Harlem Shuffle

Ray meets Pepper in a bar and explains Freddie’s predicament. He wants to hire Pepper as security while Freddie escapes the city. They make “a deal for the security and miscellaneous manhandling” (254); Pepper wants a recliner chair from the store as part of his fee. Ray gives Pepper the keys to his store that evening, having sent Freddie to a “new hidey-hole” (255) in Brooklyn. Ray’s family passes by, and Elizabeth invites Pepper to dinner. Despite Ray’s hesitation, she insists. At dinner, Elizabeth gets “more out of Pepper” (257) than Ray ever managed.

Ray takes the emerald necklace to Moskowitz’s store. He rides the subway, reading a leaflet given to him during the riots. The leaflet contains instructions on how to make a Molotov cocktail. He leaves it in his wallet as “a talisman or a crooked hymn kept close for reference” (261). Moskowitz tells Ray that the necklace is too hot, meaning that no one in the city will pay him money because it is connected to powerful, dangerous people. Outside the jewelry store, Ray is stopped by a lawyer named Ed Bench who represents the Van Wyck family.