Chapter 24 Section 23

Usually, on Wednesday nights every week, the phone rings.I knew who he was without waiting for him to speak.I could hear him smoking a cigar and I wasn't supposed to be talking to him and he wasn't supposed to be talking to me.He would never say his name, and we all have our concerns. "Are you okay?" he asked. "good." "And you?" "It's okay." "This thing is really messy!" "You still need to say." He smiled, "I really don't need to say it. Well, is there anything I can do for you?" "It's nothing. It's good that you can call me and ask me."

"Well, I'm confident you'll be able to start again soon." "I know. What about you? How are you?" "Let's mix it up." "Is Schmid still watching you?" I asked.Schmid is his boss. "He's always been like that, whatever!" "Did they make things difficult for you?" "These villains? How can you not embarrass me." Life is not easy for Liplanzer, I know.Mei Ke had called me several times, and she said that the police station transferred him back to the headquarters and revoked his position as special commissioner in the prosecutor's office.Schmid made him sit in his office all day and write reports for other police officers.He was probably about to be driven crazy, but he would never reveal his true thoughts in the police station.He has to control his emotions because there are many people waiting to see his bad luck.It's really bad luck for him now, these policemen have always thought that Liplander was covering me.

"I'll call you next week," he said every time he was about to hang up. He did.Although our conversations were the same every time, after more than a month, when everyone saw that the case was really serious, he offered to lend me money. He knew that litigation was very expensive. I told him that Barbara had settled the money problem.He said it would be nice to marry a Jewish woman who could save money. This week, I've been waiting half the day when the phone rings. "Are you okay?" he asked. "It's okay." I said. Barbara suddenly picked up the extension in the other room and overheard our conversation.

"It's me, Barbara," I said aloud. She was unaware of my weekly landline conversation with Liplanzer, and she simply said "Hello, Liplanzer" and put the phone down. "What's the situation now?" "We're going to start court in three weeks," I said. "Maybe sooner." "I know, I read the newspaper." We were all silent for a while.Dan Liplanzer is about to testify.This is very bad for me, we all know that, but we all have no choice.After the election, Liplandzer was questioned by Morteau without knowing anything about it.I knew his answer would have been no different had he known it at the time.He is an honest man, always seeking truth from facts, which is what he asks of himself.

"So, are you ready?" he asked. "We're all working hard to prepare. Stern is really good, he's the best lawyer I've ever seen." "That's what they say." Then, he paused for a moment, and I heard the sound of a lighter igniting, "Is there anything you need?" "It really is." I said.I planned it before, if he didn't ask me this question this time, then I wouldn't take the initiative to bring it up. "Go ahead," he told me. "I have to find this man named Neo, Neo Wells, you know, the man who bribed the prosecutor in the North District Bureau, the same person who wrote the report letter, Caroline and Morteau The guy who's been investigating. Stern hired a private investigator and found nothing. The private investigator says this guy doesn't even exist. I don't know what to do. I can't go to Tommy Mo Alto ask."

The private eye was Ned Portman, and Stern said he was great, but he didn't seem to know what he was doing.I gave him a copy of that document and three days later he said he couldn't help.He said, "My God! The Northern District is such a mess these days, you can't find anything. I can only wish you luck." Really, in a place like that, you can't track down everyone. What did you do. Liplanzer thought about my request for a long time, longer than I expected.But I knew he was worried. If the police found out that he was secretly helping me, they would fire him directly.Then his fifteen years of hard work, his pension, would all be in vain.

"If it weren't for the fact that this matter is really important, I would never ask you." "Why does it matter?" he asked. "You think Molteau is up to no good in this matter? To set you up so that you can't investigate this case?" I could tell, though he didn't mean to accuse me. But he still felt that my idea was indeed a little too far. "I don't know what to say. Do you want to hear what I really think? That's what I think. Whether he framed me or not, but if we can find out about this, it will definitely bring him down because That sort of thing always gets the jury's attention."

He was silent again. "After I testify in court," he said. "You know, those people are watching me all the time. I don't want them to ask questions and wait for me to make mistakes. After I'm in court, They will relax their surveillance on me. At that time, I will investigate again, and I will definitely find out the truth, okay?" not good!By then, it will be too late, but my request of him is already too much. "Good! You are my friend." "You'll be fine soon," he said, and then, "I bet." It's the summer season of baseball again.Fortunately, in this arena, there is no difference in status level.In the evening of August, the air was dull, and these young players seemed to be a little confused about the direction of the flying balls.The heavy rain poured down, and they ran and fell to their heart's content in the rain.The progress of the girls is more obvious, and they are maturing in throwing and swinging skills, while the boys can't even touch the ball for a long time.It is completely useless for you to tell them how to control the strength when swinging the bat. These eight-year-old boys have used their strength to swing the bat, thinking that the stronger the better, they seem to see the dawn of victory. in sight.To them, you're saying a hundred times to hit the ball as close to the ground as possible, it doesn't make any sense.

Surprisingly, Knight seems to be an exception.This summer, he changed, he began to listen carefully to other people's words.He seems to have just begun to realize his own strength, and he has also begun to understand that the way he does things will affect other people's evaluation of him.Every time he hits a bat, I can see him lift his eyes and look at the field.On the one hand, it may be that he imitated the actions of baseball players on TV; on the other hand, it may be that he slowly enlightened himself.In addition, he began to gradually pay attention to his appearance.Barbara said he seemed to be more particular about his attire.Although I am very happy about his changes, I can't help worrying about the reasons behind his sudden maturity.According to his age, he should still be ignorant.I think he started paying attention to the world around him because he knew it was causing a lot of trouble to his father.

After the game was over, we went home first.While no one would be so cold-blooded as to refuse us a post-race picnic, we figured it would be better not to.We went once after I was charged, and it was like a day, and if someone accidentally said something—like things in the prosecutor's office, or a crime movie on TV like my case—it was The most common topic, but it will lead to awkward silence.I know we can never go to a picnic again.Those men are generous enough to accept my presence, but it's not good for the kids.On such occasions, we can't avoid thinking about what may happen in the next few months. If I am convicted, how will I explain to others where I went and what I did.In the end, we don't think it's necessary to spend a great evening in a state of trepidation.So, after the game, Knight and I would give them a friendly wave.I took the bat and gloves, and Nate stepped on the dandelions on the side of the road and bounced around me.

Knight never had any complaints, which touched me, my son was so sweet to me, God knows how his friends made fun of him.As an adult, I can't imagine the ridicule and vicious attacks he endured from his peers.I was the source of all this pain for him, but he didn't abandon me.He wasn't a headstrong kid, but when he was with me, he acted a little wayward.He would drag me up from the couch to go ice skating with him, and he would insist on going with me when I went out at night to pick up the newspaper and buy milk.He wasn't scared at all when we walked through the woods on the estate together. "Are you afraid?" I asked him suddenly as we were walking on the road. "You mean, if you were found guilty, would I be scared?" The stress of the trial was on the horizon, and even my eight-year-old son understood what I really meant by the question. "yes." "Not afraid." "why?" "Just don't be afraid. Don't worry about these messy things, okay?" He raised his head and squinted at me from under the brim of his baseball cap. "How to say?" "They'll have a court session and you go and tell them what the hell happened and then it'll be over. That's what mum said." Alas, my heart is going to explode: that's what Mom said.I reached out and put my arms around my son's shoulders, amazed by the confidence he had in his mother.I can't imagine how many heart-to-heart exchanges they had to have before she could have him so firmly on my side.Sometimes it feels like a miracle to me what Barbara does alone.As a family, we are bound together.My favorite in the world is Nate, and his favorite is his mother.Although he is only eight years old, he is full of energy and likes to lose his temper, but the kind of obedient and sensible in front of his mother is something he would never show in front of anyone else.He only allowed her to hold him alone for a long time, and there was a special kind of tacit communication and intimacy between them, which seemed to be deeper than the relationship between other mothers and children.He was more like her than me, easily excitable and intelligent, but sometimes dark and withdrawn.And her love for him was just as passionate, and she thought about him all the time.So when she said it was impossible for her to have the same feelings for another child, I took her word for it. They both feel bad when they are apart from each other.Last summer, Barbara went to Detroit for four days to see a college classmate of hers, Yetta Graf, who is now a professor of mathematics.Barbara called home twice a day, but Knight was still morose all day long.The only time I can get him to go to bed at night is when I imagine with him what his mom and Yeta are doing right now. I told him that they should be eating in a very quiet restaurant at this time.They ate fish, fish boiled in a little butter.They drank a glass of red wine each.When it's time for dessert, they will all get hungry and order some good things they really want to eat. "Pies?" Knight asked. "Well, pie," I said. This is my son, the son I've been thinking about, peacefully falling asleep thinking of his mom eating dessert.