That Han Haoran knew that He Boge and Wei Taiqiang could provide him with many resources, so the relationship between that Han Haoran and He Bog became closer and closer.

In that Han Haoran's eyes, the Tutu Bridge was no longer very reliable.

So that Han Haoran was in a hurry to help him find a few new bosses, and that He Boge and Wei Taiqiang appeared at the right time, if that He Boge didn't express their kindness to that Han Haoran.

That Han Haoran will also come into contact with that He Boge and Wei Taiqiang for his own future.

Now, that Han Haoran feels that their relationship is a matter of course.

That Han Haoran said to Wei Taiqiang: "Can we cooperate?" Brothers? ”

Wei Taiqiang said: "Of course you can, haven't we been working together? ”

Han Haoran said: "You know, I mean that our cooperation is closer, that is, I work for you. ”

"He can't stand it anymore, Mr. Tu Tuqiao. He's going to die. The intervals are getting shorter and shorter. I'm scared to death. Not only worried, but also scared. It's so abnormal. We have been married for five years. Roger has always been a good drinker, but he is not a perverted drunkard. Something must be wrong. I hope to find him. I slept less than an hour last night. ”

“

"It's scary. Smart, ruthless and cruel. He thinks he is witty, but in fact he is despicable. ”

"You didn't mention violence."

She raised her brown eyebrows. "Only once, Mr. Tu Tuqiao. That thing has been over-exaggerated. There's no way I'm going to tell Howard Spencer. It was Roger himself who told him. ”

I stood up and walked around the house. It looks like it's going to be hot. It's actually quite hot. I turned the curtain of a window to block out the sunlight and spoke to her straight down.

"I looked him up in Who's Who yesterday afternoon. He is forty-two years old, married to you for the first time, and has no children. His ancestors were New Englanders, and he attended school in Andoval and Princeton. He had enlisted in the army and had a good record. He's written twelve thick histories about sex and fencing, and every fucking book has made the bestseller list. Must have earned a lot of money. If he is disgusted with his wife, it seems that he will directly say it and ask for a divorce. If he messes around with other women, you might know that he doesn't have to drink to prove he's in a bad mood. You were married for five years, and he was thirty-seven years old. I think he should have known most about women at that time. I say most of it, because no one fully understands. ”

I stopped to look at her, and she smiled at me. I didn't hurt her feelings, so I went on.

"Howard Spencer suggests—on what basis I don't know—that Roger Wade's problem is that it happened a long, long time ago that you were married, and now the aftermath has appeared, and the blow is unbearable. Spencer thought of blackmail. Would you know? ”

She shook her head slowly, and said, "If you mean Roger paying a large sum of money to someone, I wouldn't know—no, I wouldn't know." I don't interfere in his accounts. Even if he gives away a large sum of money, I may not know. ”

"That's okay. I don't know Mr. Wade to know how he would react to being ripped off. If he has a short temper, he may break the man's neck. If the secret jeopardizes his social or professional standing, in the extreme case, or even recruits law enforcement officers, he may break the bank – at least temporarily. But it didn't help us much. You want to find him, you're worried, and not just worried. So how do I find him? I don't want your money, Mrs. Wade. Not yet. ”

She reached into her purse again and pulled out two yellow pieces of paper. It looks like folded letterhead, with one page crumpled in a ball. She flattened the paper and handed it to me.

"There's one I found on his desk." "Late at night, or early in the morning," she said. I knew he was drinking, I knew he didn't go upstairs. I went down at about two o'clock to see if he was okay — if there was anything serious, if he had passed out on the floor or on a recliner, or something. He's gone. The other one is in the paper basket, it is better to say that it is stuck on the edge and did not fall in. Peters strode to the other end of the room and pushed away one of the photographs. There is a gray microphone receiver embedded in the wall at the back. He pulled it out, unplugged a wire connector, put it back in, and moved the photo back in front of the receiver.

"Now I'm idle," he said, "it's just that the bastard went out to solve a drunk driving case for an actor." All the microphone switches are in his office. He laid out the entire black shop in the line. Two days ago I suggested that he install an infrared microfiche camera behind the transparent glass in the reception room, but he was not very appreciative. Maybe it's because someone else pretended to be. ”

He sat down in a hard gray chair. I stared at him. He was a clumsy man with long legs, a thin face, and a high sideburns; His skin looks haggard and seems to be outdoors all the time, exposed to the sun and rain. His eyes are deep-set, and his upper lip is almost as long as his nose. When he laughed, the lower half of his face was gone, leaving only two large grooves that ran from his nostrils to the end of his wide mouth.

"How would you accept that?" I asked him.

"Sit down, man. Breathe quietly, keep the volume down, and don't forget that the Karn staff is a far cry from a cheap detective like you, like Toscanini and an organ-playing monkey. He paused and grinned, "I accept it because I don't care." Good income here. If one day Karn thought I was still serving my sentence in the highest-security prison in England, which he was in charge of during the war, and his attitude was too bad, I immediately took the check and left. What difficulties do you have? I've heard that you suffered a while ago. ”

"Nothing to complain about. I'd like to see your files on those who don't follow the rules. I know you have. Eddie Daust told me when he left his job. ”

He nodded, "Eddie is a little too sensitive to stay in the Karn Agency. The dossier you mentioned is top secret. Under no circumstances shall confidential information be disclosed to outsiders. I'll look for it right away. ”

He walked out, and I stared at the gray paper basket, the gray floor, and the gray corners of the tabletop blotter. Peters came back with the gray folder in his hand, put it down and opened it.

"God, is there anything you have here that isn't gray?"

。 When sober he was just an old fashionista with superficial charm, which I didn't hate, because most people didn't even have superficial charm, including Karn—who was as boring as the lining of a steelmaking furnace. The old customer was drunk and had a strange habit of writing checks from banks with which he had no business dealings. He always made amends, and with my help, he hasn't been in jail so far. He gave me this cigar. Do you want to smoke together, like two Indian chiefs planning a massacre? ”

"I can't smoke a cigar."

Peters looked sadly at the giant cigar. "Me too," he said, "I want to give it to Karn. But this isn't really a solo cigar, even if it's Kahn's number. He frowned. Do you know? I talk too much about Karn. I must have been nervous. He put the cigar back in the drawer and looked at the open file. What exactly are we looking for? ”

"I'm looking for an alcoholic with an expensive hobby and money. So far, he has not been in the habit of skipping tickets. At least I haven't heard of it. He was a bit violent, and his wife was worried about him. She thought he might be hiding somewhere to sober up, but she wasn't sure. The only clue was a note mentioning Dr. V. Abbreviated letters only. The person I'm looking for has been missing for three days. ”

Peters glared at me thoughtfully. "It's not too long." He said, "What is there to worry about? Si thought about it, shook his head and said, "I don't agree." As long as he is not too greedy, he can go on like this forever. His only danger lies in the disgruntled customer — sorry, I mean the patient — but he probably knows how to deal with it. He has been practicing medicine in the same office for 15 years. ”

"Where did you get all this information?" I asked him.

"Dude, we're an institution, not like you're a lone wolf. Some of the information is provided by the customers themselves, and some is from in-house. Karn wasn't afraid to spend money. When he wants to, he's quite sociable. ”

"He must have liked this passage very much."

"Listen," he said, "there are probably hundreds of places where the person you're looking for will go." ”

I said I knew.

"By the way, I've heard something about your friend Lennox that might be of interest to you. We had a colleague who met a guy in New York five or six years ago who matched him perfectly. But he said that the man's surname was not Lennox, his surname was Maston. Of course he could be mistaken. The man was drunk all day long, so it's hard to determine. ”

I said, "I doubt it's the same person." Why did he change his surname? There are war records to be checked. ”

"I don't know. Our colleague is currently in Seattle, and if you feel the need, you can talk to him when he returns. His surname is Ashterfeldt. ”

"Thanks for the help, George. That's a long 10 minutes. ”

"Maybe one day I'll need your help."

I said, "The Kahn Agency doesn't need anyone to help with anything. "I turned in and followed a gravel path around the shoulder of the hill and went up a gentle hill, over a ridge and into a shallow valley from the other side. The valley floor is hot, and the temperature is about ten or fifteen degrees warmer than on the road. Now I can see that at the end of the gravel path is a ring around a meadow with whitewashed stones at the edges. On my left is an empty swimming pool, and it seems that there is no more empty pool than the empty one. The three sides of the pool were supposed to be turf, and there were mahogany chaise longues on them, and the cushions were badly faded, which should have been blue, green, yellow, orange, rust red, and all kinds of colors. The piping has been rolled in some places, the buttons are stretched, and the padding is bulging out. On the other side of the pool is the high-speed wire mesh of the tennis court. The diving board of the empty swimming pool was bent and tired. The outer padding was tattered, and the metal fittings were rusty.

I drove to the circle and stopped in front of a mahogany house with a shingle-roofed roof and a wide front porch. The entrance has two screen doors. The big black fly rests on the gauze and dozes off. The evergreen, perpetually grey California oak has winding paths, while the oak grove has country cottages scattered along the hillside, some almost completely obscured by the shadows. The few buildings that can be seen are all desolate off-season. The doors were closed, and the windows were covered with curtains such as mesh and cotton. The thick dust on the windowsill was almost palpable.

I turned off the fire and sat quietly with my hands on the steering wheel. There was no movement. The place was as dead as the remains of an ancient pharaoh, except for the door in the double screen door, and something swaying in the dark room. At this moment I heard a slight but accurate whistle, and a man appeared inside the screen door, opened it, and slowly walked down the steps. He's a wonderful man.

He wears a flat black shepherd's hat with a strap tied under his chin; Dressed in a white silk shirt, spotlessly clean, with an open neckline, puff sleeves, and tightly tied wrists; A black bearded scarf was tied crookedly around his neck, one short and the other waist-long. He also wears a wide black belt, black trousers, and his hips are tightly wrapped and black as coal, and gold threads are sewn on the sides that lead to the slit, which is embellished with gold buckles on both sides. On his feet, he wore patent leather dancing shoes.

He stopped at the bottom of the steps, looked at me, still whistling. Agile as a whip. I've never seen such empty smoky eyes in my life, and long eyelashes are as bright as silk; The body is slender, but not weak; The bridge of the nose is straight, not too thin, the mouth is pouting beautifully, the chin has dimples, and the small ears are elegantly attached to the head; His skin was pale and he seemed to have never been exposed to the sun.

He placed his left hand on his hip, and his right hand made a graceful arc in the air, making a wry gesture.

"Hello." He said, "The weather is wonderful, isn't it?" ”

"I think it's hot in here."

"I like hot days." To put it bluntly, there is no room for discussion. What I like he is dismissive. He sat down on the steps, took out a long file, and began to file his nails. "You're from the bank?" He didn't even look up when he asked.

"I'm looking for Dr. Wellinger."

He stopped filing his nails, looked into the warm distance, and said, "Who is he?" ”

"He's the owner here. Pretty crisp, huh? Pretend not to know. ”

He continued to manicure his nails with a file. "You heard you wrong, baby. The owner here is the bank. They confiscated the collateral or held it for the time being for transfer or something. I forgot the details. ”

He looked up at me with a look of nonchalance to detail. I got out of the car, leaned against the hot door, and then moved out of the way and stood in a more ventilated area.

"Which bank?"

"If you don't know, then you're not from there. If you're not from there, you don't have anything to do. Let's go, baby. Hurry up and get out. ”

"I have to find Dr. Wellinger."

"This venue is not open, baby. The sign has already said that this is a private road. One of the errand runners forgot to lock the door. ”

"You're a manager?"

"Almost. Ask no more, baby. My temper is not very reliable. ”

"What do you do when you're angry - dancing with a weasel?"