Part 7 (1/2)
”Did she charge him?”
”No It went as an accident”
The police reporter stopped fiddling with his notes and stared
”How the hell can you get your throat cut accidentally?” Brody asked
”She said he didn't intend to do it--that he was just playing”
”Playing kind of rough,” the police reporter commented
”Why?” Brody asked ”Why did he do it?”
”She hung on too long,” Grave Digger said ”He wanted Dulcy and she wouldn't let go”
”And she still hangs on to hiot him for life”
”It's a funny way to keep a et this is Harlem Folks here are happy just to be alive”
7
They called chink next
He said he'd started the night with a little friendly stud poker session in his room It had broke up at one-thirty and he'd arrived at the wake at two AM He had left the wake at five minutes to four to keep a tete-a-tete with Doll Baby in her kitchenette apart next door
”Did you look at your watch when you left?” Brody asked
”No, when I went down in the elevator”
”Exactly where was Reverend Short when you left?”
”Reverend Short? hell, I didn't pay no attention” He paused briefly, as though trying to re beside the coffin, but I can't be sure”
”What was happening outside when you got down to the street?”
”Nothing A colored cop was standing there guarding the A&P store groceries on the sidewalk Heme”
”Was there anyone with hiht, son, let's have the facts without the comedy,” Brody said with irritation
chink said he'd waited for Doll Baby in the front hall and they had walked up to her apartment on the secondfloor rear But she hadn't been in the one out to pick up a few sticks of marijuana weed from a friend who lived down the street
”Where?” Brody asked
”Make a guess,” chink said defiantly
Brody let it pass
”Were there any people on the street that time?” he asked
”Just as I stepped out on the sidewalk Dulcy Perry came from next door, andVal's body in the bread basket at the same time”
”Had you noticed the bread basket before?”
”Sure It was full of plain bread”
”There was no one else in sight when you and Dulcy met?”
”No one”
”How did she react when she saw her brother's body?”
”She just started going crazy”
”What did she say?”
”I don't remember”
Brody showed him the knife
chink admitted that it looked like the knife that had been stuck in Val's body, but denied ever having seen it before
”Reverend Short testified that he saw you give this knife to Dulcy Perry in front of his church the day after Christmas, and that you showed her how to use it,” Brody said
chink's sweaty yellow face paled to the color of a dirty sheet
”Thatthat opiuiven Dulcy anyknife and ain't never seen it before”
”But you've been after her like a dog after a bitch in heat,” Brody charged ”Everybody says that”
”You can't hang a ued
”No, but you can kill a woets in the way,” Brody said
”Val wasn't no trouble,” chink muttered ”He'd have set it up for me if he hadn't been scared of Johnny”