A Walk in the Dark Read Online Free

Fortunately, the case was assigned to Prosecutor Mantovani, who’s been working on it. She investigated as much as she could, listened to the woman, got hold of the medical reports, and then put in a request for the bastard to be arrested.”
    “On what charge?”
    “Actual bodily harm and threatening behaviour. But it was useless. The judge rejected the request, saying there were no grounds for arrest. This is where things get interesting. Sister Claudia is here to ask you if you’re prepared to take on the woman’s case and bring
a civil action. Two of your colleagues have already refused. A malicious gossip might say for the same reason the judge refused to arrest the man.”
    I asked him to explain, and he told me a name. I made him repeat it, to make sure I’d understood. When I was certain we were talking about the same person, I let out a kind of whistle, but didn’t say anything.
    Tancredi told me the rest. As soon as her request for the man to be arrested had been rejected, Assistant Prosecutor Mantovani had asked for him to be committed for trial. When he’d received the summons to appear, he’d gone and waylaid the woman outside her mother’s apartment building.
    He had told her she could report him as many times as she liked, nothing would happen to him. Because nobody would ever have the courage to touch him. And he’d added that he’d pull her to pieces in court.
    That was why she needed a lawyer. Because she was scared but didn’t want to turn back now.
    Tancredi also told me the names of the two colleagues of mine the woman had turned to before me. One of them had said he was sorry, but on principle he didn’t take on civil cases. I knew him well and wondered if he even knew the meaning of the word principle .
    The second one had said he had too much work on at the moment and so, unfortunately, he couldn’t take on the case. Unfortunately, of course.
    By now, the woman was desperate and terrified. She didn’t know what to do. She had talked to Sister Claudia, and Sister Claudia had talked to Tancredi. To get his advice. He’d mentioned my name and they’d come to see me. Without the woman. They hadn’t even told her about this meeting, because if I refused too, Sister Claudia didn’t want her to know.
    That was the story so far. I shouldn’t feel obliged to
take on the case, Tancredi said. If I refused, they’d understand. And they were sure that if I did refuse I wouldn’t talk about questions of principle or having too much work.
    Silence.
    I looked at Sister Claudia. She didn’t look like someone who’d understand . No way.
    I passed my hand over my face, against the grain of my beard, which had grown a bit since morning. Then I pinched my cheek four or five times, between index finger and thumb, still scratching my beard.
    In the end I gave a self-satisfied grin and shrugged my shoulders. No problem, I said. I was a lawyer and one client was just like another. As I said it, I knew I was talking bullshit.
    It seemed to me that Sister Claudia’s features relaxed almost imperceptibly, with something like relief. Tancredi smiled slightly, looking like someone who’d never had any doubt how the game would turn out.
    There wasn’t much else to say for the moment. The woman had to come to the office in order to sign the forms agreeing to have me represent her. And in order for us to meet, obviously, seeing as I was about to become her lawyer. Then I would go to the Public Prosecutor’s department to make copies of the file. I wouldn’t have long to study it all. The trial was due to start in three weeks’ time. I asked Sister Claudia to leave me a telephone number, and after a moment’s hesitation she wrote the number of a mobile phone on a piece of paper.
    “It’s my number. The telephone’s always on.”
    When they’d gone, I leaned back against the door and looked up at the ceiling. I made the gesture of searching in my pockets for the packet of cigarettes that wasn’t