Harlem Shuffle: Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Carney takes his usual morning coffee at Chock Full o’Nuts at the Hotel Theresa. Freddie’s proposed heist makes Carney watch the busy hotel’s patterns of guests, bellboys, and cabs. He first witnessed the hotel’s fanfare as a boy, accompanied by Freddie and his Aunt Millie. Known as the Waldorf of Harlem, the Theresa provides Black celebrities with luxury treatment. Carney, Freddie, and Aunt Millie saw Cab Calloway’s orchestra checking in and remember it as a spectacle. Carney signed his store’s lease the day a movie premiere party took place at the Theresa, and he imagined the fanfare was for him.

Nowadays, more downtown hotels are open to Black patrons, so the Theresa’s reputation has diminished. Carney feels he is not “crooked enough” for Freddie’s heist, and he doesn’t have enough contacts willing to buy goods stolen from the Theresa. Though he finds the occasional low-level crime thrilling—a trait for which he blames his father—Carney considers himself in control of such impulses. Freddie hopes his cousin will come around, but Carney is angry at him for giving out his name and thinks Miami Joe is bad news. When Freddie calls later that day, Carney turns the job down. Two weeks later, the heist goes down and “goons” come to the store looking for Freddie.

Carney hears about the Hotel Theresa robbery on the news. It happens on Juneteenth, a holiday that Rusty has to explain to Carney, as he is unaware of its existence. The Theresa’s sidewalk is crowded with detectives and journalists. Rumors abound, some Black nationalists claiming the Italian Mafia is to blame and chose Juneteenth to mock them. Though no one was killed, Carney calls Aunt Millie about Freddie, but she doesn’t answer. The day after the robbery, two men enter the furniture shop looking for Carney. They work for a man named Chink Montague, who lost a ruby necklace in the robbery. Knowing that Carney “handle[s] stuff sometimes,” they demand he get in touch if the necklace crosses his path. On the way out, one of the men eyes a nice coffee table.

Carney tells Rusty to take a lunch break and calls Aunt Millie again, with no response. He is shaken by the implication that others know about his “sideline” business in stolen goods. After closing, Freddie arrives, seemingly unscathed. Carney is both furious and concerned. Freddie informs Carney that the men he did the job with are on their way, as Freddie never told them Carney wasn’t willing to participate. While they wait for Miami Joe and his accomplices to arrive, Carney berates his cousin for endangering him and his family, and Freddie tells Carney how the heist went down.