After making five calls and no one answered, Rob was about to temporarily give up contacting his partner. At the last minute, the call was actually connected. He heard a voice that didn't sound awake in the background of huge noisy and harsh music: "Rob? Is there something to do with me?"
Of course something! I'm going crazy! Rob resisted the urge to growl, raised his volume and said, "Leo, where are you? I think we have to meet."
"Where... I don't know, a bar, or a nightclub?" The voice on the other end was floating in the tide of DJ music, as if a leaf had escaped from the canoe controlled by the master, "Hi girl, you know this is where?"
"... They say you have drunk too much... Who wants to have another drink with me... Handsome guy, she is so disappointed, I will drink with you..." The female voice floated vaguely, it seemed that there was more than one.
Rob sullen his face, and the blue veins jumped up at the corner of his forehead: "—Leo! What the hell are you in!"
"I don't know... I'm familiar... The purple butterfly lamp... I remember you were here..." the other party replied incoherently.
Rob knew where he was. As a nightclub enthusiast, the green-eyed agent has overstepped HIGH in the "Scary Banshee" more than once, and was dragged back into the car by his partner looking for him. Once he was so drunk, he grabbed Leo by his shirt and kept asking: "Are you straight or curved? You don't have a girlfriend or a boyfriend... Are you a narcissist?" The annoyed partner He hit his stomach with a punch and vomited so much that his shoes stinks.
—On the contrary, now he has to get his partner back.
Rob easily found a nightclub hidden in a dark alley, struggling to push away the crazy dancing crowd in the hall, looking around in the blurry and flickering lights, and finally found the black-haired agent in a semi-open box.
He was obviously already drunk and couldn't tell the south, east, west and northwest. He leaned back on the back of the sofa, and his meticulously combed black hair fell down and sprinkled messily on his smooth forehead. The suit jacket was thrown on the armrest, his white shirt opened at least four buttons from the neckline down, and most of his chest was exposed. Compared with pure white people, his pores were too delicate and his body hair was too few to stand out. His smooth skin and strong muscles look as if they are carved from light-colored marble under the cold light, enticing the viewer's gaze to continue down along the toned lines and explore the rest of the clothes hidden in the clothes.
At this moment, two or three hands painted with different colors of nail polish are moving on his chest, and women with heavy makeup are hanging enthusiastically on him, and the buttocks skirt is grinding between his thighs.
If always, Rob would appreciate this rare spectacle, but today he was completely out of interest and walked straight forward: "Well girls, it's time to return him to me.
One of them, the blonde girl with big round earrings and tattoos on her neck, raised her head and stared at him with a grumpy expression interrupted by good deeds: "Go away with your clumsy means, boy, he is ours! You want to kill my brother. Our fists?"
Rob took out his ID from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. The golden badge shook and quickly put it away. It was so fast that the words could not be read at all. "The Narcotics Administration. Do you want to go back with me for a urine test?"
The three girls changed their expressions, picked up their bags and ran away. In such a place, few people have never tasted soft drugs such as psychedelics. Maybe they have ready-made goods in their handbags. .
Rob ignored them, and shook his eyes with the black-haired partner, who was confused, and found that he was a little unconscious. The apartment on East 86th Street in Manhattan opened the door with the key from the other's pocket, carried him into the room with great difficulty, and threw him in the bathtub as if venting his anger. Then he fought the shower, turned the water flow to the maximum, and poured his head and face at the alcoholic guy.
Under the stimulation of the cold water, the black-haired agent seemed to wake up quite suddenly, covering his face with his hands to calm down for a while, then wiped his wet hair back, and tried to get up and out of the bathtub with vain steps.
Rob held his arm, his tone mixed with worry and dissatisfaction: "Leo! I don't know when you added a hobby of drinking?"
"That doesn't seem to be your patent." The other party replied with a cold expression.
Rob sighed, then said again: "This is not the Leo I know? Lawrence! He will never leave the task in his hand and go to the nightclub alone to get drunk, because he loves this job more than anyone else. !"
"So I asked for annual leave." Leo shook his hand unmovedly. "From the time I stepped into the Bureau of Investigation until now, for eight years, I haven't taken an annual leave. The only time I was injured before. The vacation is also aborted-can't I take a complete vacation?"
Rob was speechless. Watching him take off his drenched clothes as he walked, throwing him on the floor casually, and finally walked naked to the bedroom and took out his casual clothes from the closet and put them on. Even if he was 100% sure that he was a heterosexual, the green-eyed agent couldn't help turning his face away, as if the perfect nakedness of another man was dazzling sunlight, which would burn the retina over time.
"But you can't just leave it alone, whether it's this case or... him." Rob said with a sigh, "I know that there are many conflicts and serious problems between you, and that he deceived and used you-no, yes. We, I were also fooled by his disguised personality. This is indeed very angry, hateful, and a deep sense of shame. But I always feel that there is something... No That's right, although I can't tell what it is, but..."
He paused, as if he chose the most appropriate description for a certain sensation, "Do you remember the cultural relic smuggling case we checked? That invaluable ancient Chinese painting? From the outside, it's finished. It's completely another painting. No matter whether we use carbon-14, infrared, or other detection methods, we can't find any strangeness. At that time, I thought we were completely mistaken, and it was not the ancient painting at all. .Until you invited a paper-papering master from China, slowly tore a layer of rice paper on its surface, revealing the real face below, I didn’t know that this is the so-called “picture-in-picture”. So many advanced instruments are available. There is nothing I can do, but only with years of experience and insights immersed in this way, with the most ancient and wise technology, can the illusion as thin as a cicada's wings be unveiled..."
"What do you want to explain?" his partner asked back.
"Perhaps this analogy is not appropriate, but I still feel that-finishing is like that picture-in-picture." Rob paused, and said: "No matter what is hidden below, the truth is definitely not the one on the surface. "
"So what? He is not a famous painting, and I have no responsibility or obligation to explore whether there is an even uglier truth below the ugly appearance. Catch him, and my task has been completed!" Leo bent over and sat on the side of the bed. , With his elbows propped on his knees and his temples with both hands, the colic sensation in the depths of his brain made him almost unable to think.
"I don't believe you will give up easily. Chasing the truth behind the darkness is your almost instinctive obsession." Rob insisted on persuading, "Even if you encounter a major setback, you will not collapse, let alone escape through alcohol. You are not such a person!"
The black-haired agent looked up at him from the palm of his hand. The bloodshot eyes around the dark blue iris and the deep cyan shadow under the eye sockets could hardly conceal the exhaustion of exhaustion, "—you know what it was when I slept last time. Is it time?" He suddenly changed the subject.
Rob was startled. "Last night?"
"Three days ago. From the moment I caught him, I couldn't fall asleep, and I couldn't sleep for a minute." Leo said nonchalantly, "You know that a person can live if he doesn't sleep at all. How many days?"
"God!" Rob changed his face and squatted down and grabbed his arm hard: "Why? Haven't you been taking medicine all the time... Sorry, I have no intention of spying on your privacy, but I do know that you are eating some spiritual things." Medicines, although you don’t tell anyone. It’s nothing. In our business, there are more or less problems in that area... Is the medicine ineffective, or is it a side effect?"
Leo slowly shook his head, "The side effects of the drug are very big, but I am quitting, and I will soon succeed. The problem is not the drug... Don’t you understand, Rob? I’ve never really fallen in love before. Who, find a suitable girl, date, marry, have a few children, plain and stable-I think the so-called relationship is like this. I think I am calm and rational enough to love those young people who love them to death. Our enthusiasm and enthusiasm sneered, until I met Li Biqing, I realized that when something came, I would not accept my wisdom at all, and your reason was like a climber in an avalanche. I was willing to die in the great world. Naturally magnificent and magnificent, but when I turned my head, I discovered that this was actually a man-made disaster. Several cameras were set up in a hidden place next to me, just to take pictures of my hesitating, frightened, desperate, intoxicated and so on. For fun—can you understand my mood at this moment, Rob?"
"—I understand." The green-eyed agent squeezed his hands, and tried his best to transmit the heat of his palms to the other party. "I know you love Li Biqing. Until now, you still refuse to treat him and Shaqing as the same person. You even think that Li Biqing’s demise was caused by the emergence of the final, and it was the final murder of him."
Leo had a green face, and after a long while, he said in a very tired voice: "Yes, this is a murder with no body, no evidence, and no traceability. Only I know what kind of boy he took from mine. Completely erased from life... I hate him, Rob, I have never hated anyone like this purely personally. Even the most brutal criminal, only got the righteous indignation of Agent Leo, and he—if he wanted me Remember the words of a lifetime with hatred, then he has already got his wish!"
Rob was silent, and at this moment he suddenly remembered Leo's eyes. When the black-haired agent stared at the mocking portrait posted on the wall, his eyes seemed to be jumping in the depths of contemplation with a subtle firelight—whether the firelight came from a different standpoint of admiration, appreciation, or sympathy, in short, it was bright and bright. It was warm and lasted for a whole year. "... Is there only hatred?" he asked awkwardly.
This sentence was like a key to unlock the memory cage, and countless fragments of the picture swarmed out like escape, so that his brain jumped suddenly, Leo pressed his fingers tightly on his temples, trying to lock them back. But he was still a step late, and a part of the fragments that were too deep and strong had slipped out-the hand stretched out from the ventilation duct in desperation.
Bloody lips with bullets.
A bloody kiss in front of a wall full of bullet marks.
Sniffs in the dark cave.
Pain in a close fight.
She said she had a crush on him with seriousness and courage.
The surrender gesture of kneeling in front of him and the oral sex without hesitation.
The uncontrollable trembling when entering the body-the trembling caused by the insecure back posture, the strongly suppressed attacking instinct, the strong contradiction that resists the invasion of external forces and forces oneself to open up the body to accept-even if all the warmth is returned As a disguise, it is impossible to write off the trembling of the true heart.
As if trying to crush these pictures hard, Leo grabbed a black hair in pain with both hands, and groaned: "Yes... Only hate."
Rob suddenly got up, walked to the dining room, took out a bottle of whiskey from the decorative glass cabinet, unscrewed the bottle cap and stuffed it into his hand: "In this case, then you can drink it, maybe only if you get drunk can you sleep well. Last time I noticed. If you don’t want to see him again, leave the follow-up work to me. Tomorrow the prosecutor will conduct a plea bargain with the public attorney and the client, and try to get him to plead guilty directly in court."
"He won't confess guilt." Leo stared blankly at the bottle in his hand and said, "He thinks that these are all things that should be done, and he will not bow to any external pressure."
"Then the judiciary will have to fight a very troublesome and protracted battle. The bureau must also be prepared to collect sufficient evidence and provide it to the prosecutor. By then, as an agent who tracks and arrests him for a long time, your role is absolutely indispensable. Rob said, "In fact, I hope I can take the initiative to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. This will be good for everyone. It will save you from being sentenced to life imprisonment at the end of the lawsuit. He will never see the sun in this life. He has to learn to be soft and judge the situation. Like the Chinese proverb you once said-people have to bow their heads under the eaves."
—He won’t. He would rather break it without hesitation than bend it against his will, unless that kind of bend is also part of his plan. Leo said from the bottom of his heart, and then a whole bottle of whiskey was poured into his throat.
Looking at the black-haired agent who had finally fallen asleep on the bed, Rob sighed, helped him with the quilt, and then left the apartment with heavy steps.
At 7:30 in the morning, it is the breakfast time in the White Building. Unit 7R has a separate dish room and dining area, so prisoners don’t have to go to the public restaurant on this floor to squeeze. After all, the dining table in the prison is actually quite crowded. .
Alessio carried a stainless steel plate for breakfast (today it is oatmeal, fresh milk, cake and apples). After scanning the dining area, he quickly found the new Chinese youth. He sat in an inconspicuous corner, eating oatmeal, looking lonely. He was the only person at that small square table. Obviously, because of the sufficient deterrence at the orientation meeting last night, the other prisoners only dared to look at him with different meanings, but no one dared to come forward and strike up a conversation—the two Latin Americans. His example was still alive in the room. One wrist was swollen like a genetically modified radish; the other was sent to the medical room for observation because of dizziness and nausea, suspected of a slight concussion.
The young man with short brown stubble hesitated for less than a second, decided to face the difficulties, walked over to sit opposite the newcomer, and said with a slight Italian accent, "Hi, Lee."
He raised his eyes to look at him, "What's the matter?"
Alessio paused a bit awkwardly, "... Is this your first time? Uh, I mean, come in here..." Hell, this meeting language is terrible. He stirred the food in the plate grid with a spoon. Milk oatmeal, very disappointed in myself.
"Yeah." The other party replied happily, without showing any offended look. "Before this, all my impressions of prison came from movies and novels, so I was a little surprised when I saw this," he poked with a spoon. Poke the cream-smeared cake-although the appearance is not good, it is indeed a genuine cake, "I didn't expect the welfare in the prison to be pretty good."
With an easily derived topic, Alessio's tone became more natural, "Because it is a federal detention center, most of the detained prisoners here are pending prisoners. In the legal sense, we are only suspects, not criminals. And we are not criminals. Most people’s lawsuits are ongoing. Lawyers come in and out from time to time. The progress of major cases is often reported in the newspapers. If there is any abuse, being stabbed out is a complete scandal. Some people can even take advantage of this. To threaten to deal with the prison in exchange for compensation and commutation applications. So the treatment here is not bad, and the COs have a better attitude, and occasionally one or two bad-tempered people do not dare to go too far; of course, neither are the'residents' How dare you play arrogantly, because the sentence has not yet been pronounced, and once a foul is considered for the sentencing, it is likely to aggravate the sentence."
"In other words, this is a harmonious high-end community, with civilized residents and competent security guards," he drew a circle on the smooth skin of Apple with his fingertips, "at least on the surface."
Alessio laughed, "Yes, here is a small apple. The outside (he picked up the fenced window with his thumb) is a big apple. No matter what the inside is, it must be shiny on the surface. Oh, Fortunately, what you violated is a federal law. The treatment in state prisons is much worse than this. COs are all thugs and gangsters. Even if they are all federal prisons, there is a big difference between good and bad. Let’s talk about New York, which is known as the nation Ostwell Prison, one of the five luxurious prisons, we call it'Mountain', and there is also the infamous Rex Island-do you know what we call that big prison island that is divided into ten districts? "
"what?"
"'grave'."
He stopped gnawing the apple, tilted his head to look at him: "You know so clearly? Isn't it the first time?"
Alessio hurriedly replied: "No, I entered the palace as soon as I entered the palace. It was my brother who was imprisoned on the Isle of Rex. They refused to keep the accomplices in a prison."
"The accomplices? They are really brothers fighting tigers, father and son soldiers in battle. What did you do to rob the bank together?"
"No... it's just a family business." The Italian youth smiled a little dazedly. Seeing that the other person had almost finished breakfast, he got up and said: "I'll show you around. From now until the lights are turned off at 10 o'clock in the evening, they are all free activities. Time, that is, the roll call time at 4 pm and 9 pm must stay in the cell. There are self-baking bar and laundry room, video room, sports room, library, you can use it at will. Public telephones are free, but enter the ID Be careful to be monitored after the number. There are swimming pools and basketball halls on the top floor, but they are not open every day."
"—Sounds like a holiday center."
"In fact, apart from the fact that the per capita area is too small, you can’t go out at will, and the cumbersome procedures that you can’t finish, it’s really similar. The federal government spends more than $90 on each of us every day, which is comparable to the average working-class day. The salary is much higher."
While they were talking and laughing, two prison guards walked into the dining area, patrolled left and right, and stood at their table.
"Is there any problem, Yin En, Marcus, we didn't foul." Alessio said to the guard in charge of this unit.
I finally recognized that they were two of the prison guards who escorted him in last night. Marcus is a middle-aged black man with a big waist; Ian is a purebred white man with longer blond curly hair under the brim, which seems a bit too He was young, but the slight sneer on his face from the beginning to the end made him look much more mature and sophisticated than his actual age.
"It's none of your business, Alessio." Marcus said, turning his head and lifting his chin towards the finish: "3145-107, follow us."
"What are you doing?" Qin Qing asked.
"Change clothes." The black prison guard replied routinely.