The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston, Mario Spezi Page B

of thought, said, “It’s a pack of cigarettes, obviously.”
    “I’m sorry, but isn’t it
empty
?”
    Vigna agreed that it was.
    “Then,” said the Sardinian, “it is not a pack of cigarettes. It
was
a pack of cigarettes. Now it is merely a pack. And now, may I ask another favor? Please take it in hand and crush it.”
    Curious to see where Vinci was leading, Vigna took up the pack and crushed it into a ball.
    “There!” said Francesco, showing a mouth full of white teeth. “And now it is no longer even a pack. Your evidence, sir, is like this: you can crush and mangle it to fit any theory you like, but it will always remain the same: empty speculation—never proof.”
    The nephew Antonio proved just as smart. Not only did he stand up to the interrogations, but at his trial for possession of unregistered firearms he acted as his own lawyer. He pointed out that the guns had not been found in his house, but some distance from it, and that no evidence had been presented that connected him with the firearms in question. Might they not have been planted, perhaps, as a way to imprison him so that he could be pitted against his uncle in a scheme of interrogation?
    He promptly won his case and was released.

CHAPTER 14
    A s time went on, it became increasingly difficult to justify the imprisonment of Franceso Vinci. With his nephew’s acquittal and the failure of interrogators to get any of their questions answered, it was only a matter of time before they had to let him go.
    Frustrated at the lack of progress, the examining magistrate himself, Mario Rotella, decided to personally interrogate Stefano Mele and make one last attempt to extract information from him. Before making the journey to Verona, Rotella prepared himself well. In a heavy folder he collected a mass of testimony that he had gleaned from old interrogations regarding the 1968 murders, including statements made by little Natalino and his father, Stefano Mele, Mele’s brother and his three sisters, and a brother-in-law. He also collected telling statements from more recent interrogations of various participants. He was convinced that the 1968 crime was a clan killing, and that everyone who had participated knew who had taken home the gun. They all knew the identity of the Monster of Florence. Rotella was determined to break the wall of silence.
    The new interrogation took place on January 16, 1984. Rotella asked Mele if Francesco Vinci participated in the killings. Mele responded, “No, Francesco Vinci was not with me the night of August 21, 1968. I accused him only to get back at him for being the lover of my wife.”
    “Tell me, then: who
was
with you that night?”
    “Now I don’t remember.”
    He was clearly and deliberately lying. Somebody—the Monster, perhaps—had a tenacious hold over him. Why? What secret did Mele fear more than prison?
    Rotella returned to Florence. The press assumed his mission had failed. In reality he had in his file a scrap of paper, handwritten, much soiled, which had been folded and unfolded a hundred times, which he had found hidden in Stefano Mele’s wallet. It was a document he considered of the utmost importance.
    On January 25, 1984, Rotella sent out word that he would hold an important press conference at 10:30 a.m. in his office the following day. On the twenty-sixth his office was packed with reporters and photographers, most of whom were convinced they would hear the announcement of the release of Francesco Vinci.
    Rotella had a surprise in store for them. “The examining magistrate,” he read in his pompous voice, “with the agreement of the public minister of the province of Florence, has taken into custody two people for the crimes attributed to Francesco Vinci.”
    Two hours after the sensational press conference
La Nazione
was first on the newsstands with an extra edition. The headline spanned the entire front page.
    ARRESTED!
THE MONSTERS ARE TWO
    Above the fold, under the nine-column headline, were