoulders. I let her talk.

  “I had a job on for tonight. Then something went wrong and it was called off. But there was no time to warn the babysitter. So when she arrived I decided to go out anyway, and I thought maybe you’d like to go for a drive and a chat.”

  That evening I wasn’t exactly talkative. For the first time she took her eyes off the road – we were outside the city now – to see if I was dead or just asleep.

  “Shouldn’t I have?”

  “You did the right thing. I’m pleased.”

  She put on a bit of speed. The engine droned, and the car darted forward. She asked me if there was any news for her husband.

  I felt a twinge of unease at the question. It was an abrupt reminder of the fact that I was a lawyer and she was the wife of a client of mine who was in prison.

  Leaving out a few details – how I’d got hold of the information, and from-I told her what I’d discovered about their former lawyer.

  She listened to me in silence until I’d finished. In the meantime we had stopped on a low cliff over towards Torre del Mare. The surface of the water was as black and calm as ink. In the distance the intermittent beam from a lighthouse could be seen.

  When Natsu was sure I had nothing else to add, she said, “And now what will you do?”

  “I have no idea. In itself the fact that the bastard was arrested – and then acquitted – doesn’t get us anywhere. I mean, I don’t know how to use this information in
court.”

  “But he put himself forward without either of us contacting him. That must surely mean something.”

  “Theoretically, yes. In practice, the only thing that’s clear from the papers on this case is that you appointed him and your husband confirmed the appointment.”

  “But they told me-”

  “I know, I know. But what do we do? Do I call you to testify at the appeal hearing that a man stopped you in the street and advised you to appoint this lawyer you didn’t even know called Macri, and you followed his advice? Apart from the fact that even if it was true-I mean, even if the judges believed it was true – it wouldn’t get us anywhere, the prosecution could simply say that your husband’s accomplices told you which lawyer to appoint. And we’d be in the same position as before, maybe even a bit worse off.”

  I avoided saying that this could be the prosecution’s version, or it could be the plain truth. I was sure she’d thought of that herself.

  At that precise moment I had an idea. It was a crazy idea, but with Natsu still silent, I started thinking about it. Yes, I told myself, it might be worth a try, in fact it might be the only thing we could try. Then she interrupted the course of my thoughts. “You know what the worst thing is for me?”

  “Not knowing the truth?”

  She looked at me in surprise for a few seconds, until she remembered the game of wishes. She searched in her bag, took out a packet of cigarettes, lowered the window and lit one.