Cotton Comes To Harlem

Grave Digger and Coffin Ed examine the body of the fake black detective working for Deke, who has forged credentials from the DA. Grave Digger and Coffin Ed also learn the other man struck by the truck, Early Riser, was a conman who worked with a partner. No witnesses will talk about what happened, since everyone is “stone blind” when it comes to helping the cops. Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find traces of cotton in the meat truck: “A mob of white bandits and cotton—in Harlem. Figure that one out” (22). Since no witnesses will come forward, Coffin Ed and Grave Digger track down informants (or “pigeons”) who can give them information. At one bar, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed take a brief respite listening to some jazz: “The emotion that comes out of experience. If we could read that language, man, we would solve all the crimes in the world” (23).

Coffin Ed and Grave Digger noticed Early did drugs, so they go to a bar in a rough neighborhood where drugs are sold. A prostitute propositions them but backtracks once she realizes they’re cops and insists she doesn’t know anything. One of the drunks in the bar, Cousin, follows Grave Digger and Coffin Ed to their car and describes Early’s scam of cutting out lady’s purses.