《钱在哪儿》(Where the Money Was)翻译第142-143页
在我知道能够锯断钢筋后,Louise第一次来探视的时候,我指示她用假名在某地租一个小房子。紧接着,我告诉她,当她看到纽约日报个人版面我发布的信息后。我会给她一系列指示,使我们能在我逃跑之后在那里见面。
Eddie Wilson假释在外,当计划正在实施的时候,他过来探视我好几次。当他在Dannemora的时候,我和Bassett在外面赚钱并且照顾他。给了他任何他想要的东西,现在他准备为我做任何事情。他说他所能做的是,在那准备一辆车。我不喜欢这个主意。作为一个假释犯,他无法用自己的名字拿到驾照,而且一个人晚上在那山坡周边开车很容易引起怀疑。如果他被抓住了,警察会想知道为什么他会出现在那里。答案很明显是为了我早上离开(监狱)去Dannemora。这太冒险了,不能依靠Eddie Wilson。
Singsing监狱新的探访间分成了方形隔间,每个隔间有四个椅子。没有分隔用的屏风,整个设计都是为了让犯人坐在妻子对面,把孩子抱在怀里。一位狱警坐在高高的桌子上,可以在听不见任何交谈的情况下,观察到全部情况。下一次Louise过来探视的时候,我告诉她我需要她的帮助。“不要惊讶,“我说,”就像我们在谈论抵押贷款支付一样继续说下去。你能够做哪些事情?”
“你需要我做什么?都可以。”( “How far do you want me to go? All the way.” )
我告诉她在特定的时间和特定的地点需要一辆车。“你能做到吗?”我问。
“我可以做到。”
“如果被紧急追捕,所有的主要道路上都会设置路障。这意味着你必须弄张路线图,并找到第二条路,我们沿着这条路回到纽约。如果你找到这条路,你必须非常清楚的知道这条路的迂回曲折,这样你就能够在深夜开车而不会迷路。你认为你能做到吗?“
她的眼神没有一丝动摇。“我能行。”
在我获得Corwin锁的钥匙的时候,她已经来回足够多,已经完全熟悉了备用的路径。于是我告诉她我想让她停在哪里。“在监狱后面兜一圈,这时你就在马路上了,尽可能地靠近,这样你就可以向下看到监狱的背面。如果你在离开监狱的时候向窗外看,你就能看到我说的那条马路。”
在下一个周日,她回来说,“我完全明白你的意思了,我会在那的。”我告诉她我到时候需要一整套衣服,鞋。还有一些钱,一千美元。
从头到尾,在她准备离开之前,我没有说过关于逃跑的只言片语。当她最后一次探访即将结束时,我说,“听我说,我在第十二个午夜的时候出现,你和小车能在那里吗?”
“可以。”
这时候我告诉她还有个人将和我在一起。“所有东西我们都需要两套。他的所有东西要比我的大两个尺寸,这样就足够了。将这些东西放在行李箱里,将行李箱放在地面上。”
“我会准备好的。”
我吻了她之后,说:“你知道,如果你不在那里,我就会有大麻烦。”
她说:“第十二个午夜见。”
果然她就在那。在她看到我们的时候,她启动了引擎。我们跳进后座,直到监狱在我们的视线中消失,她才打开车灯。那时候,Eagen和我已经将监狱的囚衣脱掉了,并且将它们放在行李箱深处(digging into the suitcase)。
事情就这样结束了,我们本来可以在主要的公路上行驶的。那个模范囚犯在报警前给了我们足足两个小时。还有,从另一个角度看,这个延时也是非常有帮助的。一旦监狱当局完成了他们的第一次搜查,他们会认为我们得到了帮助。这意味着或早或晚他们会开始调查Louise。因此,这个计划要求她把我们送到城里,然后开车回家。
我快速地吻了她,然后我们跳了出去。“看《时代周刊》的个人版面部分,”我说。“不会太久的。”Eagen和我走到百老汇105街附近的Marseilles酒店,登记过夜。这太简单了,我们只好坐在那里笑。
原文:
The first time Louise came to visit me after I learned I could cut through the bars, I instructed her to rent a cottage somewhere under an assumed name. Immediately. I then gave her a set of instructions that would enable us to meet there following my escape, instructions which began with her watching The New York Times personal section for my message.
Eddie Wilson was out on parole, and he came up to see me a few times while the plans were in progress. I had taken care of him while he was at Dannemora and I was on the outside making all that money with Bassett. Anything he wanted he had got, and now he was ready to do anything for me.
What he could do, he said, was to be there with a car. I didn’t like it. Being on parole, he couldn’t get a driver’s license in his own name, and a man driving around those hills at night could easily draw suspicion. If he got picked up, the police were going to wonder why he’d be taking that kind of chance. The answer would be so obvious that it would be off to Dannemora for me in the morning. Too risky. Eddie Wilson was out.
The new visiting room at Sing Sing was divided into square sections, each containing four chairs. There was no dividing screen, the whole setup had been devised to allow an inmate to sit opposite his wife and hold his children in his arms. An officer sat at an elevated desk where he would be able to observe everything without overhearing any of the conversations. The next time Louise visited me, I told her I was going to need her help. “Don’t look surprised,” I said. “Just keep talking as if we were talking about the mortgage payments. How far are you willing to go?”
“How far do you want me to go? All the way.”
I told her I was going to need a car at a certain place at a certain time. “Can you do it?” I asked.
“I can do it.”
“If there’s hot pursuit, there’ll be roadblocks erected on all the main roads. That means you’re going to have to get a road map and find a secondary route that will get us back to New York along the back roads. And when you’ve found it, you’re going to have to know every twist and turn of that route so perfectly that you’ll be able to drive it in the dead of night without getting lost. Do you think you can do that?”
Her eyes never wavered. “I can do it.”
By the time I had the keys for the Corwin locks, she had traveled back and forth often enough so that she had the alternate route down cold. So then I told her where I wanted her to be parked. “Circle in back of the prison so you’re on the road there, as close as you can get. So you can actually look down and see the back of the prison. If you look out of the window when you’re leaving the prison, you’ll be able to see the road I mean.”
The next Sunday, she came back and said, “I know exactly where you mean. I’ll be there.” I told her I was going to need a full set of clothes, shoes included. And some money. A thousand dollars.
From the beginning to the end, I would never say a word about the escape until just before she was ready to leave. As her last visit was coming to an end, I said, “Look, I can make it at midnight on the twelfth. Can you be there with the car?”
“Yes.”
That’s when I told her that somebody else was going to be with me. “We’re going to need two of everything. Make his two sizes larger than mine on everything, and it will be close enough. Have it all in a suitcase and keep the suitcase on the floor.”
“I’ll have it.”
After I had kissed her, I said, “You know, if you’re not there I can be in a lot of trouble.”
She said: “I’ll see you at midnight on the twelfth.”
And there she was. The moment she saw us she started the motor. We jumped into the back seat, and she didn’t put the lights on until the prison was out of sight. By then, Eagen and I already had our prison jackets off and were digging into the suitcase.
The way things turned out, we could have made it right down the main highway. The trusty had given us two full hours before he sounded the alarm. Still, the delay was very helpful from another standpoint. Once the prison authorities had completed their first search, they were going to assume that we’d had help. Which meant that sooner or later they were going to check on Louise. The plan therefore called for her to drop us off in the city and drive on home.
I kissed her quickly and we jumped out. “Watch the Times personals,” I said. “It won’t be long.” Eagen and I walked over to the Marseilles Hotel, on Broadway around 105th Street, and registered for the night. It was so easy that we had to sit there and laugh.