Free The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia

crime? Has any document or witness any proof at all which has ever come to light establishing a sure connection between a crime and the so-called mafia? In the absence of such proof, and if we admit that the mafia exists, I'd say it was a secret association for mutual aid, no more and no less than freemasonry. Why don't you put down some crimes to the freemasons? There's the same amount of proof that the freemasons go in for criminal activity as there is that the mafia does.'
    'I believe ...'
    'You just believe me. Take my word for it and, in the position I unworthily hold, God knows if I could deceive you, even if I would ... What I say is this: when you, with the authority vested in you, direct - how shall I put it? - your attention to persons indicated by public opinion as belonging to the mafia merely on the grounds of suspicion, with no concrete evidence that the mafia exists or that any single individual belongs to it, then, in the eyes of God, you are committing unjust persecution. This brings us to the case of Don Mariano Arena ... And, incidentally, of this officer of carabinieri who arrested him without thinking twice, with an irresponsibility unworthy, if I may say so, of the uniform he wears. Let us say with Suetonius: "ne principum quidem virorum insectatione abstinuit ..." In plain language, this means Don Mariano is revered and respected by the whole town, is a bosom friend of mine and - believe me, I know how to choose my friends - he's also highly thought of by the Honourable Member Livigni and by the Minister Mancuso.'

    *

    The twenty-four hours of preliminary arrest had already expired for Marchica and were falling due for Arena and Pizzuco too. At nine o'clock sharp Marchica started pounding on the guardroom door to insist on his rights, of which he was well aware, and was told by the sergeantmajor that the Public Prosecutor had extended his detention for another twenty-four hours. Marchica, more or less reassured as to the form, resigned himself to the substance, or the plank bed on which he lay down again with a certain relief. The sergeantmajor left him, mulling over the fact that Marchica had started agitating exactly at nine o'clock when he had no watch, as this, together with his wallet, tie, belt and shoe-laces, were in a drawer of the office.
    At ten o'clock the sergeantmajor woke Marchica again and returned his belongings. Marchica thought he was about to be released; the combination of sleep, worry and stubble on his face broke into a triumphant grin. But outside the barracks was a car into which the sergeantmajor shoved him. There was already one carabiniere in the back and another one followed Marchica, who found himself squeezed tight between two carabinieri in the back seat of a Fiat 600. He at once invoked the highway code, and the sergeantmajor, already seated beside the driver, was so taken by surprise that he merely changed the subject with an amiable: 'Anyway, you're all thin.'
    At C, Pizzuco and Arena were already in the cells of the Carabinieri Company H.Q. The captain had thought that if he let them stew in their own juice for twenty-four hours, they would be riper for interrogation; a day and a night of discomfort were bound to have their effect on all three men. He began with Marchica.
    Company H.Q; was in an old convent, rectangular, each side with two rows of rooms divided by a corridor, one row with the windows facing inwards on to a courtyard, the other outwards on to the streets. To this unharmonious building the Sicilian statesman Francesco Crispi, and his even more harassed ministry, had added another, ugly and shapeless, which attempted to reproduce, in smaller proportion, the original layout. The result was something like a child's copy of an engineer's design. In place of the courtyard there was a kind of shaft; and the two buildings were connected by a maze of passages and staircases which made it difficult to find one's way about until one knew them really well. It had,