Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty

He was not in a hurry and arrived at his destination in just seven minutes.There is no need to rush anymore.He made a sharp U-turn on St. Nicholas Avenue, headed down the ramp to 125th Street, and then headed west toward the Hudson River. After a few intersections, 1st, 25th and 1st 25th Streets are still black: Jukeboxes blare from neon-lit bars, rowdy people walk up and down the sidewalks, shrieking gay men congregate in the “Rev. In front of "Shoot", where dark-skinned cross-dressers babble; marijuana smokers gesticulating and chattering at the entrance of the Pope pool hall; He turned south on Broadway, went west again at 1st, 24th, and climbed up the steep slope of Claremont Avenue behind the high stone wall of the International House.Then turn to the river and finally come to the quiet area of ​​the riverside avenue near the riverside church.

He continued to watch the rearview mirror with one eye, but found no signs of being followed. So far so good, he thought. He parked directly in front of the apartment house with the lights off; he sat for a while surveying the street before turning on the lights.Everything seems to be the same.At this moment, except for the cool breeze blowing from the river, there is no other movement.Cars parked overnight lined up along the inside of the curb in defiance of New York City's parking ban.Still, he held the gun in his hand as he got out of the car and walked up the side of the street, before walking around in front of the car.

Wop had already dismounted on his side, with Jeanne at the rear.They crossed the sidewalk in single file, and she unlocked the apartment building with her key. "Coffin Bucket" Ed let the two of them go first, and then said, "Wait here." He walked through the lobby to the elevator door, and took the elevator to the ground floor.He opened the elevator door to check the situation inside, then let the elevator close automatically, and stood for a while to study the outer door of the elevator shaft.But nothing can be seen.The elevator floor is flush with the lobby floor, and the roof of the elevator door is embedded in the roof of the elevator shaft door.

He turned back, said, "Well, let's go down," and led the way. They came to the corridor in the basement and found that the night lights were on as usual. "Coffin Bucket" Ed blocked them and stopped for a while, listening to the surroundings.He could see the doors to the caretaker's suite, the tool room, the stairs, the elevator, and the door to the laundry room, and a back door leading to the backyard.The surroundings are quiet and silent, even the outside is silent.His eyes lit up at the sight of the short ladder hanging under the fire extinguisher on the interior wall.These eight costs were originally placed here, but he didn't notice it before.

At the end of the corridor leading to the door of the administrator's room, the new administrator's tattered suitcases, suitcases, and household furnishings were stacked against the wall.But the new administrator hasn't moved in yet.Because there is a police seal on the door. Ed "Coffin Bucket" opened his Boy Scout knife and cut the seal.Jenny unlocked the door, stepped inside and turned on the light.She backed away and yelled, "My God, what happened?" Except that the African body had been removed, the house seemed to be the same as the last time Ed "Coffin Bucket" had seen it.

"Your friend's throat was cut," he said. She stared at the dried and mottled black blood in horror, her body began to tremble violently.Wop's teeth began to rattle again. "What are you two afraid of? It's not your blood that's shed," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said sternly. Jenny started to turn blue.He didn't want anything to happen to her, so he said quickly, "Just give me the key." She has to go across the room to get into the kitchen.So she leaned on the wall with one hand, and went sideways, as if across the deck of a storm-battered ship.

When she brought back a bunch of house keys, Ed "Coffin Bucket" said to Wop, "You stay here." Wopper looked at the dried blood and the mess in the house, and his face turned gray and white that could hardly be imagined on black skin. "Must I stay?" he stammered. "Or go home." He chose to stay. Ed "Coffin Bucket" pushed Jeanne out into the hallway, closed and locked the door in front of Wopp, and went over to bolt the back door to the back yard.Jenny stood by the elevator door, as if she didn't dare to move. "Stay where you are," Ed "Coffin Bucket" stepped into the elevator after returning, and gave instructions.

She suddenly became alert. "You're not going to leave me here, are you?" "Don't worry," he said, closing the door in her face. As the elevator ascended to the first floor, he heard her protest, but ignored it. He got out of the elevator, walked down the stairs, and bumped into Jenny who was coming upstairs. "Stop, where are you going, baby?" he said, stopping her. "If you think I'm going to—" As soon as she opened her mouth, he grabbed her arm and interrupted: "You have to take me to see how to cut off the power of this thing."

"Okay, okay, you don't have to be so fucking rude every time you open your mouth," she grumbled, but did as she was told. She picked out a small square key from the keychain and gave it to him to open the basement door leading to the elevator shaft, where the power switch was located. "Just press it down," she said. He found a push button switch and pressed it. "All in all, that stuff wasn't there," she said. "They say they've looked over there." She didn't raise her voice, but she didn't lower it either. He looked into the black hole.

"Shut up and shine a light on me," he said. "There's a light in there. Feel under there and you'll find the switch." He groped in the dark and found a small switch.An unshaded light bulb tied to the end of an extension cord on the linoleum floor revealed a six-foot-deep cement pit at the bottom of the elevator shaft. A heavy spring-loaded safety bar supporting a cumbersome elevator box rose from the center of the pit, behind which were sheaves and large electric motors that operated the lift cables, and beside them were control switches and adjustment levers.

He leaned down into the pit, found some greasy piece of discarded cotton, and wiped the instruction plate on the motor and control lever.One of the levers works with the jack, and its function is to make the elevator rise or fall so that it is level with the hallway floor. He pushed it as low as he could, about three feet deep.Then climb out of the hole, leaving the light on, and close the door.He turned on the power again and took the elevator to the basement.It is now possible to climb from the elevator shaft door to the top of the elevator. He took the ladder from the wall and put it in front of the elevator to climb up. "Did you see it?" she asked with a sigh. He did not respond. He thrust his head and shoulders into the notch at the top of the elevator, climbed as high as he could, then crawled forward. "Did you find it?" she asked anxiously. "Just be quiet," he said, fumbling with the blue canvas utility bag. Once at the bag, he drew it forward by his hips, then turned on his back, and drew two revolvers.He checked the condition of the gun by the dim light cast from the side of the elevator in the cave.no problem. He leaned back and began to drill forward, using his elbows to move the bag forward inch by inch. "Isn't there?" she asked. Her tense voice made him very irritated. "Shut up and let me focus on finding things!" He gritted his teeth and said. He continued to move forward slowly until his feet touched the ladder.Only his head, shoulders, and hands holding the revolver remained invisible.Then he knocked one of the bags onto the basement floor. "He's got it!" she yelled, before rushing into the elevator. "Coffin Bucket" Ed rolled and fell to the ground like a cat, and there was a slight purr at this moment.At this moment, the junkie shooter jumped down the stairs and into the hallway. Both men opened fire before their feet hit the ground. Ed "Coffin Bucket" held Jorns "Gravedigger" pistol in his left hand and fired the crotch shot that he hated.The gunman fired over his left shoulder with a suppressed short-barreled gun held in his right hand, and another police-issue gun hung from his left hand. In the narrow corridor, the thundering crack of the long-barreled . The brass point of the .38 hit the shooter in the jaw, shattering his jawbone, spattering blood and teeth, while the .44 from the short-barreled pistol burned Ed "Coffin Bucket" on his left sleeve. Make a hole, searing his skin like a branding iron. "Coffin Bucket" Ed landed on the ground with his legs wide open, squatting firmly, and before the fat gunman reached the bottom of the stairs, he took two more shots at the body of the previous gunman, sending him jumping to death Dance to hell. The fat gunman tried to get his footing and fired, two random rounds from the . 38 automatic pistol shattered the plaster on the ceiling and pierced the fire extinguisher; at this point Ed "Coffin Bucket" fired both guns, and the two bullets Side by side into his belly. Immediately afterwards, "Coffin Bucket" Ed's beret flew out from the top of his head like a missile. Before he could speak, a .45 brass bullet hit his shoulder blade from behind, causing He fell face down. The third gunman had already stepped out of the laundry room and attacked with a .45-caliber Colt army automatic pistol.But it was too late to pull the trigger for the third time, the plainclothes criminal police had swarmed out from all directions, and the whole corridor erupted with the sound of several police guns firing at the same time.The gunman fell to the ground covered in bullets. Everything happened in twenty-seven seconds. In the gray-blue air, there was a suffocating smell of smokeless gunpowder, and the aftermath of rumbling gunfire still lingered in their ears. The two gunmen lay motionless on the ground.The fat shooter's internal organs were punctured, his liver ruptured, his spleen was exploded, and he was about to die.A detective tried to record a statement, but he did not speak. Another detective dragged Jeanne out of the elevator and handcuffed her, while a third took Wop from the caretaker's house.There were nine detectives in total, three from the Major Crimes Squad, three from the Narcotics Squad, and three Treasury Department Specialists. The bone-piercing pain made "Coffin Bucket" Ed clenched his teeth, and he tried to prop himself up with his left hand.Two detectives helped him to his feet, while the other went to the end of the corridor and called the district police station, who dispatched two police hearses and two ambulances. "I'm fine," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said. "Where's my gun?" "Gravedigger" Jons' pistol was still in his left hand, but his own was knocked out by the impact of the .45. A treasury commissioner grinned, lifted his coat, and slipped the revolver into his holster. Ed "Coffin Bucket" tucked the other gun into his hip belt.The financial dispatcher buttoned up the suit jacket for "Coffin Bucket" Ed, and then helped him hang the sling on his arm. The deputy captain of the anti-narcotics team weighed the blue canvas bag in his hand, and looked at "coffin bucket" Ed inquiringly. But it was the vice-captain of the Serious Crime Squad who asked the question: "How do you know it's here?" "He didn't know. Didn't you think we were monitoring here?" said the deputy captain of the anti-narcotics team. "I never thought of that," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said. "The first thing I did when I left the house this afternoon was put it there." "So that was just a bait." "Yes, this is the best way I can think of." Everyone stared at him for a while.His twitching, ugly patched face formed an unbearable painful scene, and everyone turned their eyes away. "I've got an idea," said one of the treasury commissioners. "If it worked, it might work again. We've got someone watching Benny Mason and his driver at the end of the street beyond Grant's Cemetery. He's watching the entrances and exits through the night binoculars." "She said he's been hanging around here," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said, nodding at the woman. "What do you think?" the vice-captain of the anti-narcotics team asked. "We're sending this woman down the street, and with this bag. He's going to try to get it—" "Then what? There's nothing there," said the vice-captain of the crime squad. "There is no reason to sue him." The special commissioner of the Ministry of Finance smiled slightly. "We'll put something in there. We're thinking about setting a trap too, so we can catch him off guard. So we've got a little package with us too, two kilos of pure heroin. We'll just slip it into that bag— —” "And let him get it?" "Exactly, we don't want to disappoint Mr. Meisheng." "Then you'd better hurry up," said the vice-captain of the major crime squad. "In two minutes the street will be full of police cars." "It doesn't make any difference to Mr. Mayson, since he's chasing this thing like a raging fire, but we still have to act quickly." A special commissioner of the Ministry of Finance took out the bag of heroin, dropped the bag, and then uncuffed Jeanne's wrists. "I'm not doing it," she said. Everyone stared at her, with a policeman's usual expressionless face when a prisoner resisted. "What is she charged with?" asked the Treasury Commissioner. "Complicity," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said. "We have other charges," the deputy captain of the serious crime team said solemnly. "She killed the African." "I didn't!" she screamed. "It's a fucking lie!" "We have evidence to prove it," said the vice-captain of the serious crime team decisively. "You want to falsely accuse me," she said accusingly. "That's just a generalization. You can of course try your luck in court." "Fucking dirty bastard!" She was furious. "Leave me alone with her for thirty seconds," Ed "Coffin Bucket" said. She glanced sharply at his face, and the defiance faded away. "Okay, get me that fucking bag," she said.