Chapter 9 Chapter nine

On Thursday morning, Mason came into the office and asked hopefully, "Della, have you heard back from Gidon?" "Nothing." "Not even a letter or a phone call?" "No." "Perhaps there was an anonymous letter?" "No, at least as of this morning." Mason moved from his desk to the window, looking solemnly at the passing cars on the street. "Should we hear back?" Della asked. "We should," Mason said. "I am a little apprehensive that our friend Gidon may have turned his attention to Mrs. Warren." "He's going to have the guts to do it, no doubt about it," the lawyer said as he paced back and forth. That's right -- call Paul and ask him to put two more men near Warren's place. I want a record of the license plate numbers of all the vehicles that visited and a description of who visited. The on-site personnel need to be equipped with binoculars and keep a reasonable distance from the house."

"What else?" Della asked. "That's it," Mason replied.Then calmly added: "So far." In the afternoon, Mason became even more agitated, pacing up and down the office, grimacing, nervous at every phone ring. At three o'clock the phone rang and Della answered, "Hello!" and nodded to Mason. "Gidon?" Mason asked. "It's Paul Derek." Mason picked up the microphone and said, "Paul, what's the matter?" "I'm so ashamed," Derek said. Mason moved towards the back of the swivel chair, crossed his feet on the table, and his nervousness seemed to be instantly released.

"For what? Paul." He asked tentatively. "That damn Gidon!" Derek said. "Like I said, that guy got his ass in prison. He's just too smart." "You mean he's too clever for you?" "He's smart enough for my crew," Derek said. "And...damn! He's too smart for me, too." "What happened?" "The guy went to a used truck dealership, and after looking at some cars, he paid a deposit of three hundred yuan and bought a car." "Cash?" Mason asked. "Cash, of course, the money you gave him."

"Well, I'd love to see him spend his money on something that has a purpose," Mason said. "In any case, modern people need cars to travel." "Wait a minute, Paley," Derek said. "It's serious stuff, and as far as I know, it's a completely new technique." "Go on," Mason said. "Or why don't you come to my office and talk? Della will make you a cup of coffee and..." "Because I don't want to face you," Derek said. "Besides, the office I'm in right now is busy with four phones trying desperately to track down Gidon."

"What about the people in the government?" Mason asked. "Aren't they all on duty?" "My God," Derek said. "Originally, the authorities had three operatives secretly following him, one with a clear eye, plus two of my personnel, a total of six stalkers followed this birdman." "He just slipped out of sight of you guys?" "That's all I can admit." "What did he do?" "He gets the car, pays the down payment, signs the contract, and hits the road. Of course, the idea is that when he has the car, he'll do the old-fashioned tricks, like taking advantage of a change of light." crossing a few intersections and things like that. We think so, and obviously, the authorities think so too."

"How do you handle that situation?" Mason asked. "With a lot of people on duty, it's going to be an easy job," Derek said. "I had one stalker go ahead of Gidon and one behind to surround him. Whenever I came across a signalized intersection, one went ahead and the other stayed behind. Of course, the sighted stalker It is in the back. In this way, when Gidon breaks through the gate when the signal changes, or runs a red light, etc., the follower can hold back because someone is already watching he." "What about the authorities?" "They're playing the same trick," Derek said. "My personnel recognized at least one of the authorities' operatives, and he also recognized my personnel because he gave him a secret sign."

"Is Gidon getting rid of your group like this?" Mason asked. "That's all I can say." "How did he do it?" "He threw off a blind stalker and a covert stalker," Derek said. "He seemed to do it on purpose. He drove the car to the airport, parked it with the engine running, and tipped the attendant to stop him for five minutes." "Go on," Mason said. "Everybody was absolutely sure," Derek said. "The authorities then went to the car, kicked the illegally parked car, complained for a while, and insisted on asking the waiter to drive the car away. When they were doing these actions, of course they took the opportunity to install a device on the car. Electronic detectors, so that they can easily follow him for several blocks without directly touching Gidon in the future."

"Next," Mason said. "What happened? Did they tail him into the airport terminal?" "No," Derek said. "When a guy pays a $300 deposit for a car, you don't think he'll just walk away, let alone with the engine running." Mason laughed. "Keep laughing, damn it!" Derek said angrily. "So, you don't know where he went?" Mason asked. "Of course we know where he went," Derek said. "We're not that stupid. We didn't follow him into the airport gate, but we walked around the airport and watched every plane that was about to take off within thirty minutes."

"Okay," Mason said. "Even if he walks into the airport, he has to come out." "He did come out," Derek said. "He met a man at the door, and after Gidon identified himself, they walked towards a helicopter with its engines running about twenty yards away. They both boarded, and when the helicopter took off, we were left with a group of us on the ground. Dumbfounded." "Can't keep up with him?" Mason asked. "How do you track a helicopter in such a busy airport?" Derek said. "Unless you can find another helicopter immediately. We did everything we could. We went to the tower and asked the tower man to order the helicopter to fly back. At the same time, we also launched another helicopter, but these actions were beyond Giton's expectations. After he let the helicopter fly for three minutes, he asked the pilot to land in an open space near the main road, where there are many lines of buses passing by. Instructions to fly back. The tower staff expected that the pilot’s radio might be connected to the loudspeaker. In order to prevent the passengers from hearing the call, they handled the call very mysteriously. They told the pilot that it was an emergency due to a failure of some parts of the machine, and it must be done immediately. Flew back and landed cautiously. So the guy flew back—that's the whole story. A whole pack of stalkers guarded an empty car in vain, and Gidon was gone."

"What about the car?" Mason asked. "They signed a contract that they had to pay on time, and if there was a misrepresentation, wouldn't they just..." "Oh, never mind," Derek said. "Ghidon was brilliant. Within twenty minutes of walking away at the airport, he called the used car dealer and told the dealer to pick it up where it was. He explained that after thinking twice, buying a car wasn't The most pressing thing for him right now is that he won't be using the car very often, and that a friend of his can lend him the car if needed. He told the used car dealer to cancel the deal and doesn't plan to get the deposit back because of a mistake. Wait on him himself."

"Is this car dealer being deceived like this?" "Of course, I was cheated like this. The car dealer also paid tribute to his generosity, saying that as long as the car can be sold within the next few days, he will reimburse Giton for some of the deposit paid. After repeated thanks, the car dealer Just go pick up the car." Mason couldn't stop laughing. "Glad it made you laugh like that," Derek said gruffly. "I still remember," Mason said. "You told me not to be fooled by Gidon's cleverness, and warned me to be careful, because these guys who have been in prison are very cunning. Obviously, you should also listen to your own advice." "Oh shit!" Derek said excitedly. "All right," Mason said. "Gidon is now in our hands." "How do you say that?" Derek asked. Mason said: "Once Gidon is being followed, he has a perfect alibi." "Why does he need an alibi?" "For everything," Mason said. "He cannot be charged with any crime. If he is being followed all the time, he only needs to find the stalker to testify in court and explain his whereabouts when the crime happened. Once he gets rid of the stalker, he loses his alibi." Derek was on the other end of the line, seemingly silent in thought. "So, the five hundred yuan is the best bait?" Mason said: "I don't want to make any comments, Paul. But from now on, you must pay attention to every unsolved crime in the city, especially murders or robbery-murders against witnesses. Once you find any case, you will find it. Have your men go to witnesses with police portraits, and ask them if there is any resemblance between the criminal and the portrait." "And try to convince the witnesses that this picture is who they saw, right?" "Oh, that's not it," Mason said. "Don't be so explicit, just let them know that at least someone suspects this person is a suspect. In case of a situation, we can claim that it was just a good intention to help solve a violent crime. As you said You know, Paul, the point I'm making is that this man has a criminal record and is currently short of money, so he's very likely to commit another crime." "He is short of money? Am I blind?" Derek said. "This guy smokes a fifty-cent cigar and wears a two-hundred-and-fifty suit. That's what annoys the government operatives. The guy also walks into the most exclusive clothing stores and chooses them decently." The best clothing in the store." "Do the authorities have no idea where his money came from?" "I have no idea at all. He probably got the money from nothingness, because the government authorities were staring at him the moment he was released from prison." Mason thought for a moment, then giggled again. "Things are getting better, Paul, keep in touch with me!"