Chapter 11 Section Eleven

Although the newspapers and extras had reported it, there was no new news that day.None of them claimed to have seen a dead body carried around Glover-Archibald's woods. Surprisingly, the silence continued on the second day.There are signs that the content of the newspaper has already caused a stir in the streets and alleys.However, this "grand occasion" failed to exchange for eyewitness testimony. Paula Denton's whereabouts on November 1 were also blank.Who has seen her, who has talked to her, and who has made a physical transaction with her, there is also no news about this.Naturally, the client who was looking for her would not declare her family name, but no matter how big the place was, it was still an urban park, and the murderer walked in with the corpse on his back but no one saw it, which was unbelievable.

What the situation meant, Ron and Willie exchanged views.Maybe the killer used a car.But even so, during the process of hanging the body to the tree, the vehicle could only be parked on the side of the road.However, no one mentioned seeing the suspicious vehicle. However, this is not entirely inexplicable.The perimeter of Glover-Archibald Woods is part of the Old Town, a time when the width of each house's frontage to the street was limited.In this way, in the era of popularization of private cars, almost every household has no parking space.Families with cars, it can be said that without exception, they park their cars in front of their houses, or find a roadside location nearby.Therefore, the streets of the old city are always full of residents' private cars. If a car is parked in every corner, it will not be very eye-catching.

However, even at night, there are always people coming and going on the sidewalks in the residential area.There are probably people who occasionally watch the street view through the window.It stands to reason that witnesses do exist.However, no reports of sightings have been received from urban residents. Ron and Willie went to Jason's Bar on Southwest M Street again, and met with the man in the white nightgown from yesterday.They questioned the man, who was wearing a two-piece suit today, in more detail about Paula's whereabouts on November 1. This person called himself Jimmy Kretzer, and asked him if he had seen Paula that day on the 1st. He shook his head and denied it, saying that he had just chatted on the phone that day.

Ron couldn't help feeling tense, and asked why he didn't say anything yesterday.He argued that the content of the call was irrelevant and not worth mentioning.Tell him it's okay, and he revealed that Paula called the store at around 7:30 on the first night to ask if there were any customers, and he told her that there were no customers tonight, that's all. Since the situation seemed to involve the way the store was run, Ron asked carefully about the business side of things.Roughly speaking it goes like this. All women who are registered in this gang start to eat at six o'clock every night, and are on standby after eating at seven o'clock.A young woman who was more or less confident in her appearance came to Jason's bar and sat around the bar waiting for the guests to appear.It is common for men who come to the store to fall in love with one of these women, start bargaining, and take them out after agreeing on a price.In this way, these women can get in touch with customers every day, can conclude several transactions every day, and naturally earn a lot of money.In addition, greeting guests behind the bar will also receive corresponding rewards.Therefore, their money comes quickly.

However, as the age grows, gradually, the practice of "waiting for the rabbit" in the store is not so wise.Those who can go with the guests are all young girls, and the older ones can only serve as their foils. After closing at dawn, they can only go home in despair, like this day after day.Afterwards, even the job of greeting customers was out of the question, and there were more and more days when I stayed in the store for a whole night without earning a dime. Women who have fallen to such a point gradually choose to stay at home.Whenever the girls in the store were gone, Jimmy would call them up and tell them they had business.So, they either rushed out of the apartment to the store in a hurry, or went directly to the place designated by the customer.This is their way of attracting customers.

Paula is older and has to take care of children, so the family cannot do without people. She has adopted this way of attracting customers since a long time ago.However, there are often very few customers who can be attracted in this way in a month, so she often takes the initiative to call Jimmy, and depending on the situation, sometimes she will come to the store to sit on the table.If you sit next to a man and have a chat with him over a drink, the man will often become overwhelmed and lose control, and the probability of a deal being negotiated will be high. However, November 1st is not such a case.According to Jimmy, the store was empty and there were no customers, so he told Paula that there were no customers today; Paula just said "Oh, yeah" and didn't say another word , silently hung up the phone.

Ron asked: "That is to say, on this day, women have to give up the idea of ​​making money?" So Jimmy replied: "There is one way, we allow women who join the gang to go to the GT Shopping Center on M Street." Stand on the sidewalk in front of you." When there is an urgent need for money, second-tier prostitutes always stand on the street. "However, Paula and the others can only stand on the street in that place, and we don't allow it in other places. Of course, this is purely out of consideration for the management of the site, and it is for their own good, so as not to fight with women from other places in order to compete for the site. .After catching customers on the street, they must report to us honestly and pay the agreed amount of money. Anyone who breaks the rules will be punished.”

"What kind of punishment?" Ron asked. Jimmy smiled wryly, and said: "There is no corporal punishment. They are just prohibited from doing business for a period of time, and they stay at home and think about their mistakes behind closed doors." "Then you have lost your money?" Willie asked. "There are many women who want to work, it doesn't matter." Jimmy replied, "We will also patrol regularly to protect women who are single on the street. This is a contractual relationship between us." "So, did she go to stand on the street that night?" Ron asked.Jimmy shook his head, saying he didn't quite know.

"There are not too many restrictions on the declaration. It is okay to declare after earning money. Besides, the place is our own territory. If there are brothers watching the venue, we will know who is going to stand on the street. People who go to stand on the street meet and watch the venue. It’s time to say hello.” "So, on the night of the first, did you see her on the sidewalk in front of the shopping center you circled?" Ron asked. Jimmy still shook his head and said he hadn't seen it.But he also said that their inspections were not so frequent, and if the women standing on the street walked alongside the guests as soon as they came, they would have no way of knowing.

Maybe that's how it is.If Paula died afterwards, Ron and the others would have no way of finding out.If the client who bought sex from her on the street was the murderer, he wouldn't call the police and throw himself into the trap; even if he wasn't the murderer, buying sex is illegal, so how could he contact the police. Ron and the others could only wait for the person who had witnessed the client and Paula standing on the street to bargain, but Paula might not have gone to stand on the street on the first night. Ron and Willy left Jason's bar and rushed to Maria Serrano's apartment.Standing in the corridor and knocking on the door, she happened to be at home alone.Ron took off his hat and clutched it to his chest, stood at the door and started the conversation.

"Ms. Serrano, about the night on the 1st..." Ron said, "Did Miss Denton go out to do anything that night?" Seeing that Maria was silent, Ron repeated the question: "On the night of the 1st, did she tell you that she will go out later, please take care of little Martin?" Maria shook her head: "I haven't heard from her. However, she often doesn't leave me messages recently." "Really?" Ron was surprised. "Go out without saying anything?" Maria nodded: "There are more times like this." "But, then she..." "Martin grew up day by day and became more and more sensible. Although it is not enough to stay up every night, it happens every three to five times, and the boy has long been used to it. But as far as I know, Paula has never stayed up all night. When not returning." "Oh." "After Martin had supper, all that was left was to do his homework and sleep, which he could do by himself. Paula hurried home as soon as she was done, and went to bed softly so as not to wake Martin. In the morning, she would get up and serve Martin with breakfast, and then take him to school. If she felt short of sleep, she would sleep in again. This is her daily life." "Then, even when Miss Denton goes out to do things at night, you often don't know?" "Yeah, it's often like this recently. She used to say hello to me every time she went out, when the child was young." "Then, the night on the 1st is also..." "I don't know what happened at night, but in the morning, Martin knocked on my door and said that my mother hadn't come home." Ron was speechless.His heart felt sour, and his throat seemed to be stuck by something. "Martin looked so frightened and frightened. It was painful to watch. I was taken aback too. It was the first time this had happened. I just led him into the house, sat him down, and made him eat breakfast. Nothing special. Decent ones, all ready-made. But Martin hardly took a mouthful, and seemed to have no appetite, so--" "Later, you and your husband together..." "Yes, we had breakfast together. Martin's school bus is just up the road, and Paula seems to drop the kids off there every day. I put the kids on the bus that morning, and I said to him: "It's all right. Your mother must be busy with errands. You'll be back soon after school. Don't worry." Martin got on the school bus by himself, and before the bus drove away, he was still looking at me from the window. waved." "My God." Willie sighed behind him.It was obvious that he was very sad and could not bear to listen. "Has Martin hurried home?" he asked. "Hmm." There was a hint of sadness in Maria's voice. "But Mom isn't home...how did he react?" "It was a big blow to him. I had to invite him to drink tea, have snacks, and chat with him, but I still couldn't make him settle down, so I played a game of throwing the ball with him." However, my mother never came back, and it was us who were waiting. Paula Denton became a man forever separated from her son.She worked hard every night and lacked sleep. Perhaps, it was this kind of life that made her heart more fragile. "What about Martin now?" "Stay at my house." "Oh." Ron finished and nodded.It was better than leaving him alone. "We are waiting for an explanation from the school or the state government." Willie nodded again and again, and then asked, "Are you at school now?" "Yes. I'll be back in a while." "He hasn't changed, has he?" "Obvious changes, I don't think so. However, it must have been hurt." "Naturally," said Ron, sighing. "It's causing you and your husband a lot of trouble." "It's going to be unbearable after a long time." Maria said sadly, "My husband also said that the house is too small, and the three children will be too crowded." "Ah, isn't it," said Ron.Then, I couldn't think of anything else to say. Whether he should see Martin or not, he was very conflicted, wanting to see him and not wanting to see him at the same time.Martin probably knew nothing about his mother's male circle.