The police have discovered the body of a retired ambassador, returned after years of absence, in his remote farmhouse, after he had called them about the discovery of an item (a stolen painting) rolled up in the attic.

Meanwhile, interrogation of the medicine rep from Verona clarifies that he had not seen the railway staff, but rather their murderers rolling up a "carpet" (actually the painting) in the station.

The investigation proceeds with an old friend of the "suicide," a professor Franzo who reveals more about the telephone conversations they had exchanged before the ambassador's death.

The judge insists unreasonably that the police Commissioner and Carabinieri should give him cast iron evidence if he is to proceed with any case, as in his view all he heard were conjectures.

They appear to have relied on the local parish priest Don Cricco to oversee the mainly abandoned family properties in the area.