Crook Manifesto

While filming the portion of Secret Agent: Nefertiti set in Ray’s furniture store, Zippo hires Pepper to work security. Pepper was an associate of Ray’s father, and Ray has known Pepper since he was a teenager. Ray also worked with Pepper, finding occasion to hire him as muscle on one job or other during his days as a fence. Because of this recent association, Pepper is also familiar with Ray’s store and his employees. Pepper has a quiet, commanding presence and can stop would-be thieves and interlopers with a mere glance or grunt.

While working, Pepper reflects on his history with Ray and his family. Every so often, Ray reminds Pepper of Mike, his father. These days, Pepper sees traces of Ray in his son, John. Although their business dealings have gone dormant, Ray has kept in touch with Pepper. Pepper is a regular, if not frequent, guest in the Carney home, and Ray’s children call him “uncle.” Pepper speculates that May is aware of the extra-legality of his work, although she does not seem to hold his criminality against him. It was Ray who suggested Pepper to Zippo when Zippo voiced frustration with his project’s ongoing issues with theft.

Zippo is a quiet but interested observer of life on set at Ray’s store. He silently admires the film’s star, Lucinda Cole, and notes the difference between her subdued personality between takes and the charismatic bravado she brings to her scenes. He notes Ray’s discomfort at Zippo’s choice to cast the fictional owner of Ray’s furniture business as a clandestine fence for stolen goods, and watches as Ray, furious, talks Zippo into making the store owner a bookie instead.

On set, Lucinda Cole goes missing. Without its Nefertiti, the film cannot continue production. Frantic, Zippo calls Pepper. The two meet and Zippo asks Pepper to find Lucinda. According to her agent, she has only recently recovered from some unknown (or perhaps merely unexplained) difficulty. Zippo tells Pepper “drugs, booze, or the wrong crowd—I don’t know” (138). Although hesitant to get involved in this messy matter, Pepper agrees to help when offered additional money.

Pepper’s search first takes him to the Sassy Crow, a comedy club downtown. The night’s headliner is Roscoe Pope and one of Zippo’s actors in Secret Agent: Nefertiti. Pepper is uneasy in the club, although he’s been there before with Hazel, an ex-girlfriend. He does not like the cramped basement bar and is wary of venues with only one exit. Roscoe Pope’s energy is electric. His foul mouth, snarky interaction with the audience, and willingness to engage with taboo racial topics are starkly reminiscent of comedian Richard Pryor, who was, during the early 1970s, performing stand-up in various clubs around New York. After his set, Pepper approaches Roscoe to ask about Lucinda. Roscoe scoffs at Pepper, and in frustration tells him that he’s already told Zippo he doesn’t know anything about Lucinda’s whereabouts. He asks for a moment to use the restroom. Behind its closed door, he slips out of the building. There were two exits after all.

The next morning, Pepper goes to the Hotel McAlpin, where both Lucinda and Roscoe are staying. Lucinda has not returned to the set, nor does he find her with Roscoe, who claims that she has gone to buy drugs from a dealer named Quincy. Pepper is skeptical, but he marches Roscoe to the dealer’s apartment anyway.

Pepper and Roscoe arrive at Quincy’s brownstone, and Pepper notes the well-kept condition of the property. Although certainly a crooked man, Quincy’s home is deceptively strait-laced. Happy to see Roscoe, Quincy invites the two in and asks them to remove their shoes. Roscoe immediately complies. Pepper does not. Quincy’s cook, Pickles, emerges, large butcher knife in hand. When it becomes clear that Pepper has no plans to remove his shoes, Pickles rushes him with the knife. Pepper easily disarms the man and leads both Pickles and Quincy into the living room. There, he commences his interrogation, demanding to know when Quincy last saw Lucinda. Quincy claims that she was there several days ago, asking for valium to help her wind down from the film’s stressful production schedule. According to him, she was in and out quickly. Also according to Quincy, Lucinda owed money to local gangster Chink Montague.

Having gotten the information he was looking for, Pepper leaves Quincy’s. He returns to the McAlpin to search Lucinda’s room. It has been trashed, and not during a party. The space bears signs of violence. Pepper has a splitting headache from his altercation with Pickles, and he returns home to take an aspirin and rest. Upon waking, he heads to New Country Kitchen, a local chicken restaurant run by his friend Viola. Her restaurant sits across the street from Lady Betsy’s, a Harlem institution and, at one point, the best chicken joint around. According to local legend, Betsy arrived from down South with little more than a box of secret recipes and turned her restaurant into an overwhelming success on the strength of her cooking. Viola came later, set up shop right across from Betsy, and eventually beat out Lady Betsy’s with her own culinary aplomb. However, she did not do so honestly. Although she is a formidable cook, no one in the neighborhood could agree whose food was superior. Viola hired Pepper to break into Betsy’s after hours and steal her recipes. Once she had stolen Betsy’s well-guarded secret, Viola emerged as the victor.

Zippo meets Pepper at New Country Kitchen to discuss Pepper’s findings. Pepper chastises himself for not remembering that Lucinda Cole is Chink Montague’s girlfriend. He asks if Montague is one of the film’s silent backers. Zippo prevaricates, telling Pepper not to say Montague’s name out loud. Although Zippo disagrees, Pepper theorizes that Montague kidnapped Lucinda. He thinks that if they can find Montague, Lucinda will be with him.

Pepper learns that Montague is likely to be at a club called Earl’s Satin on Thursday, and he sets out to find him. Upon arrival, he asks for Montague, is told that no one by that name is there, and is promptly knocked unconscious. When he regains consciousness, there are three other men in the bar. One of the men is Montague. Pepper asks about Lucinda, and Montague denies knowledge of her whereabouts. He does his best to intimidate Pepper, but Pepper remains impassive. This flusters Montague, who loses his temper and tells Pepper that Lucinda’s real name is Leanne Wilkes and that he found her when she was still an undiscovered actress, provided her with a better screen name, and helped her get her start. He scoffs at the public’s willingness to believe that Lucinda grew up in the “ghetto,” telling Pepper that she is in fact from the affluent, bucolic suburb of Maplewood, New Jersey. His anger boils over, and he tries to stab Pepper. Pepper fatally shoots him and leaves.

There are two listings for Wilkes in Maplewood, New Jersey, and Pepper easily finds Lucinda. She readily explains her absence to Pepper, filling in some blanks about her early days with Montague in the process. She tells Pepper that she initially didn’t mind Montague’s criminality. She’d left him only because she felt she needed to make a clean break when she moved to Hollywood. When she returned to Harlem for her role as Nefertiti, Montague called her, demanding a cut of her earnings from the film. He argued that his assistance during the early days of her acting career had been an investment, and that she owed him. He’d also professed his love for her in a way that she found puzzling and distasteful. After refusing him, she’d returned to her room. There, she grew angry at Montague for his intrusion into her life. It was Lucinda herself who trashed her room, not Montague. She did so in a fit of rage, then took a valium and a cab back home to New Jersey. Pepper returns her to the set, and filming resumes.

Although Secret Agent: Nefertiti receives mixed reviews, and the editing isn’t entirely to his liking, Zippo is pleased with the project overall and even notes how fitting its double billing is: His film is paired with Invasion of the Bee Girls, and Zippo thinks that each film in its own way showcases female strength. Although Blaxploitation is on its way out in America, French audiences love Zippo’s film, and as Part 2 ends, he is on his way to Paris to promote his work.