>Tim Youngblood drew his gun. The rest of us kept tarring like mad. The sun beat down.
They were going to do it; Hadley and Mert were simply going to pitch him over the side.
Terrible accident Dufresne, prisoner 81433-SHNK, was taking a couple of empties down
and slipped on the ladder. Too bad.
They laid hold of him, Mert on the right arm, Hadley on the left. Andy didn't resist. His
eyes never left Hadley's red, horsey face.
'If you've got your thumb on her, Mr Hadley,' he said in that same calm, composed voice,
'there's not a reason why you shouldn't have every cent of that money. Final score, Mr
Byron Hadley thirty-five thousand, Uncle Sam zip.'
Mert started to drag him towards the edge. Hadley just stood still. For a moment Andy
was like a rope between them in a tug-of-war game. Then Hadley said, 'Hold on one
second, Mert. What do you mean, boy?'
'I mean, if you've got your thumb on your wife, you can give it to her,' Andy said.
'You better start making sense, boy, or you're going over.'
"The government allows you a one-time-only gift to your spouse,' Andy said. 'It's good
up to sixty thousand dollars.'
Hadley was now looking at Andy as if he had been poleaxed. 'Naw, that ain't right,' he
said. 'Tax free?'
'Tax free,' Andy said. 'IRS can't touch cent one.'
'How would you know a thing like that?'
Tim Youngblood said: 'He used to be a banker, Byron. I s'pose he might-'
'Shut ya head, Trout,' Hadley said without looking at him. Tim Youngblood flushed and
shut up. Some of the guards called him Trout because of his thick lips and buggy eyes.
Hadley kept looking at Andy. 'You're the smart banker who shot his wife. Why should I
believe a smart banker like you? So I can wind up in here breaking rocks right alongside
you? You'd like that, wouldn't you?'
Andy said quietly, 'If you went to jail for tax evasion, you'd go to a federal penitentiary,
not Shawshank. But you won't. The tax-free gift to the spouse is a perfectly legal
loophole. I've done dozens ... no, hundreds of them'. It's meant primarily for people with
small businesses to pass on, or for people who come into one-time-only windfalls. Like
yourself.'
'I think you're lying,' Hadley said, but he didn't - you could see he didn't. There was an
emotion dawning on his face, something that was grotesque overlying that long, ugly
countenence and that receding, sunburned brow. An almost obscene emotion when seen
on the features of Byron Hadley. It was hope.
'No, I'm not lying. There's no reason why you should take my word for it, either. Engage
a lawyer -'
'Ambulance-chasing highway-robbing cocksuckers!'Hadley cried.
Andy shrugged. "Then go to the IRS. They'll tell you the same thing for free. Actually,
you don't need me to tell you at all. You would have investigated the matter for yourself.'
'You fucking-A. I don't need any smart wife-killing banker to show me where the bear
shit in the buckwheat.'
'You'll need a tax lawyer or a banker to set up the gift for you and that will cost you
something,' Andy said. 'Or ... if you were interested, I'd be glad to set it up for you nearly
free of charge. The price would be three beers apiece for my co-workers -'
'Co-workers,' Mert said, and let out a rusty guffaw. He slapped his knee. A real kneeslapper
was old Mert, and I hope he died of intestinal cancer in a part of the world were
morphine is as of yet undiscovered. 'Co-workers, ain't that cute? Co-workers! You ain't
got any -'
'Shut your friggin' trap,' Hadley growled, and Mert shut.
Hadley looked at Andy again. 'What was you saying?'
'I was saying that I'd only ask three beers apiece for my co-workers, if that seems fair,'
Andy said. 'I think a man feels more like a man when he's working out of doors in the
springtime if he can have a bottle of suds. That's only my opinion. It would go down
smooth, and I'm sure you'd have the

上一页  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]  ... 下一页  >>