Free Involuntary Witness by Gianrico Carofiglio

memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse.
    At dawn I woke up shivering with cold, the taste of tobacco smoke in my mouth. My hand was still clutching the mobile, which I’d stared at interminably before falling asleep, thinking of calling Sara.

12
    The code of criminal procedure requires that at least twenty days elapse between the announcement that inquiries have been concluded and the application for committal for trial. The public prosecutors nearly always take much longer. Months, sometimes.
    Cervellati filed the request for committal on the twenty-first day. Obsessive punctuality was typical of him. You could accuse him of practically everything, but not of letting documents stack up on his desk.
    The preliminary hearing was fixed for early May. The judge was Ms Carenza, and all in all it could have been worse.
    Among us defence lawyers La Carenza was considered one of the good ones. The shortened procedure became an increasingly interesting possibility. Abdou really did have a chance of getting off with twenty years.
    In about 2010, with good conduct, he would be out on parole.
    While I was having these thoughts, still holding the note with the date of the hearing, I had an uneasy feeling. A feeling that stayed with me all day long, without my being able to find a reason for it.
    The same uneasy feeling took hold of me when, a week later, I had to visit Abdou in prison to explain to him why it was to his advantage to accept the shortened procedure, take twenty years or so instead of life, and begin chalking up the days on the wall of his cell.
    Abdou was, or seemed, thinner than last time. He
didn’t want to tell me how he had come by the enormous bruise on his right cheekbone. As he listened to what I had to say, he looked at the grainy lines in the wooden table, without making a single gesture suggesting that he’d understood or wondered what I was talking about. Not so much as a nod. Nothing.
    When I had finished explaining what was the best solution for his case, Abdou remained silent for several minutes. I offered him a Marlboro but he didn’t take it. Instead he pulled out a packet of Diana Red and lit one of those.
    He spoke only when he had finished the cigarette and the silence was becoming unbearable.
    “If we choose the shortened procedure, have I any chance of being acquitted?”
    He was just too intelligent. With the shortened procedure he would be found guilty for sure. I had not told him that but he knew implicitly.
    I felt awkward as I replied.
    “Technically, yes. Theoretically, yes.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that in theory the judge could acquit you, but on the basis of what is in the documents produced by the public prosecutor, which is what the judge will base her decision on if we opt for the shortened procedure, it is extremely unlikely.”
    I paused, and came to the conclusion that I didn’t feel like beating about the bush.
    “Let’s say that it’s practically impossible. On the other hand, with the shortened procedure you’d avoid—”
    “Yes, I’ve understood that. I’d avoid a life sentence. In other words, if we choose the shortened procedure I am certain to be convicted but they’ll give me a discount. Isn’t that it?”

    My embarrassment grew. I felt the blood rising to my face.
    “Yes, that’s it.”
    “And if we don’t choose this shortened procedure, what happens then?”
    “You will be committed for trial before the Court of Assizes. This means you will be tried in public before two judges, and six jurors, who are ordinary citizens. If you are found guilty by the Court of Assizes, you are in danger of life imprisonment.”
    “But I do have a chance of being acquitted?”
    “A slender one.”
    “But more than with the shortened procedure?”
    I didn’t answer at once. I took a deep breath. I passed a hand across my face.
    “More. Not much more, but more. Bear in mind the fact that with the shortened procedure you are