This is odd. Ugo didn’t let anyone else drive his car.
“The hair was Father Andreou’s?” the judge asks.
“It was.”
Yet there’s an odd hitch in the way he says it. And in that hitch, a dark intuition slips through me. I have made an immense mistake.
Corvi stares at the lab report. “We were able to match it to a blood sample given at Rebibbia Prison three years ago.”
Dread falls over me like a shadow.
“The name on the blood sample,” Corvi says, “is Alexander Andreou.”
Mignatto’s brow pinches. He looks up, registering what he believes is an error. Then he turns on me, ashen.
I’m mute. The judges are staring.
“A recess,” Mignatto coughs out. He turns to the judges. “Please, Monsignors. I need a brief recess.”
* * *
IN THE COURTYARD, MIGNATTO paces silently. Glaring down from the niches of Saint Peter’s are marble saints taller than two-story buildings.
“Monsignor, I needed to see the car,” I say. “I didn’t know—”
“You broke into the impound garage?” he says, still pacing.
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
I won’t drag Gianni into this. “Yes.”
Mignatto chops the air with his hand, dividing each moment into particles of time. “When you were there, you took Nogara’s phone from his car?”
“No.”
He stops. “Then where did it come from?”
“Health Services.”
He’s nearly speechless. “What have you done?”
“I thought—”
“You thought what? That no one would notice?”
“I was trying to help Simon.”
“Enough! Was this your plan all along? You and your uncle? To decide the outcome of this trial yourselves?”
“Of course not.”
He steps closer. “Do you understand what the promoter of justice is doing to us in there?”
I don’t know what he means. The prosecution got nothing out of Guido and Gino Pei.
When I say as much, though, Mignatto explodes.
“Don’t be naïve! He got exactly he wanted out of Canali. And what he did with the driver was ingenious.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Who ordered the drivers not to keep their logs? Who would’ve put drivers under oath? Well, who else? The car service reports to your uncle.”
“You’re reading too much into this.”
“Then tell me: what was the point of Guido Canali’s testimony? Canali saw nothing. He never laid eyes on your brother or Nogara or the crime scene. So why call him as a witness?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because he saw you, Father. Because he could testify that your brother’s first reaction wasn’t to call the police but to call his family. The incident report says the gendarmes thought you both called for help, because you arrived before they did. You bribed Canali using tickets from your uncle. Don’t you see the scenario the promoter has begun to paint?”