Chapter 3 third chapter

At ten o'clock on Thursday morning, Sylvester came to Sam's office to give a report.He was still the same, sitting motionless, with the same expression on his face, and said in a flat voice: "I saw him come out of the apartment at six o'clock, and then walked to about the third alley of Market Street." Nickelson’s Bar. At 7:30, he came out alone, returned to his residence, drove his car to the door of Nickelin’s Bar, parked in parallel, honked his horn, and then a woman came out, Got into his car. It was a fat blonde woman laughing loudly. He drove back to the house and parked the car in the back of the car. Then the two of them entered the house together and came out about forty minutes later. They went to After the car, I drove to follow. He started to turn many times, I don't know if he spotted me, or he was playing tricks, or they were just looking for a place to eat. I had to follow far behind. Finally they drove out Out of town, on Route 18. He turned onto a side road with no traffic on it. Then he slowed down suddenly after a detour around a bend. Obviously he was lying to me, but I had to pass him. Wait for me When I estimated that I had already driven to a place where he could not see, I turned into the side road and turned off the lights. But he didn't come over. It can be seen that he is very smart. I turned back quickly, but he had too many fork roads to choose from, and he didn't know Where to go. So I went back to Nicholson's. I found out he used to go there, they only knew him as Max. The woman was a Market Street woman named Beth McGowan, and she wasn't a whore, But it was almost like a prostitute. At three o'clock in the middle of the night, he took her back to the residence. He was in good condition at the time, but he almost had to carry her in. I called it home and came back to follow at ten thirty yesterday morning He came out at a quarter past twelve, drove to a deli, bought a bag of food and went home. At five o'clock, he drove her to a run-down apartment hotel on Jefferson Street, and told She went in together. They came out at seven and she had a change of clothes. Then they went to Nickerson's bar. He came out alone at nine o'clock and started walking, to the lake. He was very happy In it, every minute is awake. He is very clever and powerful, he is always looking around, listening to all directions, and he moves very fast. I lost, I thought I lost him, but The next thing he did was light a fucking cigar next to me. I almost jumped up. He gave me a real look, grinned, and said, 'That's fine for a comfortable night.' And then and walked back to Nickerson's bar. He took her to a lakeside restaurant five miles out of town for steak, and he didn't come back to where he lived until three o'clock in the morning. So, I think they're still there. I put It's messed up and I really don't know what to say. What do you want to do next?"

"Can the detective agency send another person to follow him?" "I'm the nicest one in the club, Mr. Bowden. I'm not kidding you. He'd figure it out just as quickly with someone else, maybe sooner." "I don't quite understand. He sees you and recognizes you. What's the special effect? ​​Can't you still stare at him?" "I could put a team on his trail, but even that probably won't work. Three men, three cars, plus a second rotation, so you can keep an eye on him twenty-four hours a day. But he still has too many ways to get rid of us. Go into the movie theater, go out from any exit; go into the department store, go up the stairs, go down the stairs by another way, and go out by another door. From any restaurant or wine shop the kitchen; or go to some hotel to play cards, where there are more outlets."

"What do you suggest, Sylvester?" "Forget it, you're wasting money. He's expecting someone to be stalking him, so he's looking for a stalker. He'll keep an eye out for a stalker. And whenever he wants to get rid of Follow him and he'll figure it out. The guy's cool and smart." "You are really not helpful. You don't seem to understand that this person wants to hurt me, so he came here, and he is likely to hurt my family. If it were you, what would you do?" The slate-like eyes seemed to have changed color and became lighter. "Make him change his mind."

"How to do it?" "Don't say I said it. I can find a few people and beat him to the hospital for two or three days, and he will know it; it's like beating him with a bicycle chain." "But... maybe he didn't intend to do anything." "Do that and you'll be safe." "I'm sorry, Sylvester, maybe it's my weakness, but I can't do it. I can't act outside the law. I practice the law and I believe in the due process." Sieves stood up. "It's you spending the money. He's a beast, so you have to treat him like a beast. Anyway, if it was me, I would do it. If you change your mind, we can talk privately. The matter It doesn't go through a detective agency. I'm just wasting your money by keeping him on track."

He stopped at the door again, put his hand on the doorknob, and turned his head. "You've got to look at it from another angle, you've informed the police, and if he's doing anything, he's gonna be fucking caught. But then again, maybe he doesn't care." "How much does it cost to find someone?" "About two thousand dollars a week." With Sylvester gone, Sam tried to lose himself in his work, but his attention kept circling back to Cady.On the drive home Thursday night, he decided not to tell Caro that Sylvester had quit.The incident was difficult to explain and would cause her unnecessary alarm.

At three o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, Caro called him. As soon as he heard her voice, he couldn't help but grab the receiver.She was almost incoherent. "Caro, are the children all right?" "Yeah, yeah, they're all right. It was that... that stupid dog." She could barely finish. "Can you hurry back? Please." He went to Bill Starr's office before leaving the house, and told Bill that something had happened at home, that the family dog ​​had probably been hit by a car, and that he wanted to leave work early. Not much time was spent on the way home.The sky was gloomy that day, and Caro quickly came out of the house and walked towards the barn, followed by the children.Caro looked haggard and gray; Nancy was pale and her eyes were red and swollen; Jamie's trembling lips were tightly shut; Bucky staggered along, covering his eyes with his hands and crying hoarsely. You can see that he has been crying for a long time.

Caro turned around and said in a sharp voice, "Nancy, please take the two brothers back to the house." "But I want to—" "Please!" Kai Luo rarely spoke to them in such a fierce tone. They walked back into the house, butch was still crying.Caro turned back to him, her eyes filled with tears. "God please, don't let me go through the forty minutes I spent today." "What happened? Got run over by a car? Is it dead?" "Dead, but not in a car accident. Dr. Ronnie was on his way right away, he was so wonderful, we couldn't get him into my car and take him to the vet. The timing was so good, I heard the school bus stop. Get down, and drive away, and then I hear Nancy screaming, and I run out like a bullet from a gun. I later learned that when the school bus pulled up, Jimmy saw it through the window Marilyn was gorging herself in the front yard, not knowing what she was eating. She ran over to meet the kids as usual, then started wailing, running in circles, biting her own belly, and then started twitching, it was The sight made Nancy scream."

Tears streamed down Caro's face. "By the time I got there, the dog was in so much pain, I've never seen anything so pathetic or horrible, and it happened right in front of three kids. I tried to get closer to it, but it was barking at me viciously I couldn't even touch it. I told the kids not to touch it. I ran inside and called Dr. Ronnie. I saw it through the window and it was still twitching, and the kids didn't lean against it. It was too close, so I called you, and he writhed all over the floor, and screamed like hell, I've never heard a dog bark like that. I don't want the children to see, but I couldn't make them go away. Then it started to stop slowly, like a dead clock or something. When Dr. Ronnie arrived, it was almost at the end of its life, and a minute later it died Dead. So he took it back to the hospital, and that was like twenty minutes ago."

"Did he say it was poisoned?" "He said it looked a lot like that." "Fucking bastard!" His eyes sting. "It's bad enough just to witness it, but to have all three kids see it too! What a great weekend at home," Caro said. "Can you take care of the kids a little longer?" "Where are you going? Oh, to the veterinary hospital?" "yes." "Please don't go too long." Dr. Ronnie was a tall, composed man with white hair, bright blue eyes, and an easygoing manner.When Sam entered the waiting room, Mrs. Ronnie, who was sitting behind the desk, nodded to him, went to the back, then came out again immediately, and said to him: "Doctor please go straight to the back, Bowden." Sir. Go all the way to the end."

A woman waiting with a small black poodle on her lap gave Sam a hard look.He went to the back, and Ronnie was standing at a workbench, and Marilyn was lying on a stained wooden table in the middle of the small room.Its fur was lifeless, leaving it lying there like a dull red rag with only the whites of its eyes showing. Ronnie turned around, no hello, no small talk. "Although I don't have the best assay equipment in the world, Sam, I'm pretty sure it's strychnine, and in a very large dose. The poison was hidden in a piece of raw meat, probably by slashing the piece of meat and putting it in The poison is stuffed in."

Marilyn had one ear turned back and Sam folded that ear back. "It made me want to throw up." Ronnie stood at the other end of the table, and they both looked down at the dead dog. "Thank goodness, it doesn't happen to me very often. I'm in this business for the simple reason that since I could crawl, I've loved small animals to death, and I'm a firm believer that poisoning animals is worse than killing them." , and more heartless because they don't understand. It's even worse for kids to see." "Maybe it's meant to be seen by them." "What do you mean by that?" "I don't know, I don't know what I mean by that." "Sam, I wish I'd persuaded you to send him to dog school last year." "At the time, I thought that was too much trouble." "Trained, it won't touch that piece of meat." "We're putting him on a diet and he's always been begging for food. He's afraid of his own shadow, but he's a really great dog with a personality of his own. Damn it!" "You know, you can't do anything with this matter. Even if you can prove who did it, you can only pay a fine, and the fine is not much. I think you don't need me to dispose of its body?" "No, I think I can take it back with me." "Why don't you go home first, and after you decide where you want to bury it, dig a hole big enough. I'll drop by after it closes at five o'clock. I'll wrap it up first. Good. No need for children to see it again. It doesn't look pretty anymore." "I don't want to trouble you so much." "Trouble? No wonder. Go dig a hole." By the time Sam got home, Caro had managed to calm Butch.He sat in the living room, staring blankly at the TV.His face was swollen, and every so often, his pent-up sobs would cause his body to twitch like a hiccup.Caro was in the kitchen.He immediately noticed something that made him applaud: Marilyn's food bowl, water bowl, and blankets had all been put away. "Where's Nancy and Jamie?" "In their room. Does Dr. Ronnie know what that is..." "Strychnine." They lowered their voices.She threw herself into his arms, and he held her.She leaned against his throat and said, "I keep telling myself that it's just a stupid dog, but..." "I know." She turned to face the sink. "Who would do such a dreadful thing, Sam?" "It's hard to say. Someone with a twisted mind." "But, he didn't go around killing other people's chickens, or digging up other people's flower beds or anything. He never left here except when he was with the children." "Some people just don't like dogs." She turned again, wiping her hands on a dish towel, her expression sullen and intent. "You're never home when the school bus comes, Sam. Marilyn knows the sound of a car going uphill, wherever it is, and when it hears it, it starts running to the end of the driveway and waits for the school bus to stop. If If someone drives behind the school bus, they will know its habits, and next time they can walk in front of the school bus and leave the poisoned things where it will definitely see it when it meets the school bus." "It might just be a coincidence." "I think you know that's not the case. I think you have the same opinion as I do. I'm not hysterical. There are many dogs on this road in Milton. I have been wondering how many families don't have dogs? Think about it There's only one, the Wilhelm's. They're a mile away from here, and they have cats, and I don't think they poisoned anyone else's dogs. We've lived here seven years, and I've never heard of it kind of thing. So, this is the first time something like this has happened, why is it our dog?" "Hey, Caro..." "Don't you give me that 'hey, Caro' thing. You know we're thinking the same thing. Where's that great, efficient private eye?" Sam sighed. "Well, he's quit." "When did this happen?" "Wednesday night." "Why didn't he do it?" He told her the reason Sylvester had told him.She listened intently, expressionless, and mechanically continued wiping her hands with a towel. "When did you know these things?" "Yesterday morning." "And last night you didn't say a word, I thought everything was going to be okay, you had everything sorted out. I'm not a kid, I'm not a fool, I hate it... overprotective." "I should have told you, I'm sorry." "So, now that Caddy can come and hang around here as he pleases, poison our dogs, and then find ways to harm our children, which one do you think he will start with first? The boss or the youngest?" "Caro, honey, please." "Am I a hysterical woman? You're so fucking right, I'm a hysterical woman." "We can't prove that Cardi did it." She threw the towel into the sink. "Listen, I can prove that Kadi did it. I can prove, not the kind of proof you want, no actual proof, no witnesses, no legal force, I just know. What the hell are you This is your family, and Marilyn is also a member of your family. Could it be that you have to consult all the cases first, and then prepare the debate draft?" "You don't know how much I—" "I don't know anything. It happened because of something you did a long time ago." "That's what I have to do." "I'm not saying you shouldn't have done that back then. Didn't you tell me that man hated you and you thought he was out of his mind? Then, do something about him!" She took a step closer to him, glared at him rather fiercely, and then her whole face contorted, and she threw herself into his arms again, trembling all over this time.He held her, took her to the bench by the trestle table, sat down beside her, and held her hand. She tried to smile and said, "I hate crying women." "You have excellent reasons to be upset, dear. I know how you feel, and I know you have reasons to complain. I feed, clothe, and house my family in a very civilized way. If it were on a more primitive It was much easier to deal with someone like Kadi in an earlier era, or a more primitive society. I was part of the social system and he was an outsider, and I could call in my party and we could kill him. I really want to kill him, and I might even be able to. Your reaction is on a more primitive level. It's actually your intuition telling you what to do. However, your logic will tell you that this How impossible it is, I will be sent to prison." "I... I know." "You expect me to be efficient and decisive, and that's exactly what I want. I don't think I can scare him away, I can't kill him. The police are less helpful than I expected, and I'm now There are only two things that can come to mind. I can go see Chief Dutton on Monday and see if he will be as helpful as Charlie said. If there is no way to scare him away, then we will hide behind him outside the sphere of influence." "How to hide?" "School will be out next week." "Wednesday is the last day." "You can take the children and find another place to live, and call me in the office after you settle down." "But you shouldn't..." "We can lock up the house and I'll go to town and stay at a hotel. I'll be careful and it won't drag on forever." "But between now and then..." "Now I can't be sure about anything, but I can guess what's going on in his mind. He won't act immediately, he will give us a while, let us think about it." "Can we be a little more careful?" "Next week I'll be driving your MG British car, you can take the kids to school in the station wagon and pick them up after school. I'll keep them indoors. Tomorrow you'll take that one Woodsman pistol to go practice shooting." Her fingers intertwined with his. "I'm sorry, I lost my temper. I didn't deserve it. I know you'll make it as good as you can, Sam." "I've got to dig Marilyn's grave. Dr. Ronnie will bring it over. Where would you like to be buried?" "How about the hill behind the barn near the poplars? That's where they buried the bird last time." "I'm going to change clothes." He put on a pair of faded, paint-stained work pants and his old blue shirt.He thinks Caro is right, her instincts tell her that Cady poisoned their dog.What surprised him was that he was willing to accept this inference with so little evidence.It was against all his training and all his nature. He went to Jamie's room to have a look.The plastic radio with the tape on the red casing was on, and Jimmy was sitting on the bed flipping through his gun catalog with the curled corners ripped out.He looked up at his father and said, "It's really poisoned, isn't it?" "um, yes." "Was it the man who hated us?" "We don't know who did it, son." The look was pale and hard in those young blue eyes.He held out the catalogue. "Did you see that? It's a trumpet gun with a brass body. Mike and I'm going to get some gunpowder, and another trumpet gun, and I'll put double the powder in it, and besides, Gonna fill the gun with thirty old rusty nails or something and shoot that Cuddy in the stomach. 'Bang!'” Tears filled his eyes. "Does Mike know about this?" "When you went out, I called him and he cried too, but he pretended not to cry. He wanted to come over, but I said no." "Would you like to help me find a place to dig a grave?" "it is good." They took a shovel out of the barn.A pile of pebbles on the hillside supports a small cross, marking the grave of Elvis, the dead parrot.Elvis was able to move around the house freely and learned to speak two words, but he was trampled to death by four-year-old Bucky.Butch's guilt and shock lingered long enough to make them all worry. Sam dug for a while, then let Jimmy dig.The boy scowled and dug hard.While Sam stood watching, Nancy walked slowly to his side. "This place is nice," she said. "Did you bring it back?" "Dr. Ronnie will send it." "I see you here from the window. Anyway, it's bloody." "Take it easy, little girl." "Mom thinks that man did it." "I know she thinks so, but there's no proof." Jamie paused: "I can dig a bigger hole. I can dig a hole for him, throw him down first, put some snakes in there, then fill it up with stones, and press it all down hard." in his body." Sam could see that the boy was out of breath. "Now it's my turn, give me the shovel." They stood by and watched as he dug the hole.Ronnie arrived, wrapping the dog in a worn khaki blanket.Sam carried it out of the car and put it in the hole.It was so heavy that he quickly covered it with soil and trimmed the raised mound with a shovel.Dr. Ronnie declined the offer of a drink and drove back to town. Everyone was moping about dinner, and Sam outlined the new norm as they ate.He thought he would be somewhat opposed, but the children accepted it without any objection. After all the kids were in bed, Sam and Caro sat in the living room. "It was a big blow to them," Caro said. "Especially Butch. When we first got Marilyn, he was two years old, and he was like his dog." "I'm going to force them to do hard work tomorrow, and let the children go to repair the boat together, so that they can divert their attention." "What about target practice?" "Sounds like you're eager. You were reluctant the last time you were asked to practice targets." "Because I didn't think it was important at the time." They read for a while.He stood up restlessly, looking out into the night.In the distance came the rumble of June Thunder.It sounded like it was from the north, from the other side of the lake.Marilyn has always had a standard reaction to thunder. It will raise its head first, tilt it to one side, and drop its ears back.Then he'd get up, pretend to give a huge yawn, lick his fleshy bones, squint at them, and wander off in the direction of the couch.After another apologetic look, he crawled under the sofa.Once, a great thunderclap sounded suddenly without warning from distant thunder, and it rushed across the room, misplaced, and banged its forehead hard against the edge of the sofa.It bounced back from the impact, staggered for a while, and when it recovered, it quickly got under the sofa.Everyone except Butch was laughing. "It turned out to be a small circle that is intimate and protected by magic," Kai Luo said. He turned and looked at her: "I think I understand what you mean." "This circle is untouchable and inviolable. Now it seems that something came from the dark kingdom. It knocked down one of us, and the magic was useless." "Life is inherently dangerous and uncertain." "Don't talk nonsense to me, let me keep a little silly little superstition, we had a good, little fool's paradise." "We'll have it again." "It won't be the same as before." "You're having a rough day." She stood up and stretched. "Now I'm going to end the day. I'm really tired today. I'm exhausted." The thunder sounded again, and the thunder sounded closer. "Let's lock the door," she said. "I'll lock it, you go up first, I'll come right away." After she went upstairs, he stood at the back of the house, looking at the northwest sky.A pink flash glowed just below the horizon.Perhaps they would all be better off if Marilyn had been a fierce, brave, noble animal.But it has always been a timid guy, always nervous and worried, whenever it feels a little pain, it will keep screaming, and it always feels sorry for others.Now it seemed as if all his fears had come true, as if he had known all along that such extraordinary pain awaited him.