The Cold Summer

by Gianrico Carofiglio

  QUESTION Why did you ask him for these weapons? Did you not have enough already?

  ANSWER Not enough to safeguard us against possible emergencies. My idea was that in order to act with relative safety, it was necessary to have at least a couple of weapons per head.

  QUESTION What did you do then?

  ANSWER At that point we had to organize the expeditions to Bari. As we would have to come from outside and then get away quickly, we needed an easily identifiable objective which would not require lengthy preparation. That was why we chose Gennaro Carbone, known as the Cue, who was easy to find outside the amusement arcade in Palese that he ran for Grimaldi.

  QUESTION Before going into details, could you give us an overview of the actions undertaken in your war with Grimaldi?

  ANSWER We launched five excursions from Pescara to Bari and the immediate vicinity. On the first, we killed Gennaro Carbone; on the second, we drove for a few hours between Palese, Santo Spirito and Enziteto, but could not find anyone to hit; on the third, we found Francesco Andriani, although he noticed us and managed to get away inside a building; on the fourth, we went to a jewellers’ shop in San Girolamo that belonged to Grimaldi, although officially it was in someone else’s name, and robbed it; on the fifth, there was a shootout in Enziteto between us and some of Grimaldi’s men.

  QUESTION I notice that you do not include the kidnapping of Nicola Grimaldi’s son in the list.

  ANSWER Because I had nothing to do with that.

  QUESTION Let me point out to you that the temporal coincidence between your attacks on the Grimaldi clan and the abduction of the son of that clan’s boss makes it hard to believe that you had no involvement in such a serious incident. I invite you to reflect on your answer.

  ANSWER As you have been able to observe in these first interviews, I have already accused myself of crimes of which I was not even suspected and for which – without the benefits of cooperation – I would be liable to life imprisonment. It would be absurd to deny that incident if my friends and I were genuinely responsible for it. I would not gain any advantage, on the contrary I would run the risk – if evidence against me emerged from other sources – of losing all the benefits of cooperation.

  QUESTION Why did you not tell us immediately that you had no involvement in that incident?

  ANSWER I could say that nobody has asked me about it specifically over the past four days. Of course, I knew perfectly well that this was one of the matters in which you were and are most interested. I chose not to deny responsibility for kidnapping the Grimaldi boy immediately, as soon as I appeared before you, because I was afraid that beginning in this way would arouse an instinctive mistrust on your part. I wanted to tell you immediately about the most serious acts I have committed in order to make it clear that my decision to cooperate with the law is definite and irrevocable, thinking that after such statements it would be easier to convince you that I was not involved in the kidnapping.

  QUESTION If you and your friends did not kidnap young Grimaldi, who could have done it?

  ANSWER I have asked myself that question, too, but have not come up with an answer. If the kidnappers belong to the underworld, I feel duty-bound to say that they are mad. If their identities are discovered, Grimaldi will inevitably take his revenge. Apart from anything else, for something like that he could ask for help from anybody, inside or outside the region. Everybody would help him. In short, once identified, the people responsible for that act would be hunted down without mercy.

  QUESTION So what do you think?

  ANSWER I think it could have been a pervert, someone who did not know whose child the boy was.

  QUESTION Did you know a ransom was paid?

  ANSWER No. This is the first I have heard of it.

  QUESTION Are you really sure you have nothing to do with the incident? In the criminal circles of which you have been talking, everyone is convinced that you and your friends were responsible.

  ANSWER I realize that, and I would think the same thing, but I can only repeat that I was not involved.

  QUESTION Have you ever been involved in a kidnapping?

  ANSWER Yes, a lightning kidnapping.

  QUESTION What is a lightning kidnapping?

  ANSWER A criminal activity developed in the area of Andria and Cerignola, which has spread here in the last few years. It is very simple. To explain it, I will describe the one that I myself carried out with Simone Losurdo.

  QUESTION The same Simone Losurdo who was later killed by Grimaldi and his men?

  ANSWER Yes. We knew a meat wholesaler who did most of his business off the books and so had a lot of cash at his disposal. We grabbed his son on the outskirts of Triggiano, where he lived, just as he was about to get into his car. Immediately afterwards, we telephoned the father and told him that we wanted fifty million within an hour. If we did not get it, we would cut the boy’s throat. We got the boy to talk to him on the telephone to demonstrate that it was not a joke. If he handed over the money, his son would be released immediately, completely unharmed. Needless to say, we told him not to get in touch with the police or the Carabinieri. I should point out that the technique of lightning kidnapping involves asking for a relatively low sum that can easily be found. In this particular case, we were sure that the man had that sum in cash, because of what I have just told you.

  QUESTION How did it go?

  ANSWER Like clockwork. We told the wholesaler to wrap the money in newspaper and put it under a dustbin. One of my men went to pick it up, we checked that the amount was what we had asked for and that the notes were good, then we released the young man in the country, informing the father that he could go and collect him. After getting the money, I paid the share owing to Grimaldi, according to the rules. The crime had been committed in the territory of which he was the boss. Given my position, I could engage in operations of this kind without informing him in advance and without asking for his permission, but I still had to pay him the regulation ten per cent.

  QUESTION How old was the young man you kidnapped? ANSWER He was an adult, about twenty. As I said, he was just getting into his car when we went up to him and threatened him at gunpoint.

  QUESTION Do you know if the kidnapping was reported? ANSWER No. In fact, I do not think any of these kidnappings were ever reported. I suspect it is a crime that does not even figure in the police statistics. Apart from anything else, you generally choose someone who has something to hide and would find it hard to justify the availability of all that cash, like that wholesaler, who is a big tax evader. As I said, he did almost everything off the books and would certainly not have wanted anybody to ask questions about how he had managed to get his hands on fifty million in less than an hour. In short, I cannot think of a single case where things did not work out.

  QUESTION Apart from that of young Grimaldi.

  ANSWER Apart from that of young Grimaldi, of course. Among us it was said that lightning kidnapping was the perfect crime, because it paid well, it paid quickly and it was almost impossible to verify. We knew that some people in the police and the Carabinieri were aware of the phenomenon, but we were not worried because, I repeat, it is a crime that leaves no trace, and we were sure that neither the kidnap victims nor their family members who had paid the ransom would ever say anything. Apart from the general and widespread fear of organized crime in the territories in which we were active – I very much doubt that a similar criminal procedure would work in areas where organized crime and a general climate of intimidation are less dominant; I certainly would not have risked an operation of that kind in Florence, for example, or Bologna – there was the sense of vulnerability that came from having suffered a kidnapping so close to home, and also the impression of having had a narrow escape, in fact of having got away relatively unscathed. My understanding is that anyone who had been subjected to something like that would want to forget it as soon as possible.

  QUESTION You said that there were members of the police and the Carabinieri who were a
ware of the phenomenon. How had they found out about it?

  ANSWER I have a feeling that a number of carabinieri – I do not know from which department – asked a few questions and received confirmation of the existence of the phenomenon.

  QUESTION I put it to you that the modus operandi you describe in such detail corresponds to the initial phase of the kidnapping of young Grimaldi.

  ANSWER I know: it was the usual method, although sometimes, instead of the relatives being phoned directly, it was a go-between who was called. Having said that, I can only confirm what I have repeatedly stated today: I cannot tell you about something I did not do. I would like to point out that I came to you to cooperate after learning of the discovery of the child’s body. I had hoped that whoever had taken him would have returned him. First of all because I hoped that the boy would return home, then because in this way my responsibility, which everyone seemed to be taking for granted, would be ruled out. The child himself would have said – perhaps not to you, but certainly to his father – that I was not the person who had taken him. Among other things he knew me well, since I had been to his house many times and had even eaten there. When I heard that the boy was dead, I realized that my only option was to cooperate with the law, to save myself in general and to be able to say, with some likelihood of being believed, that I had no involvement in that incident. If I had not handed myself in, I would have been hunted down forever, and not just by Grimaldi’s men.

  At this point, at the request of the defence lawyer who wishes to confer privately with her client, the interview is briefly suspended at 19.15 and resumed at 19.30 in the presence of the same persons.

  QUESTION Do you have anything to add concerning the kidnapping of young Grimaldi?

  ANSWER No. My lawyer has also asked me to think it over and to tell the truth, in case I was keeping silent about anything. I confirm all the statements I have made until now, with no modification.

  At 19.40 the transcript is read, approved by those present, and signed.

  12

  D’Angelo and Fenoglio met up in the captain’s office. Valente had had to leave for an unspecified engagement but had made his office – obviously the most comfortable in the station – available to them.

  “What do you think?” D’Angelo asked, collapsing into an armchair. “Do you believe him?”

  Fenoglio suppressed the impulse to tell her that right from the start he’d had his doubts that Lopez and his men had been responsible for the kidnapping.

  Don’t take an investigation as an opportunity to show that you’re better than anybody else, he often told himself. It’s one of the reasons – perhaps the main reason – why the worst mistakes are made, why innocents end up behind bars and criminals are left at large.

  It was true, though: he’d had his doubts from the start, although he had then dismissed the thought as an example of his tendency to doubt everything, and in particular to distrust overly obvious solutions. The fact is that the most obvious solutions are usually the right ones. In most cases, human actions and conduct follow consistent lines and things are just as they seem. Consequently, most cases are solved that way, taking note of the statistical data and applying it to concrete situations. The vast majority of murders are committed by male individuals known to their victims. This is the obvious premise of any investigation into a violent death, one that any detective has to take into account in formulating and verifying his hypotheses. Almost always, the facts match the statistics, and this shouldn’t be forgotten.

  Almost always. This, too, shouldn’t be forgotten.

  “He strikes me as credible. Of course, it isn’t easy to admit you’re responsible for the death of a child, irrespective of the practical consequences. So his argument – what would I gain by denying it, given that I’ve already accused myself of crimes that would get me a life sentence? – makes sense but isn’t conclusive. There are things that are hard to admit because they might damage the image you have of yourself. For example: I’m a criminal, but I don’t harm women or children. Having said that, I believe him. Apart from anything else, what he says is convincing: if it does turn out to be them – maybe one of the Losurdos decides to cooperate – Lopez will lose everything. He’s intelligent, and I don’t think he’d run that kind of risk.”

  D’Angelo lit another cigarette. She said mechanically, yes, thank you, to the corporal who had looked in to ask if they wanted a coffee, and arranged a strand of hair with the ring finger of the hand holding the cigarette.

  “What if he’s denying it because he’s afraid of Grimaldi’s revenge?”

  “He must be afraid of that anyway. He’s killed several of his men, stolen cocaine from him, ruined his reputation in the underworld and will soon be sending him to prison. That strikes me as more than sufficient reason for Grimaldi to want him dead.”

  “You’re right. It’s just that I was sure I could close the case of the Grimaldi boy and I’m finding it hard to resign myself to the fact that now I can’t.”

  “I understand that. But we don’t have to resign ourselves to not catching the kidnappers.”

  D’Angelo breathed in the smoke and, with the same gesture as before, again arranged the strand of hair, pushing it behind her ear.

  “Actually, there’s absolutely nothing to link Lopez and his partners to the kidnapping. Not the hint of a clue. It can’t be said that we’ve neglected anything in order to give credibility to Lopez at all costs. We’ve asked him, we’ve insisted, and he’s said it wasn’t him, while accusing himself of very serious crimes in which he wasn’t even a suspect. I think that proves Lopez’s reliability, and we can proceed against Grimaldi and the others. The lawyers may create a bit of a fuss, but there’s nothing they can actually use against him.”

  “That’s right.”

  It was right. Why, then, did he feel ill at ease? Actually, it wasn’t a difficult question. They would keep listening to Lopez’s stories; they would investigate and find the necessary corroborative evidence; they would arrest a whole lot of people, dealing a fatal blow to a criminal organization as despicable as it was dangerous. But the darkest of all the things that had happened lately would remain outside the reassuring circle of those investigations that give meaning to events and assuage anxieties.

  Fenoglio knew perfectly well that the kidnapping would obsess him until they managed to solve it. The problem was: there was no certainty that they would. There never is.

  The corporal came in with their coffees and two small Neapolitan tarts on a tray.

  “You shouldn’t show me these things,” D’Angelo said, smiling nervously and picking up her tart. “I have a sweet tooth and I’m fat.”

  Then she drank the coffee and lit yet another cigarette. She really did smoke too much, Fenoglio thought. Just like Serena.

  Serena. A stab of pain in his stomach. God alone knew where she was right now.

  “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you for some time,” D’Angelo said, interrupting this painful thought at birth. “You’re Piedmontese, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, from Turin.”

  “It’s a silly question, but I’ll ask it anyway, because Beppe Fenoglio is one of my favourite writers. Any relation?”

  “In my family, some used to say that we were distant relatives. Frankly, I’ve never believed it. When you have the same name as a famous person and come from the same area there’s always someone in the family who says you’re related. It’s a way of making yourself feel important.”

  D’Angelo played with her half-smoked cigarette, looking at the embers as if they hid a crucial mystery. “You do look alike, though.”

  13

  At 15.30 on 23 May 1992, in Bari, at the offices of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Carabinieri, Vito Lopez, whose particulars have already been stated in other documents, appears before the Public Prosecutor as represented by Assistant Prosecutor Gemma D’Angelo, assisted in the drafting of the current document by Sergeant Ignazio Calcaterra, and a
lso in the presence, for the purposes of the investigation, of Captain Alberto Valente, Marshal Pietro Fenoglio and Corporal Antonio Pellecchia, all detectives in the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Carabinieri of Bari. Also present is Lopez’s defence lawyer, Avvocato Marianna Formica.

  QUESTION Let us resume from where we left off yesterday.

  ANSWER I repeat, as I already mentioned in the previous interview, that we made five excursions to Bari and the surrounding area to strike members of the Grimaldi clan. The strategy, if it can be called that, was very simple. Every now and again we would steal a car, always in the Pescara area. We would choose models with powerful engines but small in size, to reduce the risk of being stopped by the law enforcement agencies.

  QUESTION What do you mean?

  ANSWER What the police and Carabinieri pay greatest attention to at roadblocks are eye-catching cars with powerful engines, with several male individuals on board. So we would procure turbo versions of small cars such as the Peugeot 205 or the Fiat Uno, the same models that are often used for robberies. I should make it clear that after carrying out the operation we would return to the Pescara area in which we had stolen the cars and leave them on the street in such a way that the owners could recover them and police would think that the theft had been an act of bravado. We counted on the fact that in such cases no detailed investigation is conducted and the vehicle is immediately restored to the owner. With the same aim of not being noticed and not being stopped, whenever we left on these excursions we dressed smartly, in jackets and ties. This, too, reduced the risk of being stopped.

  QUESTION What would you have done if you had been stopped?

  ANSWER We would have slowed down, as if about to pull up, then accelerated abruptly and driven away. I cannot tell you what we would have done if we had been shot at. We were in such a state of excitement that we might even have returned fire.