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?
这就是结局吗?"祖德和霍克讲完了故事,我问道。
“是啊,”霍克回答,“阿拉再也没提起过这件事。”
“那你相信约翰尼所讲的关于药品公司的故事吗？”我问他。
“一个公司在出售一种新药之前,"霍克说,“需要做很多年的药物试验。当然,他们拿动物做试验。可是,如果用人来做试验他们就能大大缩短试验进程。药品公司很多,而每个公司都想首先研制出一种新药来。” “大概是那件事发生后的第五年,”祖德接着说,“泰勒药品公司的一种叫科普拉期酊的新药上市了。它能医治某些癌症并且效果显著。所有人都想买这种药,因而药品公司挣了大把的钱-政府也由此获得了大笔的税收。政府喜欢的是有钱的公司和巨额的税收,至于那些露宿街头无家可归的青年，政府是不感兴趣的。” “这样看来,约翰尼·库克的故事是真的了。”我说，“他并非失足落水——而是有人把他推了下去。”
“当然是他们干的,"祖德说,“杀人灭口
