And was that the end of it?' I asked, when Jude and Hawker finished telling the story Yes,' said Hawker. 'Arla never spoke about it again.
And did you believe Johnny's story about the drug company?' I asked.
Before a company can sell a new medicine to people,' said Hawker, 'there are years and years of tests. They do the tests on animals, of course. But they learn much more quickly from tests on people. There are lots of drug companies, and every company wants to be the first with a new medicine."
About five years later,' Jude said, 'the Tyler Drug Company began to sell a new drug, called Coplastin. It was a medicine to stop some kinds of cancer, and it worked.
Everybody wanted it. The company made a lot of money and so the government got a lot of money from the company in taxes. Governments like rich companies and big, fat taxes. They're not very interested in homeless young people sleeping on the streets.
So Johnny Cook’s story was true,’ I said. And he didn't fall into the river-somebody pushed him.
Of course they pushed him,' said Jude. Dead men can't talk, can they?
這就是結局嗎?"祖德和霍克講完了故事,我問道。
“是啊,”霍克回答,“阿拉再也沒提起過這件事。”
“那你相信約翰尼所講的關於藥品公司的故事嗎？”我問他。
“一個公司在出售一種新藥之前,"霍克說,“需要做很多年的藥物試驗。當然,他們拿動物做試驗。可是,如果用人來做試驗他們就能大大縮短試驗進程。藥品公司很多,而每個公司都想首先研製出一種新藥來。” “大概是那件事發生後的第五年,”祖德接著說,“泰勒藥品公司的一種叫科普拉期酊的新藥上市了。它能醫治某些癌症並且效果顯著。所有人都想買這種藥,因而藥品公司掙了大把的錢-政府也由此獲得了大筆的稅收。政府喜歡的是有錢的公司和鉅額的稅收,至於那些露宿街頭無家可歸的青年，政府是不感興趣的。” “這樣看來,約翰尼·庫克的故事是真的了。”我說，“他並非失足落水——而是有人把他推了下去。”
“當然是他們乾的,"祖德說,“殺人滅口
