America's King of Poetry

Chapter 64 Finals

On the streets of Little Italy, police cordoned off yellow and white.

A dead body lay next to a street lamp, covered with a striped Prato blanket, and two patrolmen stood beside the body, holding back the curious crowd, waiting for the ambulance to arrive.There was a mess around the corpse, with a large number of hats, scarves, blankets, T-shirts, and shirts scattered.Outside the cordon, many of them have been looted and taken away by passers-by, and no one has returned them.Even though some were stained with blood, they were still wrapped up and taken away.

This is a street stall in Little Italy, where vendors come here every morning to start their day's business at a fixed location.In a big city like New York, setting up a stall is very profitable, but you need to obtain a permit from the government.The number of such vendors' stalls is strictly controlled. Since the comprehensive management method was formulated in 1979, the number of licenses has been maintained at 853.Only when someone gives up the license can a new qualification be vacated. Otherwise, it can only be an illegal stall without a license. If caught by the police, it will be fined 250 US dollars and all the commodities and food sold will be confiscated.

This time, another permit was vacated.

Juan and Brown arrived at the scene of the incident by car. They originally planned to continue investigating the murder at hand, but they were sent another traffic case by their superiors.The two were puzzled, and the superior said that it was George Sethi, the plaintiff in Arthur Luciano's case, who had been hit and killed by a car on the side of the road, so they had to come.

Juan lifted the blanket and glanced at the corpse. It was indeed George Sisi, and Juan still remembered him.A few days ago, he took his daughter to the police station to report the incident. Juan had noticed him in the corridor, and he looked restless at the time.Now he was lying on the ground, completely dead.There were tire marks on the ground nearby, and the lamppost was stained with blood and sunken a little.

Brown asked the patrolman a few questions to understand the situation. The case was actually very simple. In the morning, Sisi came to a fixed stall to set up a stall and started his business for the day. At around nine o'clock, a brown Toyota Corolla 1993 suddenly rushed out of the main road, rushed to the roadside stall, knocked Sisi into the air, and hit his back on a lamppost.When the police arrived, Sisi had no vital signs, and the vehicle involved in the accident quickly fled the scene.

"I have sent people to chase this car, but to be honest, this is not like an accident, but a murder. If it is a murder, it is useless to chase the car, it is useless. This is Little Italy." The patrolman told Brown some of his thoughts. He has worked in Little Italy for more than ten years and understands the situation here.

"Why?" Brown asked.

"what why?"

"Why would anyone want to kill him?"

"Didn't you hear about his daughter being raped? He said the murderer was Arthur, and Arthur was named Luciano, a member of the Luciano family. This kid's father used to be the leader of the family, so this is revenge, revenge for him daring to sue."

"But I heard that this Arthur has nothing to do with gangs. After his father died, he became an ordinary person." When Brown was investigating the sexual assault case, he did a background check on Arthur. He was quite clean, and he was a cook.

"But he is a member of the family after all. And I know Arthur, a handsome guy. He has changed girlfriends one after another, and he can't count the number of hands. If he goes to Central Park, he might be poked out by gay guys. He sexually assaults others? Hehe, he is a clean kid."

At this time, after Juan checked the body and the situation at the scene, the ambulance also arrived, carried Sisi's body into the car, and sent it to the hospital morgue.Juan and Brown looked at each other, not knowing what to say.Things have gone beyond their imagination. A simple sexual assault case with solid evidence was easily overturned.The sex offender may have been someone else, and the victim's father died suddenly.Is there any connection between these two things?

"Since the two of us partnered, we haven't encountered a normal case, don't you think, Juan?" Brown rubbed his chin and said to Juan.

"Something must be happening, in New York, for sure." Juan said softly, as if speaking to Brown, as if speaking to himself.

At this time, a voice came from the patrol intercom. After a while, the patrol said to the two detectives: "The vehicle involved in the accident was found near Bridge Park. The driver fled, leaving only an empty car. The car was stolen two months ago. It was a stolen car. It was a murder, and it must have been done by a gang."

There was a smug look on the patrolman's face. He guessed right. He killed a person with a car that was stolen two months ago, and then escaped smoothly. It could only be a gang crime.They have a whole set of criminal processes, and each person only completes a certain link in the whole set of processes, which are interlocking. Although it cannot be seamless, it can still make the police feel overwhelmed.Even if the murderer is found in the end, someone will come forward to take the blame-this is also part of the process.

Hearing what the patrolman said, Juan said to Brown: "Maybe we need to talk to that Mr. Luciano again."

Brown raised his eyebrows and said, "Talk? You go and talk, I don't want to talk to that guy again. I don't know who is interrogating whom."

……

In New York in 1994, there were more than 600 murders a year, an average of two a day.This car crash murder in Little Italy was only one in 600. It left a trace on the lamppost in the Little Italy neighborhood. Many years later, the patrolmen and street vendors here would point to the bump marks on the street lamps and tell tourists who came here that a vendor was hit and killed by a car because he offended the mafia, and the murderer has not been found yet.

Have fun.

The unexpected disappearance of a life is just a normal metabolism for this city. On June 6, what really stood out to New Yorkers was the NBA Finals.Game 12 of the Finals will start at Madison Square Garden at 7 p.m.It has been 21 years since the last time the New Yorkers reached the Finals. It was 1973, the era of Willis Reed.Then they went into a long hibernation, watching the NBA become a green-and-yellow rivalry between Boston and Los Angeles in the golden '80s, and then Michael Jordan's stepping stone in the '90s.

In the summer of 1994, the New Yorkers finally returned to the center of the basketball world, facing the Houston Rockets who were also struggling.Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon met again after the 1984 NCAA Finals.Ten years ago, Olajuwon won the statistics and lost the championship. This year, Olajuwon won the regular season MVP, the best defensive player, only one championship and one finals MVP. His playing career will be complete.

The two sides fought 1:1 in Houston, and the third game in New York will be crucial, because since the 1985-2-3 format of the 2 Finals, the teams that have won the third game have all won the championship. Although this law will be broken one day, no one wants to lose this crucial third game.

But just before the start of the third final, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Houston Rockets received news that Olajuwon developed symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea after eating a McDonald's fast food last night. He was sent to a hospital in New York for treatment at noon today.As soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar.Without Olajuwon, the Rockets not only collapsed half of the sky, but the whole sky collapsed.On the one hand, the New York media expressed regret, on the other hand they secretly snickered, implying that this is an excellent opportunity for the Knicks.

At present, no one knows what happened to Olajuwon, whether it was food poisoning, or other reasons.In the few words officially disclosed by the Houston Rockets, it seems to point the finger at the McDonald's fried chicken delivery delivered at night.When Olajuwon went to away games, he had the habit of eating McDonald's fried chicken.He once filmed an advertisement for McDonald's, because of constant NG, he kept eating fried chicken over and over again, and finally ate more than 100 pieces of fried chicken.I've been in love with fried chicken ever since.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, Madison Square Garden was full of spectators in New York. The finals after 21 years made New York fans crazy.The absence of Olajuwon means that the Rockets have almost no chance of winning.The Rockets are a team built entirely around Olajuwon, with offense and defense centered on him. Without him, the Rockets wouldn't even be a playoff team.

Arthur and Gina were sitting together at the very front of the Garden Court. The game hadn't started yet, and the voices were so loud that those who were speaking normally could not hear them at all. Arthur had to shout at Gina: "Gina! I'm going to the bathroom, do you need me to buy you something?"

"Go! Just buy some popcorn!" Gina yelled at Arthur, and then joined the cheers of the New York fans. The game was about to start. The entrance ceremony, the lights on the scene were completely dimmed.At this moment, Arthur left his seat and walked towards the bathroom.The ticket was sent by Abramo. Gina was very excited when she came to Madison for the first time, and she was completely immersed in the atmosphere of the scene.

Under the cover of darkness and sound, Arthur left the seating area and went to the bathroom. At the door, he saw Abramo who was waiting for him.The two went into the bathroom together. When they came to the urinal, Abramovich looked left and right, tilted his head and said, "It's done. I said that Paul is trustworthy. The Knicks will win tonight."

Arthur nodded and said, "Good job, he is eligible to join the club. By the way, you won't poison Olajuwon to death, will you?"

"No, don't worry, he will only stay in the hospital for two or three days, as his physical fitness is so good, one day is enough."

"How about Jackie?"

"The loss was huge. He bet heavily on the Rockets to win the third game in Atlantic City. He had insider information, but he didn't expect Olajuwon not to play. Now he is desperately trying to make up for it, adjust the odds, and buy the Knicks to win elsewhere. But it was too late. There were about seven or eight peripheral bars. Before the news was released at noon today, he made a big bet at Jackie's. His casino is about to die. He will either lose money or run away, but he can't escape." The face is full of pride, the months of hard work in the casino combined with this final blow will definitely hurt the vitality of the Gandolfield family.

Arthur is fine with that, he provides the strategy, but Abramovich is the enforcer.A strategy may be a good strategy, but it is not so easy to execute perfectly.Abu did it, and he deserves to be Arthur's trustworthy captain.

After the two of them peed, Arthur's pager rang. He picked it up and took a look. It was a short message from Russell: Restaurant, everyone is here.

(End of this chapter)