America's King of Poetry

Chapter 35 The Madison Deal

With a "click", in the corner of the history and local chronicles reading room on the second floor of the New York City Public Library, a book fell from the shelf and fell to the ground.

The bookshelf trembled a few times, and the readers who were reading with their heads down on the next bookshelf cast their gazes this way. He heard a voice over there, and someone called out softly, "Ah", which was very short and then disappeared.

After a while, Arthur came out from behind the bookshelf. He looked normal, walked to the side of the fallen book, picked it up, patted it, and put it back to its original position.Then, Karen also came out. She straightened her glasses and hair, and breathed a sigh of relief.There was an unconcealable sense of joy and a trace of flush on her face, and the freckles on her nose looked even more lovely.

Arthur noticed the stranger looking over his head, and the two exchanged glances, both showing understanding smiles.

Karen stepped forward, leaned over and asked softly, "Are you a chef?"

Arthur was slightly surprised, how did she know, "Yeah, Luciano Restaurant in Little Italy."

He doesn't shy away from his identity. The chef is a good identity cover for him. Although he is a bit frustrated, he is low-key and harmless, unobtrusive.

There was a hint of slyness in Karen's eyes, obviously proud of her guess of Arthur's identity, her tone was no longer as calm as before, but with a sense of contempt, she explained: "You smell like a kitchen."

This kind of contempt made Arthur a little uncomfortable. Arthur knew that Karen must have a very good background. In her eyes, he was a small candy that he found by accident, not even a dessert after dinner.Her green eyeballs rolled up and down, and that look was the critical look of judging the prey after the fact, without tenderness and admiration, which is something only in Gina's eyes.

"Oh, Gina..." Arthur thought of Gina, who was still waiting for him in the rose reading room.

So he said to Karen in a cold tone: "I'm leaving, thank you for helping me, thank you very much."

Karen was quite surprised by Arthur's sudden indifference, she thought Arthur would pester her for a contact information or something.She also lowered her face and waved lightly at Arthur, "Nice to meet you, goodbye."

Saying that, the two parted ways on the second floor.Except for a moment of flirting, Arthur knew nothing about this woman, not even whether her name was real.But he didn't care, in the mind of Arthur's memory, it was just another addition to the roster of Italian ponies.

Arthur thought that Gina would be waiting in a hurry on the third floor, and maybe she was looking for him everywhere. He ran upstairs in three steps and two steps, but when he arrived at the Rose Reading Room, he found Gina lying on the desk with earphones plugged in, and fell asleep with the air conditioner blowing on...

Gently pushing her awake, Gina took off the earphones and rubbed her eyes, put her arms around Arthur's waist, and hugged him to enjoy a moment of tenderness.But she noticed something immediately, sniffed, looked up at Arthur vigilantly, and asked, "Arthur, you have a scent on you."

Arthur's scalp was numb, but he immediately calmed down, touched Gina's head, and said, "I went to the bathroom just now, and there was a woman who kept spraying perfume at the door. I might have gotten some..." As soon as he finished speaking, Arthur sneezed immediately, as if the fragrance was still irritating his nasal cavity.

Gina looked at Arthur dubiously, then looked at her watch, thinking that nothing would happen in the library for ten or ten minutes, so she let go of her guard.Gina is still a little younger.

The two arrived on the first floor. Arthur met Gina's friend in the lobby. What Gina was worried about did not happen. Arthur and her friend did not see each other at all.Although the blond-haired Jenny's eyes stayed on Arthur for a few seconds, she was not interested in the appearance of the half-Italian. What he liked was a pure white guy with the same light hair as her.

And Arthur has no feelings for these high school students, except for Gina, because they were together before he crossed over.To be honest, Arthur still prefers mature women, a Gina is enough for him.

At this time, Arthur happened to see Karen passing by the hall, holding a book in his hand, passing by Arthur.When she passed by, she didn't look at Arthur, but she stretched out her hand to stroke her hair lightly, and the sapphire on her snow-white wrist was shining, which caught Arthur's attention.She walked away on long, slender legs without looking at Arthur, but Arthur knew that she saw him.

……

It was past six o'clock in the evening Eastern Time, and night gradually shrouded New York City.

Abramo drove back to the gate of his son's school and picked Angelo up to watch a game at Madison Square Garden.

In the car, Abramo was in a good mood and did not lose his temper because of the traffic jam in New York.There is still more than an hour before the start of the game, and he is not in a hurry.Angelo took out a New York Knicks No. 33 jersey from his schoolbag and put it on. This is Ewing's number.Although living in New Jersey, Angelo is a Knicks fan and has no interest in the New Jersey Nets.

The unhappiness of being banned from driving to school by his dad was gone, and he was happy to get a front row seat to the game in Madison tonight.This year the Knicks are doing very well in the Eastern Conference. Michael Jordan announced his retirement last summer, and the Knicks have no opponents in the Eastern Conference.

They signed Anthony Bonner and Gerard Padio in the summer to further enrich their already very strong front line.In January of this year, Derek Harper was traded again, and his strength was further expanded.Before tonight's match against the Miami Heat, the Knicks had won an astonishing 14 straight games and are currently the hottest team in the league.

Abramo watched his son happy, and of course he was also in a good mood. Although he is not a basketball fan, he prefers football.As an old-school Italian gang member, Abramo has a disdain for blacks in his heart, so he naturally looks down on the NBA league dominated by blacks.

But there is no way, football lacks sufficient influence in the United States. In the New York area, football, baseball, and basketball are the favorites of young people.Angelo's favorite is the gorilla Ewing. Seeing him, Abramo thinks he is the best evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution.

At seven o'clock, the father and son arrived at the garden square.Parked the car, and walked in through the main entrance with many fans. A long poster hung above the main entrance. Tonight is the Knicks game. The promotional photos of the Knicks team were printed on the poster.Patrick Ewing's head was placed in the middle, and Abramo looked up at the poster, muttering, "I don't know, I thought "Planet of the Apes" will be screened tonight."

After the ticket check, the two entered the noisy court, where the Knicks and Heat players were already warming up.This time, Abramo got a ticket for a front row seat near the player's bench, which costs more than 1000 US dollars. A few seats in front of the seat, you can see Spike Lee, a diehard Knicks director.

After finding a seat and sitting down, Abramo ordered a box of popcorn and two cups of Coke from the staff selling snacks, and the game would start in a while.The sound of music and DJ's on the scene is getting louder and louder. Angelo has entered the state and started to join the enthusiastic atmosphere with the fans around him.

Abramo's attention was not on the court, he looked left and right, as if looking for something.

Soon, his eyes were fixed, he found his target, handed the Coke in his hand to Angelo, and said loudly, "Angelo, I'm going to the bathroom!"

Abramo got out of his seat, went to the nearest restroom, and pretended to pee in front of the toilet.After a while, a man in an old beige suit came in, stood beside Abramo, unzipped his trousers, and poured water into the urinal.

"Your seat is really far away." Abramo said, obviously speaking to the man beside him.

"I'm not as rich as you. What's the matter with me? Is the East Rutherford matter still unresolved?" the man asked anxiously.

This person is Hunter, and he is an insider of Abramo in the New York Police Department. Of course, he is not an undercover agent, but a serious detective.It’s just that he was addicted to gambling, and was pulled into the gang by Abramo. He often provided Abramo with some information in the police station, and Abramo gave him some benefits accordingly.

Abramo found out through the engineering vehicle that Jackie Gandelfield was behind the killing of Vera in East Rutherford, and it was Hunter who helped.Abramovich asked him to meet at Madison Garden today. This guy is also a fan of the Knicks. The Knicks never lost a game.

Abramo shook, seeing no one around, took out a photo from his pocket and put it on Hunter's urinal, said: "New thing, help me look up this girl, it should be in the missing persons directory." What he took out was the photo of Anna that Arthur gave him at the Good Friday Festival.

Hunter looked at it twice and wanted to put the photo away, but Abramo snatched the photo back.

"Hey, how can I check if you don't give me a photo?"

"Just look at it and write down the appearance."

As he spoke, Abramo showed Hunter the photo again.Hunter squinted his eyes and saw that she was indeed a very beautiful little girl, but there are tens of thousands of such missing beautiful little girls in the United States. How could he find them without a photo?The United States began to establish a database of missing persons in 1950, and began to digitize the data in the 90s, which can be queried through computers on the intranet.Thousands of people go missing in the United States every year, and tens of thousands of data are kept in the database.

"Can I draw him?" Hunter felt that a good memory is worse than a bad pen.

Abramo agreed, and Hunter took out the notepad and pencil that he carried with him. As a police detective, these two things are more important than guns.He looked at the photo and drew an outline. He had received professional face sketch training, and he drew Anna's features with just a few strokes.

"It's a good painting... Hey, do you want to bet on tonight's game?" Abramo put away the photo, and went to the sink with Hunter to wash his hands.

"What bet? Tonight's game?" Hunter asked while washing his hands, and it was obvious that his eyes lit up when he heard the word bet.

"Tonight's game, the regular season, the finals, wins and losses, big and small points, halftime points, everything is fine...I bet the Knicks will win tonight, with a 7.5 point margin."

"...I don't have cash with me...I'm also bullish on the Knicks."

"It's okay, I'll make a call and place your bet, $1000? OK?"

"OK!" Hunter gritted his teeth and agreed.

After meeting with Jackie in the morning, Abramo has obtained the operating rake rights of a part of sports betting in the New York area, and the gambling industry, another leg of the Gandolfield family, will also enter Arthur's attack range.

This year happened to be 1994, and the two major events in the sports betting industry were the NBA Finals in June and the World Cup in the United States.

(End of this chapter)