Chapter 839 Motivation (Part 2)
Jack straightened the chair for Jiejie and asked her to sit down. After that, he stood behind him and looked around the entire back garden. He saw two dark-skinned gardeners wearing sun hats and bending down to work under the scorching sun. .
After shaking off some sense of immediacy from the 19th century in his mind, Jack calmed down and said in a soothing tone, "I know this is hard for you to accept, but we."
"Aha." "Qian" the judge's wife let out a sigh of unknown meaning, "Yes, but not entirely."
She shook her head slightly, with an expression that was hard to describe, "He is no longer the person I married him in the first place. He is becoming more and more mean and irritable."
As she spoke, she waved her hand to interrupt Jiejie who was hesitant to speak, "I'm not making excuses for him, I just want you to know."
"People change, right?" Jack said what she wanted to express for her.
"You're right." "Qian" The judge's wife let out a long sigh, stretched out her hand towards Jack and made a gesture of invitation to the black tea on the table, as if she was meeting a close friend.
"When we first met, he was a kind, caring, enterprising man who was dedicated to upholding the sanctity and inviolability of the law."
Thinking of the resume information they had reviewed before, Jiejie already had the same idea as Jack. She showed a gentle smile and tried to make her questions less sharp.
"Cynthia, was Howard Rourke a judge before you met?"
"Of course not." The "former" judge's wife showed a slightly sarcastic smile, then restrained it, took a sip of the black tea on the table, and covered up the meanness at the corner of her mouth.
"We met after he moved back from Baltimore, where he lost his bid for district attorney in 2010, so he returned to Forrest."
In other words, Howard Rourke stayed as a prosecutor's assistant for more than ten years after graduation but could not make any progress and had to return to his hometown in despair. Jack made a silent addition in his heart.
"So he gained some support in his hometown and became a judge?" Jiejie asked knowingly.
"Ha, of course not." Cynthia, the "former" judge's wife, withdrew her gaze from the garden, sneered, and said bluntly, "The reason why he gets support is because he married me.
My father was the chief of the state police at the time, and everyone here knew my mother, whose family owned the largest farm in Arkansas. "
Gee, this is the American version of a "brother-in-law." Jack realized that Howard Rourke relied on his wife's family power to become a criminal court judge.
Then what happened next is easy to understand. After more than ten years wasted in the local court, it was still difficult to make any progress, which made this judge who was faced with his wife's powerful family and who was very "enterprise-minded" psychologically unbalanced. .
Sure enough, just listen to Cynthia continue, "As I said before, before he had to admit that his career was over, his whole person changed completely.
His classmates and former colleagues in law school seemed to have good careers, and he was the only one stuck in the small place of Forrest. "
"Alas" Jack glanced at the luxurious garden and sighed, "If it were me, I could stay in such a peaceful and harmonious hot spring town and accompany my wife to wander in the beautiful garden every day, what else would I not be satisfied with? ?”
"It's a pity that Howard doesn't have a calm and strong heart like you." Cynthia smiled at Jack.
"He blames everything on the people around him, on the system that he fought for, and look at what he did to me."
As she spoke, she lifted up her sleeves, revealing a large bruise on her right arm, and then pulled down the collar around her neck, revealing the scar on her collarbone.
"He did something to you?" Jiejie was a little surprised. Although the older lady in front of her looked soft and frail on the outside, the strength in her bones was hard to ignore.
There was some relief in Cynthia's tone, "I told you before that my lawyer is handling everything, not to distance himself from what he did, but to elaborate on the facts.
A week ago at the weekend, he came back here after meeting someone, and he went completely crazy, yelling and smashing things.
After he did what he did to me, I had his stuff packed and I pointed the Winchester my father had left me at him and told him to get out of my house, that gun. "
As she spoke, she pointed to a Winchester 1866 lever-action rifle that was exquisite in appearance and could be called a work of art hanging on the fireplace in the house.
Although the style is common in American western movies, the one in front of you is inlaid with gold and silver. Obviously its value as a work of art is much higher than that of a weapon.
"I contacted my attorney and never saw him again."
Sure enough, this is the southern American woman that Jack is familiar with.
It seems that the key has been found. Jiejie quickly asked, "Who did he go to see before?"
"An old friend of his and a classmate of his back then, Arthur Hobbes, is the president of the State Bar Association." Cynthia's tone regained her composure.
——
After leaving the mansion of the daughter of the largest landowner in Arkansas, Jack looked solemn until Jiejie couldn't help but touch him with her arm.
"What have you been thinking about just now?"
"I think the son-in-law literature should also have a big market in this country?" Jack blurted out.
"What is the son-in-law literature?" Jiejie was a little confused. In fact, there is also the concept of son-in-law in Europe and the United States. There are even two words that can be used to describe this form of marriage, "Uxorilocal" and "Matrilocal".
"Uxorilocal" comes from Latin, which roughly means "living with the wife's tribe or family". It can be seen that this form of marriage has a long history in Europe and the United States.
After all, who let the British have the queen? The queen's husband must follow the royal family regardless of his surname or religion. Other royal families and nobles in Europe and the United States have also had similar marriages, such as the well-known Hilton family.
But there are almost no son-in-law literature. Even the short videos of pretending to be cool and slapping faces that have become popular recently are mainly based on the wolf flow that is transformed from the domineering general flow and the crooked-mouthed dragon king flow. Of course, the main reason is that someone is not sure about the market and has not tried the water yet.
Now Jack thought about it and realized that this form of marriage seemed to be quite common in the upper class of Europe and America. After all, the daughters of top wealthy families also had to get married, and it was not uncommon for them to marry into the family. Therefore, it seemed that there was no problem in adding a son-in-law branch to the wealthy family stories.
"So you don't plan to continue writing your "Jack the Detective" series?" Jiejie looked at someone with some suspicion.
She knew that the Wolf brothers and Justin had been working on projects such as short dramas and short video apps recently, and they were very popular, and even had a hot relationship with the Anderson family behind Zoe.
She also knew that Jack seemed to have a lot of shares in it. According to his explanation, it was because he provided a lot of innovations and suggestions in planning.
Originally, Jiejie had never thought about this, but when she thought of someone's identity as a writer, and thought of the domineering articles written by anonymous writers that had been on the bestseller lists since last year, she couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.
"No way." Jack realized that he had let the cat out of the bag and quickly explained, "I just think that giving Jack, the protagonist who has been wandering around, such an identity will be more dramatic and add more eye-catching conflicts."
"Really?" Jiejie listened with half-belief and half-doubt, and secretly kept this in mind.
Even if Jack himself didn't know, if he and the people around him were to be ranked according to the degree of gossip, Jiejie, who seemed to be inconspicuous at ordinary times, might be above him.
But Jiejie usually doesn't take the initiative to gossip. She prefers to listen with her ears perked up. Whether it's Rhett's sweet first love or Emily's mysterious boyfriend, she can blink her beautiful big eyes and eat two bags of potato chips with relish.
Uh. After knowing Jack, potato chips have become melon seeds of various flavors.
Someone thought he had gotten away with it, and while secretly rejoicing, he turned the steering wheel and drove towards Little Rock.
——
Finally, in the evening, the two met Arthur Hobbs, a truly respected state court judge, in the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
The U.S. federal court and state local court are different judicial systems that apply federal law and state law respectively, so they belong to their own appellate courts. Those who violate federal law go to the federal court, and those who violate state law are naturally judged by the state local court. In theory, they are not subordinate to each other.
Of course, in fact, the federal court and the local court often fight each other for "power and profit", which is another matter.
But in any case, in the state local court system, Arthur Hobbs is undoubtedly the top level, and Howard Rourke, his classmate, is just an ordinary criminal court judge of the lowest level county local court, which shows how miserable he is.
Compared with the bald and obese Howard Rourke in the profile photo, this Justice Arthur Hobbs is more in line with the general public's perception of the profession of judge.
European and American societies have two extreme attitudes towards men's beards, but whether it is to keep a beard or shave it clean, it is inseparable from daily diligent care. Some people may think that unruly beards are more unruly, but it is obviously not applicable to the upper class.
Judge Arthur Hobbs is a model of the clean-shaven school, with a slightly gray but well-combed 4:6 hairstyle, a gentlemanly and easy-going elder style.
He speaks slowly and clearly, as if he is ready to give a speech in public at any time, but without the slightest "official tone". When he met the two FBI agents, the judge's face showed a trace of sadness at the right time.
"I am sorry to hear the bad news about the St. Francis County District Attorney's Office. I feel very sorry for the unfortunate experience of these dedicated lawyers."