The real cool killers

17

It was eleven o'clock the next morning.

Inky and Bones had spilled their guts. It had gone hard for them and when the cops got through with them they were as knotty as fat pine. The remaining members of the Real Cool Moslems — Camel Mouth, Beau Baby, Punkin Head and Slow Motion — had been rounded up, questioned and were now being held along with Inky and Bones. Their statements had been practically identical: They had been standing on the corner of 12 7th Street and Lenox Avenue.

Q. What for?

A. Just having a dress rehearsal.

Q. What? Dress rehearsal? A. Yas suh. Like they do on Broadway. We was practicing wearing our new A-rab costumes. Q. And you saw Mr. Galen when he ran past? A. Yas suh, that's when we seed him. Q. Did you recognize him? A. Naw suh, we didn't know him. Q. Sheik knew him. A. Yas suh, but he didn't say he knew 'im and we'd never seen him before. Q. Choo-Choo must have known him, too. A. Yas suh, must'ave. Him and Sheik usta room together. Q. But you saw Sheik shoot him? A. Yas suh. He said, "Watch this," and pulled out his new zip gun and shot at him. Q. How many times did he shoot? A. Just once. That's all a zip gun will shoot. Q. Yes, these zip guns are single shots. But you knew he had the gun? A. Yas suh. He'd been working on it for 'most a week. Q. He made it himself? A. Yas suh. Q. Had you ever seen him shoot it previously? A. Naw suh. It were just finished. He hadn't tried it out. Q. But you knew he had it on his person? A. Yas suh. He were going to try it out that night. Q. And after he shot the white man, what did you do? A. The man fell down and we went up to see if he'd hit him. Q. Were you acquainted with the first suspect, Sonny Pickens? A. Naw suh, we seed him for the first time too when he come past there shootin'. Q. When you saw the white man had been killed, did you know Sheik had shot him? A. Naw suh, we thought the other fellow had did it. Q. Which one of you, er, passed the wind? A. Suh? Q. Which one of you broke wind? A. Oh, that were Choo-Choo, suh, he the one fatted. Q. Was there any special significance in that? A. Suh? Q. Why did he do it? A. That were just a salute we give to the cops. Q. Oh! Was the perfume throwing part of it? A. Yas suh, when they got mad Caleb thew the perfume on them. Q. To allay their anger, er, ah, make them jolly? A. Naw suh, to make them madder. Q. Oh! Well, why did Sheik kidnap Pickens, the other suspect? A. Just to put something over on the cops. He hated cops. Q. Why? A. Suh? Q. Why did he hate cops? Did he have any special reason to hate cops? A. Special reason? To hate cops? Naw suh. He didn't need none. Just they was cops, is all. Q. Ah, yes, just they was cops.. Is this the zip gun Sheik had? A. Yas suh. Leastwise it looks like it. Q. How did Bones come to be in possession of it? A. He gave it to Bones when he was running off. Bones's old man work for the city and he figgered it was safe with Bones. Q. That's all for you, boy. You had better be scared. A. Ah is.

That was the case. Open and shut.