Chapter 1 Summary

One can still drive through Charles ("Buddy") Bolden's neighborhoods and hear stories of notorious prostitutes, gamblers, and piano players. Buddy cuts hair in Joseph's Shaving Parlor, where liquor arrives at intervals and is shared around. Buddy is usually drunk by noon and cuts more flamboyantly, so smart customers come early. His day is organized: walking the children to school by 8 AM, cutting hair until 4 PM, sleeping with Nora Bass until 8 PM, and taking the stage with Cornish, Lewis, and Mumford. Buddy also published the gossipy newspaper, The Cricket. Nora is the only person he trusts with his fears but often breaks into fury with her.

Some 5-6 months after Buddy goes missing, Nora reports it to a drinking, shaking, lecherous police detective, Webb, Buddy's long-time friend, who worries about Buddy surviving on his own. The clues must necessarily come from Webb's own memory...