Chapter 6 chapter Five

Luis Gallas sounded like a decent man, although he had been a fraud and could still be a fraud.This is the end, Max thought, Louis became a bank robber and ruined his career. Just hand the teller a note that says, "Don't panic. This is a robbery. Get all your fifty-dollar bills and hundred-dollar bills out at once. I'll I'll tell you what to do next." Louis said he typed the note on a typewriter at an office supply store and copied it.Max asked him how much he had robbed, so he could gauge how much hope he had. "Twenty thousand," Louis said. "I can get away with it." He managed the first seven banks very smoothly, and got a total of more than 20,000 yuan.People think banks are always the place to make a lot of money, he said.No, none of the bank robbers he had seen in Stark Prison were professional robbers, most of them were insane. "The next bank I got seventeen hundred dollars in loose checks and five hundred bundles from the teller, if only I didn't have the stack. It was a pack of paint. I took it to the street and it exploded. It was red paint and it covered my hands and arms all the way down the front of my clothes. But I walked away." Max asked if the paint could be washed off.Louis said: "It can be washed off, but some banknotes were dyed pink because I didn't do it properly. You can try it for 20,000 yuan, but I dare not. They came up with such an idea. Follow me and you will know." The cops came to my door. I was sentenced to eight years. I actually sat for forty-six months. Back in Miami, I was caught again, saying I violated the bail rules for fraud, and I used someone else's credit card. Look, I robbed a bank, got bail, got another two and a half years for breaking bail, and the judge was a good guy. He put the time on the bank robbery and I went away."

What should I say about this?All this sounds reasonable, and the attitude of speaking is still calm. If you are arrested for committing this crime, you will go to jail. He said he was at the Florida prison--he called it Stark or Florida prison--fixing cars, the food wasn't bad, and he got on well with his cellmates.It was an old guy from Miami who killed his wife.According to what the old guy said, his wife nagged him all day long, but he couldn't take it anymore. Max asked, "How did he kill her?" Renee called just now, and he listened to her rambling for twenty minutes before putting down the phone.Louis said the guy smothered her with a pillow. "He held up the pillow and asked, 'Are you finished?' She started scolding him, and he pressed the pillow to her face, pressed it for a while, and then picked it up again. 'Are you finished?' She continued to curse , until he picked up the pillow for the last time, and she was completely finished."

Max believes it can happen, and you get it done on a whim.The embarrassment is that Louis is a habitual offender.Auto theft in Ohio, affray in Texas, fraud and bank robbery here in Florida.Louis was a weather-beaten forty-seven, with dark curly hair that had turned grey;Three prison sentences only cost him seven years of his life, and Louis didn't think it made him too downcast when he talked about this.Actually six years and ten months.Sounds like a pushover, doesn't it?Louis never complained or acted disapprovingly. It was his eyes that revealed the secrets of his heart. Max noticed, those dazed eyes seemed to have lost their energy, but they were aware of everything.Three times in prison, you are still you, now you put on a new suit, you become an ordinary person again.That life changes you.Max said to Winston, "Keep an eye on him."

"I know who he is," said Winston. Winston asked Louis if he could box.A little, said Louis; but never in a gloved contest with Winston. "He's an idiot," Max said. Winston said: "One round and I can knock him out. We won't see him for a while." Max said, "But if you do, he'll beat you. Don't you know the trick? Don't you see it in his eyes?" He had told Graze Mutual that he didn't need or want Louis; Louis, a brawling ex-con, would never get a surety's certificate.But the guy at Graze Mutual told Max to "make him do the rough stuff," like catching guys who wouldn't show up.So Max asked Louis to help catch the aggressive bail prisoners who might get them into trouble.Louis could carry handcuffs and stuff anyway, that's all.They never let him touch guns, not even the few they had in their office: a few revolvers and a nickel-plated Mossberg 500 . Short-barreled musket with handle and laser telescope.They locked the gun in a cabinet in the reception room.They didn't even give Louis the key to the office.

On Thursday, when Max had just returned from lunch, he asked Louis to accompany Winston to Tisulo, the Puerto Rican burglar who had a lot of knives and women in his house.When Winston went to look for him a few days ago, Su Luo was not at home. They came back at ten past three. Winston shook his head to Max as soon as he entered the door. Behind Winston were Louis Gallas and Odell Robbie. Odell grinned and said, "I came to see you and I ran into Louis at the door. I Talk to my friend first, then I want to get the money you owe, and then ask you to write me another letter of guarantee."

Max sat silently at the table.Luis Gallas said nothing.He neither spoke nor looked at Max as he picked up the coffee cup from Max's desk.Louis nodded, and Ordell followed him into the reception room, where Ordell said, "Dude, I've been calling you..." Winston followed them, slamming the door behind him. He turned to Max and said, "Why did you send him and me?" Max said, "What?" Still thinking about Louis taking his coffee cup without asking if it was okay, what was that?He said to Winston: "Did they meet just outside the door?" Winston had now to follow his train of thought in his head. "Who? You mean these two? I think so."

Max said, "Louis is going with you." "Hmph, he will never want to go again." "He looks like a different person today," Max said. Winston stood close to the table.He "Listen, do you see these injuries?" He raised his arm so Max could see the torn sleeve of his blazer and the blood on it. "Did you see this?" Max sat up straight in the chair. "My God, what's going on?" "I told Luis that I was the one to talk, and he just had to stand by and back me up. I reminded him that you should never be in a Cuban's house, a Puerto Rican's house, or those Latin Americans in front of his woman. Handcuff them in the face. They won't allow it, their manliness won't allow them to be so useless in front of women. You have to get the man out first and put him in the car. I asked Luis, do you understand? Yes, he Yes, he said he understood. We entered the house, and Su Luo let us in. The man knew he was going to jail, but he had to wave his arms first, and said that it was not his fault that someone falsely accused him, he Is there any difficulty or something. Luis standing there - you said you think he is different today? He looked at me and said, 'Okay!' He grabbed Sulo's arm and was going to handcuff him. Sulo's woman, His two sisters came running up and scratching and hitting us until they were screaming. His mother brought a meat cleaver from the kitchen. . . . Look here." Winston held up his torn The sleeves of his clothes exposed his forearms, which were wrapped in blood-soaked handkerchiefs. "You know how Sulo got the dagger off the wall? He tried to get the knife and Louis gave him a couple of hard punches while I was protecting myself from the old woman with the knife. When we went out I Ask Luis: 'You've got a knack for that Puerto Rican kid, why don't you try it with me?' I mean he fucked it up, I'm crazy. Luis looks at me with his sleepy eyes , Said that he should think about it, and then tell me. This is the first time he said such a thing, as if he wanted to put on gloves and compete with me. You said he was different today, I think he just revealed the truth today .”

Max watched Winston undo his handkerchief to look at his wound. "Is Su Luo still at home?" "I can see that I must kill him if I want to catch him. Yes, he was still there when we left." "I'm going to get him," Max said. "Just watch your arms." "I'm all right, I've got a few stitches." Winston raised his arm in front of him and sniffed. "I think the old woman is chopping onions." "I got you another job," Ordell said to Max, "my friend, she's an airline stewardess. She came back from Freeport and got caught with drugs. Look, I I was thinking, what you can do is, you use the remaining 10,000 yuan from the Beaumont case, which happens to be the price they set for the security deposit of the stewardess this afternoon, 10,000 US dollars, because of the crime of drug possession. They say Jackie has forty-two grams on her body. Less than two ounces. It's just nonsense."

"Possession for drug possession is only a thousand dollars," Max said. "They call it intentional possession." "It's still high." "She has money, I believe so, and she has $50,000 on her," Ordell said. "One of the cops at the hearing, a young guy from the Florida Department of Justice, tried to set the bond at twenty-five thousand, saying she was afraid she'd run away from here, and Jackie could fly away anytime she wanted. Because, You know, she's a stewardess." It was just the two of them in the office.Winston went to Enshi Hospital; Louis told Ordell to see you later and left without saying where he was going.Ordell was sitting with his back against Winston's desk, still wearing the yellow blazer, but today he was wearing a red-brown silk shirt.Max noticed that he wasn't carrying the Dolphin sports bag, which was his wallet."Let's get this over with Beaumont first," he said, and Ordell's expression became almost grinning.

"Someone has done it. The police have come to me about it. They must have found out that I gave him the bond. Did they tell you?" Max shook his head. "What policeman?" "Some detectives from the Riviera precinct, they dressed like they were from the Salvation Army. They terrorized my woman, Sherronda. She thought they were going to take me. I told them, and I didn't know until recently. What was his last name. Then they wanted to know why I had to pay his bond? I told them that after I brought my mom here to live, his mom used to take care of my mom until she died. Mom in Beaumont Rosemary, a nice woman. You know, it's funny, and I never knew Rosemary's last name. She went back to Jamaica, and I think she lived in the country. So, now you've got my Money, just use it to get Jackie out of jail. Her name is Jackie Burke, and she's a nice looking woman with the blond hair."

Max said, "What did her mother do for you?" Ordell laughed again. "Dude, Jackie's a friend of mine. I met her on a plane. My friends are in trouble and I'd like to give them a hand." "Did Beaumont work for you?" Ordell shook his head. "That's what the cops think. I tell them I don't have a job myself, how can I hire someone to do it for me? Now that I vouch for Jackie, I bet I'll be called again, huh? Wondering if she's in Do things for me, does she bring me money..." Max said, "Isn't she?" Ordell looked left and right, pretending to be a gesture, he said: "Is the relationship between you and me like the relationship between a lawyer and a client? Is it true that a lawyer can't tell what he has heard?" Max shook his head. "You are not my client, unless you go to jail, I will bail you out." "It sounds like you think that's going to happen." Max shrugged. "What if we don't get to—what do you call it—everything? Why should I tell you everything?" "Because you want me to know what a slippery fellow you are," Max said, "that a stewardess brought you $50,000." "Why can't she take it?" "Now you want me to judge what you're doing. I'd say you're dealing drugs, Ordell, it's just the money going the other way. I can give the sheriff's office a call and look it up. Check your details..." "Please. They tried to find me on the computer and couldn't find anything except that jail time in Ohio I mentioned to you and it was a long time ago, man. Maybe even the screen It doesn't show up yet." Max said, "Ordell, you're a flexible guy. You must be involved in something bad that hasn't been found out. Well, you're on bond again, and you're going to put a part of you on Beaumont. $10,000 to that stewardess. That means paperwork. I have to get a death certificate, file it in court, fill out a bail bond return receipt, and type out another petition , a compensation agreement..." "You know where the money is," Ordell said. "You have my cash." "I'm telling you what I have to do," Max said. "And all you have to do—if you forget—is to provide a premium, a thousand dollars." "Yeah, well, I can't get it in a day or two," Ordell said, "but you can go ahead and write a guarantee." Max sat back in the chair. "A day or two? I can wait." "Dude, you know I mean what I say." "Before you pay me in case something happens to you..." "Nothing's gonna happen. Man, I live a clean life." "You could have been shot. Beaumont was shot." Ordell kept shaking his head. "I have money. I don't have that much on me. A thousand yuan is nothing." "You're right, but I didn't see the money in front of me." "Look," said Ordell, coming over and putting his hands on the table, so that he was facing Max. "This beautiful woman is still in the detention center, among the scumbags, where they're all kept. Jackie spent the night with them, and made her first appearance this afternoon, next to the 'Gun Club' jail That courtroom, you know? She doesn't see me, she keeps her head down—I'm in the back row. But man, she doesn't look good. It'll kill her in a few days." "If she can't tolerate the detention center," Max said to the face leaning in front of him, "how can she serve time in Thirty Prison?" Ordell stared.He raised a hand from the table, reached into the open neckline of his silk shirt, took a gold necklace from his neck, and hooked it around his thumb. "I paid twenty-five hundred dollars for this." "I don't wear jewelry," Max said. Ordell loosens the necklace and raises his arm in front of Max. "Rolex. Look. Five thousand, easy. Come on, write the fucking guarantee." Max said, "I don't keep a pawn shop. You can pawn your watch if you want and come back with five thousand dollars. That's all I can tell you." "Look at it again," Ordell said, flipping his wrist, the watch gleaming gold in the overhead light. "She's a beauty, you know?"