Chapter 22 Chapter Nineteen

First, Ed "Coffin Bucket" and the young man named Wop drove to the Bronx to inspect the remnants of the Bliss sisters' house.Police have set up barricades around the house, and security team experts are still digging through the wreckage. "Coffin Bucket" Ed knew it all at once. After that, he took Wop as the guide and made a trip to the drug den in Harlem.All the owners know that Wop is an errand of Haidi's father, and he is very familiar with him.And "Coffin Bucket" Ed is holding this pass in his hand. He pushed Wop forward to ring the doorbell, gave the code, and shot him in the back with the revolver of "Gravedigger" Jons, and went straight to every notorious meeting house, drug dealer in Harlem. A place where addicts gather for pleasure and prostitution; in addition, break into injection drug users and addicts (referring to those who inject drugs with needles, and drug bugs who smoke powder), drug dealers and marijuana addicts, etc. A raucous party listening to authentic rock and roll music together.

He held a long-barreled nickel-plated revolver in each hand, and his eyes were murderous. He has embarrassed many people, including famous jazz musicians, international blues singers, sophisticated socialites, black and white, and prominent people of both sexes; Whores, thieves, and society scum alike come together, all willing to fall prey to the colorful illusions, carousing, and fiery orgy that drug dealers offer. He encounters: furtive and indignant "good women" who burst into tears, buffoons who boast about their political influence, and people who fear getting caught and think money will fix everything.

His intrusion caused panic and fear, which aroused everyone's fury.The absconding guy jumps out of the window, the owner threatens to call the police, the housewife hides under the bed, and the drugged-out man clubs him. He quelled the tumult and appeased the pacifists.He wasn't part of the narcotics squad, and he didn't even have a police badge.He broke in and was unauthorized.All he has now is physical strength, and it doesn't work. Wherever he went, he left a crowd of hysterical, screaming and shaking people with swollen heads and bloody noses.But it didn't help at all.He still hadn't found a clue, hadn't dug up anything he didn't know.There is only a blank.

No one admitted to seeing Pink Boy today.Nor did anyone admit to seeing a brunette woman in a green suit with almond eyes, followed by two white gangsters, all three of whom were looking for Pink Boy.No one has ever heard of the Blissful Sisters.No one knows anything.He couldn't detain them to extract confessions. Yet he knew that some of them were lying.After talking to Blackie, he was pretty sure that Jenny—the administrator's wife—was a fellow traveler with the two shooters.They had either left ahead of him or followed him, perhaps passing by more than once.But he saw no sign of them, no indication whether they were following him or ahead of him.He also turned back and waited in ambush, but they did not show up.

It is now eleven o'clock in the evening. Ed "Coffin Bucket" sat in his car with the lights out, in a dark neighborhood on St. Nicholas Avenue facing the park.He could feel the trembling of the young man next to him, even though they were two feet away.He could hear Wop's teeth chattering in the night, too.The young man's arrogance has been exhausted, and the fear that emanates from him is like a bad miasma. Ed "Coffin Bucket" reached into the darkness and turned on the dashboard radio for the eleven o'clock news. A male voice, beating around the bush and impersonating a well-known news anchor, babbled about domestic politics, the Cold War, life in Africa, the Civil Rights Front, and a fight scene between two action movie actors filmed in Morocco.

Ed "Coffin Bucket" wasn't listening, but the noise annoyed him.He felt as if the crown of his head was about to burst.He'd lost his goggles long ago, but now he felt grit in his eyes. He tried to think, but couldn't figure it out.These thoughts raced through his head like a tap dancer holding his last breath. "Take a step back, the sea and the sky are brighter," he said in his mind, but at the same time he cursed blindly.For a moment it occurred to him to line up all the goddamn gangsters and shoot them. He realized that he was thinking wildly, so he came back to his senses.

"This is no time to blow your mind," he told himself. There was only one place left for them to go.The operator is a big sister in the social circle in Harlem, so it may not be easy to go straight.He didn't want to rush things.If there is nothing there again, then he has entered a dead end. "You said you would give me money to go to Chicago," a choked and hoarse voice came from beside him in the darkness. "You'll get the money." He said absently, and his thoughts echoed: "He thought it was far enough." "Can I get some of my clothes?"

"Why not?" He said without thinking, but he didn't hear the question clearly at all.When he mentioned Chicago, he thought of the two gunmen he was chasing, and he said loudly: "Fucking bastards, it's better to disappear from the earth." Wop fell silent. The voice on the radio continued to report: "...Queen Elizabeth crossed the bridge..." Ed "Coffin Bucket" thought the announcer was saying "Queen Elizabeth urinates on the bridge (caused by mispronunciation of pass and piss)...".He wondered why she would do that. "Are you going to take me back to where I live?" Wop hesitated, stammering.

"what?" "They're going to ambush me there. They're gonna kill me, you know they're gonna kill me. You promised to protect me, you said you wouldn't let anybody hurt if I took you to their lair Mine. But now you're going to make them--" He started hysterical. Ed "Coffin Bucket" leaned back tiredly and slapped him. Wop's voice fell silent, and the hysteria subsided, and then there was a sob. Ed "Coffin Bucket" heard news reports that the patrol car found the body of Papa Haidi.The next words burned into his brain like a fiery riveter: "Detective Johns, who was shot and died of his wounds earlier today while investigating a murder in the basement of a Riverside Drive apartment, died in Harley. Known locally as 'Gravedigger' Johns, he was part of the famous Harlem detective duo 'Gravedigger' Johns and 'Coffin Bucket' Ed. They are now was suspended for attacking a suspected drug dealer named Jack Cubansky, who later died. The assailant, or several assailants, have not been identified. Reporters at the Major Crimes Office reported that— —”

He reached over to turn off the radio.It's just an unconscious reflex action.Perhaps it is subconsciously trying to reject that cognition by terminating the voice. He struggled to accept it.He sat motionless, as if not breathing.But the truth cannot be hidden after all. "Enough," he said loudly. Woop heard nothing.His thoughts were all in fear of his own safety. "But you're going to take me to the train station, aren't you? You'll let me get on the train safely, right?" "Coffin Bucket" Ed slowly turned his head to stare at Wop.The muscles in his face were twitching almost uncontrollably, but his reflexes were like a sleepwalker.

"You're one of them," he said in a suppressed voice. "Given you a month or two, and you're addicted. It's like having a monkey on your back, and you have to steal and rob and kill to feed it." Ed "Coffin Bucket"'s voice hit Wop so hard that he cowered into the corner of the seat, shrinking ever smaller. "I didn't rob anybody," he whimpered. "I didn't steal anything, I just worked for Haidi's father, and I didn't hurt anyone." "I'm not going to kill you yet," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said. "I'm going to keep an eye on you, though, because you're the only lead I have. And you better hope we find something at Mrs. Cash, if you don't want to be left alone. Get out of the car." "Coffin Bucket" Ed got out of the car on the side of the street. When he went around the front of the car, he suddenly had the feeling that someone in the park was watching him.He stepped onto the pavement, turned right and turned sharply, drawing his gun from the greased chamber.He scanned the sidewalk—flanked by the low stone walls of the park—and over the rough, brush-strewn terrain that rose steeply to Hamilton Heights. A few couples strolled along the pavement, and old men in shirts and cotton dresses still occupied the wooden benches.The heat did not abate as night fell, and people were reluctant to go back indoors, but there was no movement in the dark, bare and dangerous park.He didn't see anyone who was even remotely weird. "I'm starting to be paranoid," With that he holstered the pistol and pushed Wop forward toward the glass door of the apartment building. It was an old well-maintained elevator house, and he knew Mrs. Cash lived on the top floor.But the front door was locked.He glanced up and down the list of names above the button until he landed on "Dr. J. C. Douglas." There was an intercom next to the row of buttons, and when he got through to the doctor, he said, "Doctor, I must see you. I'm in a serious condition." "Wait a minute," said the doctor quickly. "Come back tomorrow morning." "I can't wait until then. I have an appointment tomorrow. It's my money anyway," he argued roughly. "Who are you?" asked the doctor. "Al Thompson," Ed "Coffin Bucket" ventured out a pimp's name. "I can't cure you in one night, Al," said the doctor. "It will take at least two days." "Damn it, give me the full dose at once, doc. I've been messing around and now I'm in trouble, and I don't want to kill my bitch when she comes back." "Coffin Bucket" Ed heard the doctor chuckle softly, and heard him say, "Okay, Al, come up; we'll see what we can do." The latch clicked open, and Ed "Coffin Bucket" opened the door and pushed Wop into the hall.Then go straight up to the top floor.Mrs. Cash's residence had a black enamel front door. "Have you been here before?" Ed "Coffin Bucket" asked Wop. "Yes, sir, Papa Haidi once asked me to bring some things over." He was shaking like a ghost. "Well, you ring the bell," he said. Ed "Coffin Bucket" leaned over the wall when Wop rang. After a while, there was a slight click at the front door, and a peephole opened outwards.Woop watched the reflection of his own eyes. "What are you going to do, child?" A woman's impatient voice came from inside. "I'm Woop; Papa Hadid sent me," he stammered. "No, he didn't, he's dead," said the female voice sternly. "What are you doing?" Ed "Coffin Bucket" knew he had made a stupid mistake.So he stepped forward and appeared, saying, "I'm with him." He was still wearing the beret, which gave him a pause before responding, "Oh! It's Ed! Oh, what the hell are you doing here?" "I want to talk to you." "Oh, then why don't you ring the doorbell yourself? You should know it's easier than calling a bad boy a striker." "I understand now," he said. "Forget it, I'll let you in, but not as a police officer," she said flatly. "I've been suspended," he said. "do not you know?" "Yes, I know," she said. The two locks on the door, both equipped with adjustable cables that can be fixed in any position, one near the bottom and the other near the top of the door; Knowing that she has opened the lock. "This filthy teenager needs to stay out," she said. "He's my mascot." She glanced at Wop in disgust, then backed away so he wouldn't touch her as he passed. There were two closed doors on either side of the wide, low foyer, and at the end there was a glass double door leading to the vestibule lounge, and a narrow corridor turned left somewhere.The whispers of men and women and the sound of jazz music came from the lounge. In this too elegant space, there was a faint scent of incense. Mrs. Cash closed and locked the front door, then walked past them and opened the door on the right. Ed "Coffin Bucket" pushed Wop first into a small sitting room--a room that could, of course, be used in an emergency for other purposes.Behind the side glass bar is a sofa bed, on which eye-catching pornographic magazines are piled up messily, and the sofa bed is also equipped with many weird belts and torture instruments.On the other side are two armchairs with provocative footstools.Air-conditioning units were installed at the bottom of the windows, flanked by a television and a gramophone for consolation.Obscene figures of all kinds filled three shelves of books in a nearby corner.Glossy sexy black nudes face off against the wall.The air conditioner was off, and there was a sweet smell of opium in the air. Mrs. Cash followed them in, and after locking the door she turned and stared impersonally at Ed "Coffin Bucket"'s menacingly twitching facial muscles. She was a plump mulatto with lazy, sexy brown eyes, black hair pulled up in a knot at the nape of her neck, and a fine black mustache.She wore a low-cut, open-back cotton gown with black mesh heels, and her bejeweled neck, arms and hands glistened.She looked nothing like forty years old, and she was still attractive and attractive.But her flat voice was the exact opposite of her appearance. "Come on, what's your business, Ed? And don't ask me about criminals, because I don't know any of them." "Coffin Bucket" Ed suppressed his voice, "Just wanted to ask a few questions, and I don't want to hear any bullshit." She suddenly became furious and changed her face viciously. "Hmph, you third-rate nigger with no good words out of your dog's mouth—" she started cursing, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. A flat, piercing female voice said from the hallway: "It's me, Jenny. If you let me out, I can go first." "Wait a minute, honey." Mrs. Cash reluctantly finished speaking, and the next second she felt someone grabbing her bun and pulling her head back violently, a knee rested on the back of her waist, and the edge of a sharp knife rested on her throat superior. The moment she glanced at the door just now, "Coffin Bucket" Ed moved so fast that she didn't even notice it. "Walk slowly to the door and open it, and let her in," he whispered in her ear, lowering his knees so she could walk. She didn't move.Her face was gray, and she looked twenty years older than before, and the blood vessels in her temples were pumping like artesian pumps. "You'll kill yourself," she said sadly but very softly. "My bodyguard, Spunkie, was in the lounge with my husband, and he had a . 45. There was a short-barreled shotgun in a chest of drawers. Detective Rendsay was with them, and he had police The standard equipped gun." "I always thought he was an old fox," Ed "Coffin Bucket" whispered. "Now you're done." "It's not going to do you any good, though. So, God help me, or I'll slit your fucking throat." He motioned for Wop to open the door with his head.But Wop was transfixed with fright, as if hypnotized by the large obsidian eyes, staring blankly from the ashen face. "I wouldn't do that," Mrs. Cash said. "Say goodbye," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said, and clamped his arms. Mrs. Cash looked directly at Wop, then raised her voice and said, "Just a second, Jeannie." There was a sound of the door opening in the lounge, and a man's voice called, "What's the matter, honey?" Then, as if looking away, in a low voice, "Go and see what's going on, Spunky." Mrs. Cash's bun was originally held in his left hand, but Ed "Coffin Bucket" bit his mouth instead, and then pulled out "Gravedigger" Jorns' pistol from his belt, but the knife edge was still resting on her throat superior. He moved next to her like a weird conjoined twin. She stood behind the door, opened it and shouted, "It's all right, honey. I'm confirming the meeting place." Then she spoke in her usual voice, "Come in, Jenny." Seeing Wo Pu's face, Jeanne hesitated for a moment, then stepped into the room. It was too late to say, Ed "Coffin Bucket" kicked the door closed with his left foot, threw Mrs. Cash away, put the blade around Jenny's throat, and covered her mouth with his left forearm , jerked her head back. She felt the blade on her throat, had cloth in her mouth, and saw a large nickel-plated pistol pointing directly in front of her eyes.Her knees gave way and she began to fall. Mrs. Cash strode to the door, opened it and entered the hall.Spunkie is outside the door, trying to see what's going on inside the room.She closed the door behind her and said, "Leave them alone for a while." Then she turned and said loudly through the door, "Call me when you're ready to go." For a moment the only sound was their footsteps towards the lounge and the closing of the door. "Stand up!" "Coffin Bucket" Ed whispered in Jenny's ear. She straightened her knees and tried to speak.The movement of her head made her long, greasy black hair press against his face. "Shut up!" he whispered, turning his head away from his suffocatingly thick, scented hair.The unusual closeness felt like some kind of aphrodisiac sadism, and both men were unsettled by the unusual commotion. "Strip her naked," Ed "Coffin Bucket" ordered Woop. She heard a trace of uncontrollable desire in his voice, thinking that she would be raped.She shook her head and tried to speak again, but only mumbled, "You don't have to—" Wop stared blankly. "Strip her naked?" he repeated, as if he didn't understand the meaning of the words. "Get those fucking clothes off her," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said through gritted teeth. "Have you never done it?" Warp approached her warily and frightenedly, as if she were a lioness with her cubs.Resignedly, she took turns lifting her feet to let him take off her shoes and stockings.No one spoke.All that could be heard was Wop's heavy breathing and the chattering of teeth.Yet the silence was all the more eerie because of the slowness with which he took off her shiny gabardine suit and apple-green underwear. Ed "Coffin Bucket" let her go when she was completely naked. She turned around and looked at him for the first time. "Oh, it's you!" said her harsh voice. "I was right." She fell to the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around her thighs. "Just don't hurt me," she said. "What the hell!" he said, grabbing her by the hair and dragging her to the couch. She opened her thick lips to inhale, but didn't dare to scream.He turned her over and licked her body thoroughly, but found nothing. "Tie her up," he ordered to Woop. Wope moved like a robot, his movements stiff and his eyes glazed over. When he was done, Ed "Coffin Bucket" said, "Get her compact out of the handbag." Ed "Coffin Bucket" then bent down and grabbed her hair again.He pulled her head back until her throat was taut, and drew a shallow six-inch tangent across it. She was so frightened that she was motionless, not even daring to catch her breath.Stare straight with fearful eyes. "Give me the mirror," he said, and held it up to her. "Look at your throat." There was a thin bloodstain where the knife cut across.She passed out. He threw away the powder box and said angrily, "It doesn't matter if other people bleed to death, only your own blood can't." He then slapped her hard until she came to her senses. He knew that he had exceeded the limit by doing so, and it was already inhumane.He knew what he had done was unforgivable, but he didn't want to hear any more lies. She lay stiff and stared at him with hate and fear. "Next time I'll cut to the bone," he said. She trembled all over, as if one foot had been set in the grave. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you," she said. "I'll show you how to get it. That's what you want, right?" He stared at her without saying a word. "We'll just split it evenly," she continued. "It's also counted as your partner, so the three of us are more than enough. It doesn't matter if you don't want me, you can fuck me, and you will want me after you fuck. You will want me insatiably. I It can make you scream in ecstasy, and I can do things in ways you can't imagine. You are a policeman, there is no danger, they can't hurt you, you can kill them." At this moment, an unprecedented pain seized him suddenly. "Is there no righteous person in this fucking world?" The cry of pain seemed to be torn from him.Then he said in a voice that was almost unheard of: "Do you think I can be bribed because I am a policeman? You are wrong. I only want one thing from you, and that is the truth. You have to give me the truth." Okay, or I'll screw you up to the point where absolutely no one wants you anymore, and I'm not kidding." "They're going to kill me." "Anyway, if I didn't kill them first, you would be killed by them too." Twenty-three minutes later, he had her statement.He has no way of confirming whether what she said is true, only time will tell. He looked at his watch. It was eleven fifty-seven. He untied her and told her to stand up and get dressed. Anyway, he thought, that was all he could know till the end of the matter.If she hadn't lied, then things would have gone as he expected; if she hadn't, they would have ended together. He waited for her to get dressed while listening to the music of records coming from the lounge.He should have played other records before, but he didn't hear them. It was Lester Young's saxophone solo.He didn't recognize which song it was, but it carried the unique style of "President" (Liszt Yang was honored as Pres, meaning President).His stomach tightened, as if he heard someone laughing all the way to death, it was bloody laughter, that's the black way of laughing. His thoughts went back to the late 1930s - the period of the "Great Depression".At that time, "Gravedigger" Johns was a patrolman on 112th Street. They heard Liszt and Count Basie (Count Basie, 1904-1984, the style of swing music was created by him) in the Apollo Theater. Established) Orchestra, and played trumpet with Herschel Evans (1909-1939, famous jazz musician). president!He is the greatest, he thought. "I'm fine," Jeannie said. "Open the door and call Mrs. Cash," he said. Mrs. Cash entered the door. He looked at her carefully and carefully. After judging that she was not armed, he said to Jeanne with peace of mind: "You go out first, I'm behind you," and then he said to Walp: " You walk behind me, whenever you see someone with a gun, you yell." Mrs. Cash pursed her lips. "If we wanted to hurt you, you would be dead by now. You won't be hurt here." He quietly sheathed the knife and tucked Gravedigger Jorns' pistol back into his belt.Eyes looked at her again. "Joens 'Gravedigger' is dead," he said, and added: "But you're alive." He waved his hand, and the three of them left in a single file. Mrs. Cash propped the door open.When Ed "Coffin Bucket" passed by, she said in a low voice, "I won't forget you." He didn't respond. As they took the elevator down together, he could smell the stench of fear oozing from them.They were all scared to death when their lives were in other people's hands, he thought sarcastically. Before crossing the sidewalk to his car, he stopped briefly at the door, gun in hand, watching the street.He didn't think there would be a shootout.If she hadn't lied, the shooters wouldn't have shown up.This is just a precautionary measure.He'd learned the hard way, the hard way, that never trust anyone when you're risking your own life. He didn't see anything suspicious. They walked to the parking lot in the same order they left the suite.He got into the inner front seat first, and then moved over quietly.The other two followed into the car, Jeanne sitting in the middle and Wop on the outside. I wish Jons the Gravedigger was here, he thought without thinking.Then the thought stopped there.