“说得好，说得好。” 杰克无力地说道。
“Hear, hear,” Jake said inadequately.
“现在，我对这行一无所知，” 冯?弗拉纳根接着说，“但是从一些我认识的记者那里 —— 无意冒犯，杰克 —— 我觉得这没什么难学的。你知道，” 他坦白道，“我一直都有点想当记者。几乎和想当殡仪承办人一样强烈。除了警察，什么都行。”
“Right now, I don’t know nothing about the business,” von Flanagan went on, “but from some of the reporters I’ve known—no offense, Jake—I don’t think it would be so much to learn. You know,” he confessed, “I’ve always had a kind of yen to be a newspaperman. Almost as much as to be an undertaker. Anything but a cop.”
突然，他砰的一声把椅子前腿重重地放了下来。“当警察也没那么糟糕。是被提拔成凶杀组组长这件事让我很恼火。每个人都想给我找麻烦。” 他的声音开始变大。“就说这个在新年前夜被杀的人。他被刺的时候就不能正好倒在他被刺的地方吗，这样我们就能对犯罪现场有个概念了？不，他非得在整个商业区到处走，最后死在乔天使酒吧。他就不能带个驾照，或者俱乐部会员卡，或者任何能表明他身份的东西吗？不。一样都没有。他被刺之前就不能老老实实地待在一个地方吗，这样我们也许就能知道谁在他周围晃悠了？不，他满城市地找马龙。” 他的声音已经变成了愤怒的咆哮。他指责地看着这个小律师。“然后这个混蛋还得隐瞒信息不告诉我。”
Suddenly he brought the front legs of his chair down with a loud bang. “It wouldn’t be so damned bad being a cop. It’s being promoted to be head of the homicide squad that makes me sore. Everybody tries to make it hard for me.” His voice began to grow louder. “Take this guy that was killed on New Year’s Eve. Could he have fell down dead right where he was when he was stabbed, so’s we’d have some idea of the scene of the crime? No, he has to walk all over the Loop and finally die in Joe the Angel’s bar. Could he have carried a driver’s license, maybe, or a club card, or anything that would tell who he was? No. Not one damned thing. Could he have stayed put in one place before he was stabbed, so’s we might of known who was hanging around him? No, he goes all over town looking for Malone.” His voice had bee an angry roar. He looked accusingly at the little lawyer. “Then this son of a bitch has to go and hold out information on me.”
他往后一靠，被这些不公平的事气得说不出话来。
He sat back, rendered speechless by these injustices.
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