Chapter 4
It happened before the first hearing. The young man and Tizzano sat across from each other outside a cafe, planning their strategy.
“Have you ever thought about why Pollo the witness betrayed the gang?”
The young man gave Tizzano’s question some thought but couldn’t come up with a definite answer.
“Probably because he’s a coward. Is there really any proper answer to that?”
“Every factor here has a cause-and-effect relationship. Let’s say Pollo was suspicious of Passione from the start. But if we assume he only decided to betray the gang then, there had to be something that pressured him into making that choice. That’s the natural train of thought.”
“Timing… You think that matters here? Passione’s been growing at a good pace. Even our drug networks are gaining more and more territory…”
Tizzano covered the young man’s lips with a finger.
“That’s it.”
“…What is?”
“By virtue of being a money launderer, Pollo got to see where the gang’s funds were moving, even though he was at the bottom of the food chain. It looks like he also knew where the gang was going to expand to next before it happened. Just before he went running to the police, he learned which place Passione had next on its list…”
“Sicily… Right, that’s where he grew up.”
The young man looked at the file on the table. It explained Pollo’s background in precise detail. Tizzano had hired a private eye to look into him. The man was an only child; his parents had divorced and passed away when he was young.
“Very insightful of you. So, he uses his time off to go to a certain shop on the Sicilian island of Salina every year. It’s just a simple little arancini shop. They researched the wife of this shop’s owner, and… it turns out she’s his half-sister. What’s more, it seems she doesn’t even know about their relationship. We’re going to abduct her and use her to intimidate Pollo. There’s a distinctive ring she always wears—actually gifted to her by Pollo in secret—and I’m going to have the lawyer raise his hand while wearing it. That way, he’ll see it for certain.”
“Are those kinds of intimidation tactics going to work? If Falco knows about Pollo’s little sister…”
“That won’t happen. If Pollo had told the prosecutor all about it, he would have made sure she was under strict protection. But the woman had no such activity around her. Perhaps Pollo was wary of Passione infiltrating the police. Instead of going out of his way to have her guarded, it was safer to not tell anyone about her at all.
Tizzano’s plan bore fruit. At the first public hearing, Pollo had seen the lawyer’s ring and gone pale. But had Pollo thought his younger sister had been captured, or had he understood that the gang was trying to intimidate him into believing they had her? They couldn’t know for sure. The important thing was that he understood that the lawyer knew of his little sister’s existence.
Pollo overturned his testimony on the spot. He did it to protect the one he cared for.
Pollo’s little sister was supposed to have been abducted by people hired by Passione and locked in a warehouse in the market. Despite that, the woman was standing right here before their very eyes.
This can only mean that Falco caught on and had her rescued…
Tizzano looked at the lawyer, covering his mouth with a hand.
The young man recalled what his leader had said.
“…Kill Tizzano. That show-off’s worthless Stand could never be of any use to us.”
It’s now or never…!
The young man dropped his empty thermos. The cylindrical thermos rolled down towards the railing. A guard standing behind the railing picked it up and carried it back to the man.
“Sorry about that.”
When the young man looked up, Pollo had just come up to the witness stand. He held a bottle of mineral water in his hand. It was unopened. He screwed off the top and took a sip. After catching his breath, he began.
“…Please, allow me to make the oath. I solemnly swear to abide by both moral and judicial law and to truthfully share with the court whatever I know.”
“I am Prosecutor Falco. By renewing your oath, do you acknowledge the testimony you gave before to be perjury?”
“Yes.”
Murmurs rippled through the courtroom.
“I know I have brought this court into disarray many times; I do not expect you all to have any trust left in me. Nevertheless, I beg of you—let me speak. There was a reason I couldn’t speak the truth until now.”
“O-Objection, Your Honor!” shouted the lawyer. “T-The witness’s questioning has already come to a close. Having the witness testify again will only confuse the court more! Please have the witness escorted from the stand immediately. C-Court ought to be adjourned for—”
“The defense’s proposition is overruled. Please continue, witness.”
“Thank you very much.”
Pollo dipped his head to the judges.
The lawyer crumpled back into his chair. He looked like a doll, stripped of his soul. As expected, Tizzano looked grim as he sat next to him.
Pollo spoke into the microphone and his voice echoed around the silent courtroom.
“Why have I been unable to speak the truth in today’s trial up until now? My reason is that I have been the target of intimidation by a certain group of people.”
At the word “intimidation”, the courtroom filled with murmurs once again.
“…What a cowardly tactic. They employed such measures in a venerated court of law in order to silence me. ‘Don’t you dare speak the truth—-or else, we’ll kill someone you care about.’ I will declare to you all now who it was that committed this cowardly act…”
Pollo pointed to him with determination in his eyes.
“It was him!”
Every person in the room followed his gaze.
The one Pollo was pointing to was none other than the man at the prosecution bench, Falco.
“…? Mr. Pollo?”
Falco stared with his mouth hanging open, dumbfounded.
“Look at him, everyone. This is the cowardly man who ruined me, the man who set up me and those 32 innocent people as members of Passione, who also took my half-sister hostage—Prosecutor Falco. This is the man I hate most in the entire world!”
The courtroom fell into complete silence.
Nobody could grasp the situation that unfolded before them.
The room was so silent that one could hear a pin drop—until finally, one spectator spoke up.
“Hey… W-What’d that guy just say?”
“He took his half-sister hostage?”
“Falco? He’d never…”
The chatter that filled the courtroom was the loudest it had been since the beginning of the trial. Spectators began back-and-forth discussions with the people around them.
“Order in the court. Quiet, please. Audience!”
Even when the judge yelled loudly enough for his voice to echo, the talking didn’t stop.
“Witness, what did you say just now? Please repeat your statement clearly for everyone to hear.”
“All I did was state the truth. Ever since the beginning of the trial, I have been the victim of Falco’s horrific plot. What occurred in this courtroom today was the most extreme part of the plot. Of all the things the man could intimidate me with, he chose my own half-sister to bring here! It was all done to display my sister as a hostage to me!”
“Wh… What are you saying?! I would never—”
Prosecutor Falco jumped to his feet. No camera had ever captured his visage looking as panicked as it was now. It seemed he truly had no idea what was happening.
The courtroom was filled with chaos.
And it appeared the witness Pollo himself was in a similar state. He covered his mouth, looking panicked at his own testimony. Then, he pointed to Falco once again.
“It was him! He’s the real criminal! Take this goddamned prosecutor out of here in cuffs!”
It seemed only two people in the entire courtroom knew what was going on. One was Tizzano, calmly sitting next to the dumbfounded lawyer.
The other was the young man sitting in the spectator area…
I’ve activated my Stand. Looks like it’s all going as you predicted, Tizza.
He was Squalo, Tizzano’s accomplice. He could see straight into Pollo’s mouth. Something clung to the man’s red tongue as he rambled frantically. It was Tizzano’s Talking Head. Using his own Stand, Clash, Squalo had carried Talking Head to Pollo’s mouth.
Everything had proceeded exactly as Tizzano had laid it out.
They had captured Pollo’s little sister to keep his mouth shut.
And Falco had gotten her back.
It was all as Tizzano had predicted.