Chapter 839 Motive (Part 2)
Jack straightened the seat for Jiejie and asked her to sit down, but he stood behind him. He looked around the entire back garden and saw only two dark-skinned people. The gardener is wearing a sun hat and bending over to be busy in the scorching sun.
Having shaken the 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 difficult to describe. "He is no longer the person I married him. 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 for She said what she wanted to express.
"You're right." "Qian" The judge's wife let out a long sigh, stretched out her hand towards Jack and made an inviting gesture to the black tea on the table, as if she was meeting a close friend.
“When we first met, he was a kind, considerate, and enterprising man who was dedicated to upholding the sanctity and inviolability of the law.”
Thinking of the things they had read before After reading the resume information, 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 already a judge before you met?"
"Of course not." The "former" judge's wife showed a slightly sarcastic smile, then restrained and raised her eyebrows. He took a sip of the black tea on the table and covered up the mean look at the corner of his mouth.
“We met after he moved back from Baltimore, where he lost his bid for district attorney in 2010, so he returned to Forrest.”
Also. That is to say, Howard Rourke stayed as an assistant prosecutor 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.
"Oh, 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, and her family ran the largest farm in Arkansas."
Tsk, this is a beautiful encounter. He was a "brother-in-law," Jack realized. 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. Facing his wife's strong mother-in-law, this man himself was very "enterprising" "The judge is mentally 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 completely changed.
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 is there to be dissatisfied with? "
"Unfortunately, Howard does not have a calm and strong heart like you. "Cynthia smiled at Jack.
"He blames everything on the people around him, on the system he has fought for. Look at what he did to me before. ”
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.
"Did he attack you?" Jiejie was a little surprised. Although the older lady in front of her looked soft and frail, the strength in her bones was hard to ignore.
Cynthia said with some relief in her 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 this to me. , I had his things packed, and then I pointed it at him with the Winchester my father left for me, and told him to get out of my house, that was the gun."
She pointed. He pointed at 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 lawyer after that and never saw him again." Sure enough, this was the southern American woman that Jack was 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 was also his back then. Classmate, Arthur Hobbs, 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 always looked solemn until Jie Jie couldn't help but touch him with her arm.
"What have you been thinking about just now?"
"I'm thinking that there should be a market for articles about marriage to a son-in-law in this country, right?" Jack blurted out.
“What is a son-in-law marriage?” Jiejie was a little confused. In fact, Europe and the United States also have the term “brother-in-law”. 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 also has a long history in Europe and the United States.
After all, who gave Britain a queen? The queen’s husband must follow the royal family regardless of his surname or religion. Other royal families and wealthy families in Europe and the United States have had similar marriages, such as the well-known Hilton family.
However, there are almost no articles about having a son-in-law. Even the short videos of pretending to be slapped in the face that have become popular recently are mainly based on the werewolf flow that is transformed from the tyrant flow and the crooked mouth dragon king flow. Of course The main reason is that someone is not sure about the market and has not tested the water yet.
Now Jack thought about it, this kind of marriage seems to be quite common in the upper class society in Europe and the United States. After all, the daughters of top wealthy families also want to get married, so it is not uncommon to interfere in the door, so in wealthy families There seems to be no problem in adding a son-in-law branch to the article.
"So you don't plan to continue writing your "Jack Reacher" series?" Jiejie looked at someone suspiciously.
She knew that the Wolf brothers and Justin had recently been working on projects such as short dramas and short video apps, which had become very popular and even had a fierce fight 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 aspect at all, but when she thought about someone's identity as a writer, she also thought about the anonymous writers who have been on the best-seller lists since last year. The overlord’s article made me feel a little suspicious.
“No way.” Jack was shocked to realize that he had accidentally let it slip, and quickly explained, “I just thought that giving the protagonist Jack, who has been wandering around, such an identity would be more dramatic and attractive. The conflict between eyeballs. "
"Really?" Jiejie listened dubiously and kept this in mind.
Even Jack himself doesn't know that if he and the people around him were to be ranked according to the level of gossip, Jie Jie, who usually seemed to be a secretive person, might even be ranked above him.
It’s just that Jiejie doesn’t usually take the initiative to gossip. She prefers to listen with open ears. Whether it’s Rhett’s sweet first love or Emily’s mysterious boyfriend, they can make her twinkling and beautiful. With big eyes, he ate two bags of potato chips with relish.
Uh. After getting to know Jack, potato chips have turned into melon seeds of various flavors.
Someone thought that he had gotten through the test, and while secretly feeling lucky, he turned the steering wheel and drove towards Little Rock.
——
Finally in the evening, the two met Arthur Hobbs, a truly respected state court justice, in the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
The federal courts and state district courts in the United States are different judicial systems that apply to federal law and state law respectively. Therefore, they are their own appeals courts. Those who violate federal law go to federal court, and those who violate state law have natural reasons. State and district court rulings are theoretically independent of each other.
Of course, the fact that federal courts and local courts often fight with each other for "power" is another matter.
But in any case, in the state district court system, Arthur Hobbs is undoubtedly the top level, while his classmate Howard Rourke is only the lowest level county court. It can be seen how miserable the ordinary criminal judges of the court are.
Compared with the bald and obese Howard Rourke in the profile photo, Justice Arthur Hobbs is more in line with the public’s general understanding of the profession of judge.
European and American societies have two extreme attitudes towards men's beards, but whether you keep a beard or shave it clean, it is inseparable from daily diligent care. Some people may think that an unkempt beard looks more unruly, but this obviously does not apply to upper-class people.
Judge Arthur Hobbs is an example of the clean-shaven school. With his slightly gray but well-combed 46-bundle hair, he looks like an elegant and easy-going elder.
He spoke unhurriedly and spoke very clearly, as if he was ready to give a speech in public at any time, but without the slightest "official accent". When he met the two FBI, the judge's face showed the right tone. showing a hint of sadness.
"I'm sorry to hear the sad news about the St. Francis County District Attorney's Office. I feel deeply sorry for the misfortune of these dedicated attorneys."
(End of Chapter)
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