Chapter 18 18. The Loud Horn

Chapter One Half of this story can be found in the police archives; the other half is in the office of a newspaper. One afternoon two weeks after the home of millionaire Norcross was robbed and he was murdered, the murderer was wandering leisurely on Broadway when he ran into detective Barney.woods. is that you johnnyKernan?Asked Woods, he's been a little myopic in public for five years. it's me.Kernan exclaimed gleefully, it wasn't old St. Joe's famous Barney.Woods?I can barely recognize it!what are you doing in the eastDid your business come here? I have been in New York for several years.Woods said, now I serve in the city detective team.

well!Kernan said he grinned with delight and patted the detective on the arm. Go to Mahler's Café, said Woods, and let's find a quiet seat.I want to chat with you. It was not yet four o'clock.Before the climax of business came, they found a quiet corner in the cafe.Well-dressed, confident and slightly arrogant Kernan sat down across from Woods. This detective was small and thin, with a sandy beard, squinting eyes all the time, and wearing a ready-made shervelt suit. What are you doing now?Woods asked, you left St. Joe a year before me. I'm selling a copper mine.Kernan said, I intend to establish an office here.well!Old Barney is now a detective in New York.You have always had a preference for this line of work.Didn't you work at the police station in St. Joe's after I left?

Worked for six months.Woods said, I have something to ask you, Johnny.I've been watching you closely since your murder at the Saratoga Hotel, and I haven't seen you committing crimes with a gun before.Why did you kill Norcross? Kernan gazed intently for a moment at the slices of lemon in his whiskey glass; suddenly looked at the detective with a sly smile. How did you guess that, Barney?He asked admiringly, I thought that thing was done as neatly as a peeled onion.Did I leave something open? Woods left on the table a small gold fountain pen that hung as a decoration from its watch chain.

Here's my present to you as we spend our last Christmas at St. Joe's.I still use the shaving cup you gave me.I found this pen under a corner of the rug in Norcross's room.I remind you to pay attention to what you say.I can use your words as evidence against you, Johnny.We used to be old friends, but I had to do my duty.You're going to the electric chair for the Norcross case. Kernan laughed out loud. Chapter two I'm not bad luck.Who would have thought it was old Barney who was after me, he said!He reached into his coat.Woods' pistol was immediately pressed against his waist.

Put the gun away.Kernan wrinkled his nose and said, I just touched my pocket.aha!As the saying goes, nine tailors are worth a man, but one tailor can ruin a man.There's a hole in my waistcoat.I took the pencil off the fob and stuffed it in the hole, ready to write.Put the gun away, Barney, and I'll tell you why I had to shoot Norcross.The old bastard came out of the hall after me, and shot me in the back with a bad 22.That old lady was really interesting.She lay on the bed and watched me take away her diamond necklace worth twelve thousand dollars without saying a word, but begged me like a beggar to return a small gold garnet ring worth only three dollars. she.I think she married old Norcross for his money.That kind of woman always reluctantly keeps some gadgets of her old lover as souvenirs.There were also six rings, two brooches, and a small watch.It is estimated to be worth fifteen thousand yuan in total.

[Note] Nine tailors are worth one man: This English idiom refers to a tailor who bows his head and bends over to work all day, lacks activity, and is weaker than ordinary people. I advise you not to speak out.Woods said. Oh no problem.Kernan said it was in my suitcase at the hotel.I might as well tell you why I have no scruples.Because it's safe to say it.I know the person I'm talking to.You owe me a thousand dollars, Barney.Woods, even if you were going to arrest me, you couldn't do it. I haven't forgotten about it.Woods said, count me twenty fifty-dollar bills without saying a word.I will return that money one day.That thousand dollars helped me a lot when I got home that day and they had all my furniture piled up on the sidewalk.

Yeah, Kernan went on, you Barney.Woods is upright and upright by nature, and he will never arrest someone who is in your favor.Oh, I'm in the business of studying people as well as tumblers and window latches.Now I'll call the waiter over, don't talk yet.In the past one or two years, I have been drinking, and I am a little worried.If I lose my wind, the lucky detective who caught me should share the credit with the cup.But I don't drink alcohol during business hours.When work was over, I was relieved to have a few drinks with my old friend Barney.what do you drink? The waiter brought the decanter and the soda bottle, left them on the table and left without disturbing the two of them.

You've set the tone.Woods rolled the little gold pencil thoughtfully between his fingers and said, I must let you pass.I can't do anything to be sorry for you.If I had paid off that debt earlier and hadn't paid it back, that's the only way things would go.It's not right, Johnny, but there's nothing I can do about it.You have done me a favor, and I should repay you. I expected it.Kernan smiled smugly, raised his glass and said, I can judge people.Cheers to Barney because he's such a nice guy. If the account is settled between you and me, Woods went on calmly, as if talking to himself, even if all the money in all the banks in New York is piled up in front of me, I will never try to bribe me to let you escape tonight. the palm of my hand.

I see it that way too.Kernan said, so I know I'm safe dealing with you. Most people look down on my profession, the detective went on, and they don't consider it a noble profession.But I'm kind of stupid, and I've always been proud of my line of work.This time I overturned the car.I think it's because I'm a human being first and a detective second.I have to let you go, and then I have to resign.I think I can catch a wagon.The date to pay back your thousand dollars is going to be later, Johnny. Needless to say.Kernan said grandly, I would love to write it off, but I know you won't agree.It was my luck that you borrowed money from me.Let's not talk about that.I'll take the train to the west early tomorrow morning.There was a place for me to hide from the limelight until the Norcross case died down.Drink, Barney, and leave your worries behind.Let's have a drink and let the people in the police department worry about this case.I feel as thirsty as the Sahara again tonight.But I'm in my friend Barney's non-official hands, and I don't have to worry about the police coming after me.

Kernan rang the bell frequently, and the waiters came and went to serve him. At this time, Kernan's weakness, extreme vanity and self-aggrandizement began to be exposed.He spoke endlessly of his successful thefts, clever schemes, and dishonorable illegalities, and though Woods was often associated with gangsters and villains, he developed contempt and loathing for this most wicked man who had bequeathed him. Of course, it is inconvenient for me to intervene now, Woods finally said, but I advise you to stay out of public for the time being.The press might seize on the Norcross case.There has been an epidemic of looting and homicide this summer.

These few words set Kernan's sullen sullenness on fire. To hell with the press.He snarled, what else are they going to do but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?What good would it do if they intervened in a case?Even the police department is a bunch of wimps; what can they do?They'll just send a bunch of idiot reporters to the scene; the reporters dove into a nearby hotel, drank a beer, took a photo of the waiter's oldest daughter in a tuxedo, and said she was the one who gave the tenth hand account The young man's fiancée, on the night of the murder, the young man seemed to hear some noise downstairs.That was all the clues the press had found about the thieves. Well, I can't tell.Woods muses that there are a few newspapers that do a pretty good job of this.Take, for example, The Martian Morning Post.The police department has cooled down, it put forward two or three new clues, and the perpetrator was finally caught. I'll show you.Kernan puffed out his chest, stood up and said, I'll show you. I don't pay much attention to ordinary newspapers, let alone the "Martian Morning Post" you mentioned. There was a phone booth three feet from their desk.Kernan went in and sat down by the telephone, leaving the door open.He found a number in the phone book, took off the handset, and asked the telephone company for the number.His mocking, grim and wary face moved closer to the microphone, his vicious thin lips pursed into a contemptuous smile.Woods sat still, only to hear Kernan say: Is it the Morning Mars?I spoke to the managing editor and told him he was being asked to speak to him about the Norcross murder. Are you the editor in chief?Well old Norcross was the one I killed Hold on!Don't hang up; I'm not messing around, there's no danger here.I was just talking about it with a detective friend of mine.I shot the old man at 2:30 in the morning, and tomorrow will be two full weeks of drinking with you?Come on, leave that kind of talk to the buffoons.Can't you tell if they're teasing you, or giving you the scoop that your shitty paper never got?Yeah, that's right; sure-fire scoop but you can't expect me to give you names and addresses over the phone and why!Oh, that's because I heard you guys are good at solving mysteries that even the police department finds difficult. No, that's not the end.What am I saying, is your smug paper no better at tracking clever murderers or robbers than a blind poodle?Oh no, I'm not your rival newspaper; I'm telling you first hand.I did the Norcross case, and the jewels are in my suitcase at the hotel where I'm staying. The name of the hotel has not been given. Does that sound familiar to you?I had expected it.You are using too much.You're kind of annoyed that a mysterious thug is calling your great mouthpiece of justice and political clarity calling you bullshit wimps, isn't it?Come; you ain't so stupid as that, no, I can hear it in your voice Well, listen to me, I'll give you one more detail to prove my word.Of course you've sent the brilliant young fools of your newspaper to investigate the murder.The second button on old Mrs. Norcross's pajamas was half broken.I noticed it as I swiped the garnet ring off her hand.I thought it was a ruby! Don't do that!impossible. Kernan turned to Woods with a smirk. I moved him.He believes it now.He didn't cover the phone and told someone to use another phone to check our number with the telephone company.I'll poke him one more time and we'll leave. Hello!Yes, I am still here.You don't think that you, a subsidized newspaper, can scare me away by selling other people's tabloids, do you want to arrest me within forty-eight hours?Hey, stop laughing.I advise you to ignore the affairs of the elders, or to cover some divorce cases and traffic accidents, and rely on your rumors and pornographic news for a living.Goodbye, brother, I don't have time to visit, sorry.I'll be safe in your donkey den.Ha ha! He was annoyed like a cat that couldn't catch a mouse.Kernan hung up the phone and said, Brother Barney, it's still early to go to bed, let's go to a play and have fun.I'll just get four hours of sleep and head west. third chapter The two ate at a restaurant on Broadway.Kernan was triumphant.He spends like a prince in a novel.Then they went to a new and gorgeous musical comedy.Afterwards, I went to a barbecue shop for supper and drank champagne. Kernan's spirits couldn't be higher. They were sitting in an all-night café at three-thirty in the morning, Kernan boasting endlessly and Woods gloomily considering his career as a defender of the law was doomed. He thought about it, and there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. I don't know if it's possible, he said to himself, I don't know if it's possible! At this time, vague shouts broke the relative silence of the morning outside the cafe; those shouts were like fireflies of voices, some getting louder, some gradually weakening, in the milk truck and the sparse street cars. The ups and downs ebb and flow in the rumbling sound.The shouts were harsh as they approached. These familiar sounds brought multiple meanings to the millions of people who woke up from their slumber in the big cities.The small but profound volume of these cries contains the sorrow and laughter, joy and distress of the world.To some who cower under the fleeting shelter of night they bring the inescapably dreadful tidings of day; to others who sleep soundly in sleep they herald a dawn darker than night.To the wealthy, they bring a broom to sweep away what was theirs when the stars were shining; to the poor, they bring just a new day. Shouts began to rise all over the city, shrill and loud, heralding the opportunities offered when a cog in the time machine snapped into place; they brought new numbers in the calendar to vengeance, profit, sorrow, reward and doom to the sleepers at the mercy of fate assigned to the appropriate persons.The cries were plaintive and piercing, as if young voices were lamenting how little good and so much evil had been done to the people by their irresponsible hands.The voices that echoed over the powerless city streets conveyed the latest decrees of Shinto, they were the shouts of the newsboys, the loud horns of the press. Woods tossed a dime to the waiter and said, Buy me a copy of The Morning Martian. When the paper was brought, he glanced at the first page, then tore a page out of his note-pad, and wrote with the little gold pencil. What's the news?Kernan asked, yawning. Woods threw his note to Kernan: New York Morning Mars: Thanks to John.Kernan was arrested and brought to justice. Please give the reward of 1,000 yuan in my name to Kernan himself. Barnard.woods When you tease them blatantly, Woods said, that's what I thought they might do.Now, Johnny, come with me to the police station.