Red Harvest · Chapter
XVI: Exit Jerry explained
The chapter opens with a bank robbery in which Jerry Hooper is killed by the watchman.
What happens
The chapter opens with a bank robbery in which Jerry Hooper is killed by the watchman. The narrator and Noonan investigate, and the narrator returns to his hotel room where Dinah Brand visits him. They discuss the robbery, the attack on Cedar Hill Inn, and Dinah tries to sell information. The narrator changes clothes, and Dinah snoops through his belongings. She proposes a scheme to pit Lew Yard against Pete the Finn, but the narrator declines. The chapter ends with a phone call from Mickey Linehan and the narrator napping before heading to Dinah's.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Manipulation
Dinah Brand attempts to manipulate the narrator by offering to sell information and proposing a scheme to pit Lew Yard against Pete the Finn.
Violence and Moral Decay
The bank robbery and killing of Jerry Hooper, along with the attack on Cedar Hill Inn, highlight the pervasive violence and moral decay in Personville.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Investigates the bank robbery with Noonan, returns to his hotel, interacts with Dinah Brand, and considers the implications of recent events.
- Dinah Brand
Visits the narrator's room, discusses the bank robbery and Cedar Hill Inn attack, tries to sell information, and proposes a scheme involving Lew Yard's card.
- Jerry Hooper
Killed during the bank robbery; identified as one of the masked robbers.
- Noonan
Leads the investigation of the bank robbery, questions the watchman, and is pleased with the outcome.
- Mickey Linehan
Calls the narrator to report that his and Dick Foley's surveillance is together at Elihu Willsson's house.
- McGraw
Reports the details of the bank robbery to Noonan and suggests Whisper was behind it.
Key passages
“There was a mob around the First National Bank. We pushed through it to the door, where we found sour-faced McGraw. “Was six of them, masked,” he reported to the chief as we went inside. “They hit it about two-thirty. Five of them got away clean with the jack. The watchman here dropped one of them, Jerry Hooper. He’s over on the bench, cold.””
A crowd had gathered at the First National Bank. The narrator and Noonan pushed through to find McGraw, who reported that six masked men robbed the bank at 2:30. Five escaped with the money, but the watchman killed Jerry Hooper.
McGraw reports the bank robbery to Noonan.
““I’ve got one of Lew Yard’s cards. Suppose we sent the bottle of Dewar you copped to Pete with the card. Wouldn’t he take it as a declaration of war? If Cedar Hill was a liquor cache, it was Pete’s. Wouldn’t the bottle and Lew’s card make him think Noonan had knocked the place over under orders?””
Dinah suggests using Lew Yard's card and the stolen whiskey bottle to make Pete the Finn believe Noonan attacked Cedar Hill Inn on Lew's orders, potentially starting a conflict.
Dinah proposes a scheme to manipulate Pete and Lew.