Chapter 4 Chapter Four

By the time "Gravedigger" Johns and Ed "Coffin Bucket" arrived at the Back to Africa rally, it was cordoned off.There were only some black people surrounded by the police, standing helplessly in the rain.The patrol car of the police station, still smoking from the barbecue pit, and the white cops in their soggy black raincoats looked sinister and dangerous. "Coffin Bucket" Ed's face, which had been burnt by sulfuric acid, suddenly twitched, and the veins on "Gravedigger" Johns' neck burst out of anger. Heavy rain washes over the bodies of young recruiters.Only after the coroner declares the person dead can the criminal investigation begin.However, the coroner has not yet arrived, so nothing can be done now.

"Gravedigger" Johns and "Coffin Bucket" Ed stood beside the corpse, looking at the dark face that was still young.Just a few minutes ago, this face was full of life and hope.At the same time, they also felt the helplessness of black people standing in the rain. "Why wasn't O'Malley the one who died, but this young man?" "Gravedigger" Johns asked angrily.The rain fell drop by drop from his deflated black hat and onto his crumpled clothes. "That's why the police let those scoundrels go," Ed "Coffin Bucket" complained loudly.

"That's right. We know that O'Malley was the one who killed him, but we have to find out who fired the shot." As they walked into the crowd, "Gravedigger" Jorns asked, "Who's in charge here?" Another young recruiter walks up.He was hatless, and his serious, dark face shone in the rain. "I think it's me, everyone else is gone." They took him aside and listened to him tell what he had seen.Didn't help much though. "We're an organization," the young man said. "Pastor O'Malley, two assistants, me and John Hale who was killed, plus some volunteers. But we're full members."

"Where did the soldiers come from?" "Those two soldiers in the truck? . . . Oh, they were with the truck from the bank." "What bank?" Ed "Coffin Bucket" snapped. "The Washington branch of the Bank of Africa." The two detectives exchanged glances, but said nothing. "What's your name, young man?" asked "Gravedigger" Johns. "Bell Davis." "What's your degree?" Ed "Coffin Bucket" interjected. "College graduate, sir. In Greensboro, Northern California." "Do you believe him?" Ed "Coffin Bucket" turned his head and asked "Gravedigger" Johns.

"Never mind that," said "Gravedigger" Johns, "he told us all he knew." "Gravedigger" Jones finished speaking, then turned to Bell and asked, "Do you know those two prosecutors?" "I've never seen them before." Bell Davis shook his head. "I was skeptical at first, but Pastor O'Malley didn't seem to care." "It doesn't seem to care." "Gravedigger" Johns repeated, "Don't you think this might be a trap?" "What, sir?" Bell Davis' eyes widened in surprise. "Didn't you ever think that they might be a gang, cheating money together?"

The young man didn't understand what he meant at first.Immediately afterwards, he was taken aback and said, "Why would you think that way? Pastor O'Malley is absolutely honest, and he has a spirit of sacrifice, sir." "Coffin Bucket" Ed sighed. "Have you seen the ship that will take you back to Africa?" "Gravedigger" Johns continued to ask. "No." Bell Davis shook his head, then added emphatically, "However, we have all seen the correspondence between him and the steamboat company negotiating the lease." "How much does it cost?"

"It's a thousand dollars per head," said Bell Davies. "I don't think the boats are as big as they are pictured, but we'll try to fill them up." "How much money have you raised?" "Tonight, we raised $87,000. We also got some money from other places, such as from the parishioners, or from the barbecue business." "All this money was stolen by four white men in the meat truck?" "No, only the $87,000 raised tonight is missing." Bell Davis shook his head and said, "Also, there are five of them, one of them has been squatting in the car, behind a concealment. "

The two detectives suddenly became alert. "What kind of concealment?" "Gravedigger" Johns asked anxiously. "I can't see it very well. But it looks like a box covered with burlap." "Which company's meat truck is it?" "I don't know about this, you can ask the chef." They sent for a cook.But the chef was soaked, his clothes were covered with muddy water, and his white hat hung crookedly on one ear like a piece of rag.It all — the robbers, the rain, and the police car that fell into his barbecue pit — nearly drove him insane.His eyes were bloodshot, and when they asked which company provided the meat, he took it as an insult to his personality.

"I don't know where those pigs come from, except from pigs," he said angrily. .” "Let these black people go," said "Coffin Bucket" Ed, shaking his head helplessly, "after the incident, he will definitely leave soon." "Gravedigger" Johns wrote down O'Malley's office address, although he already knew it, and then he asked the last question: "You and the 'Back to Africa' movement led by Mr. Michaux, What's the relationship between them?" "Nothing at all. Pastor O'Malley has nothing to do with Mr. Missy's organization!..." Bell Davis shook his head and said, "In fact, Mr. Missy doesn't like Pastor O'Malley. I think they The two have never met at all."

"Don't you think that Mr. Mixiu might have something to do with O'Malley?...Haven't you thought that he might know something about O'Malley, which made him distrust him?" "I don't think so," Bell declared, shaking his head. "He has no reason not to trust Pastor O'Malley. I think: He's just jealous of Pastor O'Malley. Pastor O'Malley feels he's slow and he doesn't want to wait any longer. We've already Waited long enough." "You want to go back to Africa too?" "Yes, sir, I'm still thinking about it—as long as we can get the money back." Bell Davis nodded, raised his head, and looked at the two black policemen in front of him with eager eyes, "You guys Will help us get our money back, right?"

"If we can't get it back, we have to raise so much money to send you all back to Africa." "It's free," Ed "Coffin Bucket" added with a grin. The young man thanked them and returned to the crowd, continuing to stand in the rain with the others. "Ed, what do you think?" "Gravedigger" Johns asked. "One thing is for sure, this is definitely not done by gangsters." "What kind of gangsters are there?" "Don't ask me, I'm not an FBI agent." They were silent for a minute while the rain poured down on the two black detectives.They thought to themselves, those eighty-seven families who have handed over a thousand dollars, these families are betting money on this dream, and that money has not come easily.For many, this could be their life savings.For most, it's the reward of long periods of menial work.Nobody can afford to lose that money. Two black detectives don't think: These gullibles are fools, and they're black, so they understand these people. These people, like those homeless Puritans, just wanted a home.Harlem is an urban area where homeless people gather.Some people left the South and came to the North, but they would never call this place their home; some blacks were sold to the North mercilessly by the southern whites in revenge for the anti-apartheid system; some escaped Yes, because they feel that the north will be better than the south.However, in the north, they still have not found their home.In the United States, black people have never had a home, so they want to go across the ocean and go back to Africa to find their own home.There, the blacks are both the ruled and the rulers, they are the masters; Africa is a vast land of freedom for them.They can even proudly call it their home, because their ancestors are buried there, their roots are there, and the land, property and everything there are inherited by the descendants of the same ancestors as them. Both blood and race are interrelated.Everyone believes in something, but white people in America let them have nothing to believe in.However, this does not mean that blacks have lower crime rates than whites. Ed "Coffin Bucket" and "Gravedigger" Johns still have to find the robbers.It doesn't matter if the robber is black or white. "Anyway, we need to find Dick first," "Gravedigger" Johns first broke the silence. "If he didn't do this, he must know who did it." "He better know." "Coffin Bucket" Ed sneered cruelly. However, "Grave Digger" Johns still thought too simply.Pastor O'Malley spent a long time carefully planning this operation, consuming a lot of resources and energy.In order to avoid the gangsters, he pretended to be a priest and hid in the church as the leader of the national movement.In this way, the gangsters will have concerns and will not kill him. The gangsters did not show the slightest interest in Pastor O'Malley, which also made him very anxious.In the end, he realized that gangsters just didn't want to get involved in racial disputes.He's done so much harm to black people that gangsters want to leave him at their disposal. After reading Marcus Garvey's autobiography, Pastor O'Malley came up with the idea of ​​starting the "Back to Africa Movement".Marcus Garvey was a slave who pioneered the Back to Africa movement.Garvey is said to have raised a million dollars.In the end he was arrested and imprisoned, however, most of his followers still firmly believe that he is innocent and still believe in him.Garvey's innocence is unimportant, what attracted O'Malley was the fact that "his followers always trusted him".This is the real cleverness of a liar, never letting the other party have the slightest doubt. Therefore, Pastor O'Malley also launched his own "Back to Africa Movement". The only difference is that when he raises one million yuan, he will really go back to Africa, but only by himself.He had heard that rich people could live well anywhere in Africa.He planned to hire two thugs to act as detectives and seize the money collected.In this way, he does not have to deposit the money in the bank, but can embezzle it privately. Pastor O'Malley didn't know where those white bandits came from.At first he thought: They were sent by gangsters, so he hid under the table.However, when Pastor O'Malley found out that they were purely here to steal money, he realized something was wrong, and he decided to catch up with them to get the money back. However, when they managed to catch up with the meat truck, those white people had already fled.However, the situation was not too bad. After all, at this time, Pastor O'Malley had already gained the upper hand in terms of firepower.None of his soldiers were seriously injured, however, he lost a detective.The car abandoned at the scene offers no clues that the driver of the car that hit them got in their way. As time was running out, Pastor O'Malley dismissed those guys on the spot.Gather at three o'clock in the morning the next day.In a room behind a pool hall on Eighth Avenue, Reverend O'Malley would personally contact another detective. "I'd like to see which way this nasty cat will go." Pastor O'Malley said angrily. He still has over five hundred dollars at his disposal.There was also a checking account of $5,000 in an all-night bank downtown, in case of emergency.But Pastor O'Malley still had no idea how to get back the $87,000. "Some clues will be found. This is Harlem. All black people hate white people. Someone will tell him something." Pastor O'Malley kept comforting himself with these words. What worries Pastor O'Malley is that he doesn't know how much the police know.He knew that because he had a criminal record, these policemen would come to trouble him no matter what.He knew that if he wanted to get his money back, he had better stay away from them. But Pastor O'Malley had to go home first.He needed a pistol, and some papers—bogus deeds with the steamboat company, bogus Back to Africa certificates—that would send him to prison. Pastor O'Malley walked along Seventh Avenue to Smaw's Bar, pretending to call the police, but got into a taxi quietly.He asked the driver to take him to St. Mark's Church, paid the fare, and climbed the stairs.The church door was locked, as Reverend O'Malley had wanted it to be, so that he could stand in the shadows and watch the door of Dorrance Brooks' apartment where he lived across the street. Reverend O'Malley stood there for a long time, peering intently at the building.This is a V-shaped building located at the intersection of 138th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. He can clearly see the gate of the apartment and the streets on both sides.He didn't see any suspicious vehicles -- police cars or gangsters' cars -- parked nearby, nor did he see any suspicious people.Through the glass door, he could see the hall, and no one was hanging around in it.The only suspicious thing is that it is too quiet. Reverend O'Malley walked down the stairs from the church, walked into the west entrance of St. Nicholas Avenue, and approached the building slowly.He hid in the shadows of the tool shed in the parking lot so he could clearly see the window of his room on the fourth floor.He watched for a while the lights coming from the living-room and dining-room windows, but no one passed through the brightly lit windows.He has been drenched in water. Pastor O'Malley's sixth sense told himself, "Better make a phone call. There is no way to track the pay phones on the street." So he walked to 145th Street, called a pay phone booth on the corner of the street, and made a call. Telephone. "Hello." On the phone, a woman answered, and Pastor O'Malley felt that her voice sounded a little strange. "Alice," he said softly. "Gravedigger" Jorns was standing beside Alice at this moment, his hand tightly grasping her arm as if in warning.He had told her what she was going to say to the pastor when Pastor O'Malley called, and the strength of his hand showed that Jorns wasn't joking. "Oh, Betty," she called, "the police are here for you..." "Gravedigger" Johns slapped her so hard that she lost her balance and hit the coffee table, then fell to the ground and rolled in a circle.The clothes were rolled up, revealing the lace of the pale yellow upper thighs and black panties. "Coffin Bucket" Ed came over and stood beside her, his face twitching like snake skin being roasted by fire. "You're fucking smart..." "Coffin Bucket" Ed roared viciously. "Gravedigger" Jones hurriedly said to the receiver: "O'Malley, we just want to know a little bit about the situation, that is..." But the phone had already been hung up. When he shook the receiver stand and contacted the branch office, the veins in his neck bulged again.At this time, Alice had stood up from the floor, walked over swiftly and fiercely like a cat, and slapped "coffin bucket" Ed on the face. In a rage, she mistook him for "grave digger" by" Johns. Alice was a strong, well-built brown woman.Even without tights, her vibrating ass will make men dream about it.With her oval face, high cheekbones, large, red lips, long eyelashes, and twinkling brown eyes, she was an attractive woman.She is thirty-three years old, and she is already sophisticated.She was as strong as a bull, so that slap on the face of Ed "Coffin Bucket" was really hard. Purely out of instinctive resistance, "Coffin Bucket" Ed immediately stretched out his hand, grabbed her by the throat, and pushed her body back. "Calm down, buddy, calm down! . . . " shouted "Gravedigger" Jones.However, he immediately realized that "Coffin Bucket" Ed would not listen to any warnings when he was in a rage.He hurriedly dropped the phone, turned around, and at the moment when the "coffin barrel" was about to break Alice's neck, "Gravedigger" Jorns hit him hard on the back of the neck. "Coffin Bucket" Ed suddenly lost his strength and fell forward, pressing heavily on Alice's body.The hand holding her throat loosened. "Gravedigger" Johns held Ed's armpits with both hands, pulled him up, and put him on the sofa; then pulled up Alice, and threw her into a chair.Her eyes were wide and full of terror, and her throat was bruised and purple. "Gravedigger" Jorns stood there, looking at the two men, and the phone started ringing frantically, thinking to himself: It's really hard to get off now, and he couldn't help thinking sadly of those half-breed bastards.Then he turned around and walked to the phone, dialed the number of the district bureau, and requested to trace the call just now. Just as he was about to hang up, Deputy Captain Anderson answered the phone. "Joens, you and Johnson go right away, the intersection of 137th Street and Seventh Avenue. There were two cars collided, people ran, and two people were dead when we arrived. .Maybe there are some clues left at the scene..." Anderson paused, and then asked, "How is it going?" "Gravedigger" Jones turned around and looked at Ed "Coffin Bucket" with his head drooping, and Alice with twinkling eyes, and replied, "Great, boss, everything is great." "I've sent a man over to keep an eye on her. He should be here in a moment." "Understood!..." "Gravedigger" Johns nodded. "Remember my warning - don't be violent unless you have to. I don't want anyone to get hurt." "Don't worry, boss, we'll be as careful as a shepherd with a newborn lamb." Deputy Captain Anderson hung up the phone. "Coffin Bucket" Ed had already recovered, and he looked at "Gravedigger" Johns with some timidity.No one spoke. Then Alice said in a hoarse, throat-wounded voice: "I'm going to make you two lose your jobs." Just as Ed "Coffin Bucket" was about to speak, "Gravedigger" Johns spoke first: "Your actions just now are not wise, but we are not rational either. So, we'd better start over calmly." "Go fart!..." Alice yelled, and her anger exploded, "You broke into my house without a search warrant, took me as a hostage, and attacked me personally. Now you say let me go!" I'm calm. You must think me a fool. Even if I should feel guilty about that murder, you can't get away with it." "Eighty-seven black families, like you and me..." "It's different from me!..." Alice shouted angrily. "One by one has already lost their life savings in this case." "So what?" "If you cooperate with us and help us get the money back, you'll get a ten percent bounty -- seventeen hundred dollars." "You despicable policemen, don't try to bribe me with money. Dick is far more valuable to me than this little money." "He's nothing now, you'd better be smart." "Gravedigger" Jorns roared loudly. Alice let out a short and hoarse laugh, and said, "I will never cooperate with you." Then she stood up, walked to Ed, who was sitting on the sofa, and stood upright. Suddenly, she stretched out her fist and hit him on the nose impartially.Tears welled up in his eyes and blood spurted from his nostrils.But he didn't fight back. "We're even," he said, taking out his handkerchief. There was a knock at the door, and "Gravedigger" Johns let in the white detective who had come to replace them both.No one spoke.They know each other well. "Let's go, Ed." "Gravedigger" Johns called helplessly. "Coffin Bucket" Ed stood up, and the two walked to the door together, "Coffin Bucket" Ed was still covering his nose with the bloody handkerchief. Just as they were going out, "Gravedigger" Johns suddenly turned around and said, "The door of the police station is always open for you."