Page 344 of Niccolo

In the end, his performance might have been enough to sway the jury.

Mighthave been…

If I hadn’t been allowed to question him.

As I said, Sofia brought up nearly everything.

But notquiteeverything.

143

Sofia wrapped up nicely.

“As you have heard, Aurelio Rosolini was guilty of the attack on Venice. Not even his father would disagree with that. But Fausto had no prior knowledge of the attack. He certainly did not order it. In fact, it was so poorly executed that no one here can possibly believe a man who was aconsiglierefor 25 years would plan such a thing.

“No… Aurelio acted alone… and now he’s dead. The guilty party has paid for their crimes. I urge you to remember that… and not to punish a grieving father for the sins of his son. Fausto Rosolini has already suffered enough.”

With that, she yielded the floor.

“Your witness, Niccolo,” Don Severino said.

I walked over to within five feet of Fausto.

It was the first time I had seen him this close since Adriano and Bianca’s wedding. Even earlier, during the shouting match in the corridor, he had been almost 50 feet away.

He gazed at me neutrally – a blank mask – as though to tell me,You won’t be provoking ME into something stupid, boy.

My reply?

We’ll see.

“Signorina Toscani covered quite a bit of ground with you earlier,” I said. “I’d actually like to start a bit earlier. You were my mentor. You trained me to be aconsigliere,didn’t you?”

“I was,” Fausto said. “And I did.”

I expected some sort of insult, but my uncle resisted the urge to respond. He was playing this one close to the vest.

Okay… time to draw him out.

“Do you remember what you told me was the most important job of aconsigliere?”I asked.

“No,” he said in a bored voice.

“Would you like to guess?”

He shrugged. “Providing counsel to one’s don?”

“No. The words you told me are seared in my brain because of the great passion with which you spoke them. You said, ‘A goodconsiglierewill always fall on his sword for his don.’”

I noticed there were quite a few approving nods from the variousconsiglieresin the room.

I continued. “You also said that theconsigliereis a shield for his don. He is the firewall, the bulwark, so the police can’t get to the head of the family. If someone at the top has to go to prison, it’s theconsigliere,so that the don and the family can continue to go on.’

“At the time, I asked you if that meant theconsiglierewas a scapegoat.

“You said, ‘In a way – but a scapegoat isforcedto take the blame. Theconsiglieretakes it upon himself willingly. It’s part of the job – acrucialpart of the job, maybe the single most important part. In case of disaster, theconsiglieresacrifices himself for the good of the family. So it’s not being a scapegoat for the don… it’s being theherofor the family.’ Do you remember telling me that?”

“Vaguely,” Fausto replied.

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