On the streets of Little Italy, police have set up a yellow-and-white cordon.

A corpse lay next to a street lamp, covered with a striped Italian Prato blanket, and two patrol officers stood next to the corpse, blocking the curious crowd from coming forward and waiting for the ambulance to arrive. There was a mess around the body, with a large number of hats, scarves, blankets, T-shirts, and shirts scattered around. Outside the cordon, many have been coaxed and taken away by passers-by, and no one has returned. Even if some of them were stained with blood, they were still wrapped around their bodies and taken away.

It's the street stall in Little Italy, where vendors come every morning to start their day in a fixed spot. In a metropolis like New York, setting up a stall is very lucrative, but you need to get a government permit. The number of such stalls is strictly controlled, and the number of licences has been maintained at 853 since 1979, when the Integrated Management Measures were enacted. If someone gives up the license, there will be a new qualification vacant, otherwise it can only be an illegal stall without a license, and if caught by the police, he will be fined $250 and confiscated all the goods and food sold.

This time, another license was vacated.

Juan and Brown arrive at the scene of the accident by car, and they had planned to continue their investigation into the murder at hand, only to be assigned a traffic case by the boss. The two were puzzled, and said that it was George Cesi, the plaintiff in Arthur Luciano's case, who was hit by a car on the side of the road and died, so they had to come.

Juan lifted the blanket and looked at the body, it was indeed George Ceci, Juan remembered him. A few days ago, he took his daughter to the police station to report the crime, and Juan had kept an eye on him in the hallway, and he looked uneasy. Now he was lying on the ground, dead and dead. There were traces of tires on the ground nearby, and the lampposts were stained with blood, deflating a little inward.

Brown asked the patrol officer a few questions to understand the situation, the case is actually very simple, in the morning Sisi came to the fixed stall as usual to set up a stall, to start the day's business, around nine o'clock, a coffee-colored Toyota Corolla 1993 suddenly rushed out of the main road, rushed to the roadside stall, knocked Secy into the air, and hit the back on the lamppost. When the patrol arrived, Sisi was no longer in his vital signs, and the vehicle involved in the accident quickly fled the scene.

"Someone has been sent to chase the car, but to be honest, it's not like a crime, it's a murder. If it's murder, it's useless to chase the car, it's useless. This is Little Italy. "The Patrolman had some thoughts on Brown, who had been in Little Italy for more than a decade and knew what was going on here.

"Why?" Brown asked.

"What, why?"

"Why would anyone want to kill him?"

"Haven't you heard about his daughter being raped? He said that the murderer was Arthur, and Arthur was surnamed Luciano and was a member of the Luciano family. This kid's father used to be the head of the family, so this is revenge, revenge for daring to sue him. ”

"But I heard that this Arthur has nothing to do with the gang, and he is an ordinary person after his father's death." When Brown was investigating the sexual assault case, he did a background check on Arthur, and he was quite clean, just a cook.

"But he's a member of the family after all. And I know Arthur's boy, a handsome guy, girlfriends change one after another, and I can't count them on two hands. If he goes to Central Park, maybe he will be poked out of by, and he sexually assaults others? Hehe, he's a clean kid. The patrolman often had lunch and coffee at Luciano's restaurant, but he had two good words for Arthur.

At this point, Juan checked the body and the condition of the scene, and the ambulance arrived, carrying Secsi's body to the car and taking her to the hospital morgue. Juan and Brown looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Things have gone beyond their imagination, and what was originally a simple sexual assault case with ironclad evidence was easily overturned. The perpetrator of sexual assault may be someone else, and the victim's father died suddenly. Is there any connection between these two things?

"We haven't had a normal case since we've partnered, don't you say, Juan?" Brown rubbed his chin and said to Juan.

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

At this time, a voice came from the patrol officer's intercom, and after a while, the patrol officer said to the two detectives: "The vehicle that caused the accident was found near the bridge park, and 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 someone from the gang. ”

The patrolman's face showed a hint of smugness, he guessed correctly, using a car that was stolen two months ago to hit and kill a person, and then escaped smoothly, it can only be a gang crime. They have a whole set of criminal processes, and each person only completes one part of the whole process, which is interlocking, although it can't be seamless, but it can also make the police anxious. Even if the killer is eventually found, someone will come forward to confess the guilt - this is part of the process.

Hearing the Patrolman's words, Juan said to Brown, "Maybe we'll have to talk to that Mr. Luciano again." ”

Brown raised his eyebrows and said, "Talk?" You go talk, I don't want to talk to that guy anymore. 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. The crash murder that occurred in Little Italy was only one in 600, and it left a little trace on the lamppost in the neighborhood of Little Italy, and many years later, the patrol officers and street vendors here would point to the impact marks on the street lamps and tell tourists that there was once a vendor who was hit by a car and died here because of the mafia he offended, and the murderer has not been found so far.

Never get tired of it.

The unexpected disappearance of a life is just a normal metabolism for the city. On June 12, the real eye-catcher for New Yorkers was the NBA Finals. The third game of the Grand Finale, at 7 p.m., will kick off at Madison Square Garden. It's been 21 years since the New Yorkers last made it to the Finals, in 1973, in the era of Willis Reed. Then they went into a long hibernation period, watching the NBA become a yellow-green battle between Boston and Los Angeles in the golden '80s, and then a stepping stone for Michael Jordan 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 on the back burner. Patrick Ewing and Hakiem Olajuwon met again after the 1984 NCAA Finals. Ten years ago, Olajuwon won the stats and lost the championship, and this year, Olajuwon won the regular season MVP, the best defensive player, just one championship and one Finals MVP, and his playing career will be complete.

With a 1-1 draw in Houston, the third game in New York will be crucial because since the 2-3-2 format of the 1985 Finals, the teams that have won the third game have all won the championship, and while that rule will be broken one day, no one wants to lose the crucial third game.

But just before the start of the third Finals, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Houston Rockets came with news that Olajuwon had symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea after eating a McDonald's fast food last night, and was sent to a hospital in New York for treatment at noon today, and will not be able to play in the evening game. As soon as this news came out, public opinion was in an uproar. Without Olajuwon, the rocket would not only have collapsed half of the sky, but the entire sky. The New York media expressed regret and snickered at the same time, suggesting that this was a great opportunity for the Knicks.

No one knows exactly what happened to Olajuwon, whether it was food poisoning or something else. In the official disclosure of the Houston Rockets, it seems to point the finger at the McDonald's fried chicken takeaway delivered in the evening. When Olajuwon came to the away game, he had a habit of eating McDonald's fried chicken. He once ate fried chicken over and over again because of the constant NG in the process of shooting a commercial for McDonald's, and finally ate more than 100 pieces of fried chicken. Since then, I have loved fried chicken.

At 7 p.m., Madison Garden Plaza was packed with New York spectators, and the New York fans went crazy after a 21-year absence. And Olajuwon's absence means that the Rockets have almost no chance of winning. The Rockets are a team that is completely built around Olajuwon, with him at the core of offense and defense, and without him, the Rockets are not even a playoff team.

In a very front position on the Garden Court, Arthur and Gina sat together, the game had not yet started, the sound of the scene was so loud that normal speech was completely inaudible, Arthur had to shout to Gina: "Gina! I'm going to the bathroom, do you need me to buy you something? ”

"Go ahead! Just buy some popcorn! Gina shouted at Arthur, and then joined in the cheers of the New York fans, the game was about to start, and the lights of the entrance ceremony were completely dimmed. At this point, Arthur left his seat and walked towards the bathroom. The tickets were given by Abramo, and Gina's first visit to Madison was quite excited, fully immersed in the atmosphere of the scene.

Arthur, under the cover of darkness and sound, left the seating area and went to the bathroom, where he saw Abramo waiting for him at the door. The two went into the bathroom together, and when they came to the urinal, Abu looked left and right, tilted his head and said, "That's it, I said Paul is worth believing, and the Knicks will win tonight." ”

Arthur nodded and said, "Well done, he's qualified to join." By the way, you won't poison Olajuwon, right? ”

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

"How's Jackie's over there?"

"The loss was huge, he bet heavily on the Rockets to win Game 3 on Atlantic City, he had insider news, but he didn't expect Olajuwon to not play. Now he's desperately trying to make up for it, adjusting the odds, and buying the Knicks somewhere else to win. But late, there were about seven or eight outside bars that had placed big bets on Jackie before the news came out at noon today, and his casino was going to be finished. He either loses money or rolls up and runs away, but he can't run away. Abramo's face was full of pride, the casino's months of hard work combined with this final blow would definitely hurt the Gandofil family's vitality.

Arthur was pleased with this, and he provided the strategy, but Abu was the executor. A stratagem may be a good stratagem, but it is not so easy to execute perfectly. Abu did it, and he deserved to be Arthur's trusty captain.

After the two of them finished peeing, Arthur's pager rang, he picked it up and took a look, it was a short message from Russell: The restaurant, everyone is there.