The Big Sleep

General Sternwood believes that Marlowe’s work is complete; he will send a check for several times the detective’s standard rate. Marlowe will send back Geiger’s blackmail envelope and will destroy Carmen’s photos.

Marlowe has a drink and thinks about Regan. He decides that Eddie Mars doesn’t have enough at stake to go after Regan—Mars’s wife doesn’t even live with Mars, and whatever money Regan has is pocket change to the casino operator. Marlowe decides the smart thing to do is forget about the whole business.

Instead, Marlowe goes to see Mars at the Cypress Club casino, a slightly dilapidated old mansion near the beach. He’s escorted to an office at the rear of the building, where Mars in a dinner jacket greets him and pours him a drink. Marlowe asks about Regan; Mars didn’t have him killed. Marlowe wonders if Regan was somehow behind the Geiger blackmail scheme, but Mars believes Geiger conducted his blackmails alone and only if the victim seemed scared. Mars complains that when Carmen visits the casino and loses big, she never pays her debts.

Marlowe and Mars decide they’re friends and shake hands. On his way out, Marlowe asks Mars if he put a tail on him in a gray sedan. Mars says no but looks surprised and worried.

Mars’s beautiful casino was once a ballroom. A Mexican orchestra plays a rumba. The dance floor is empty, but visitors crowd around three roulette tables. At the center table, Vivian, in a low-cut green-velvet dress, bets large amounts and keeps winning. The bartender tells Marlowe, “She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose” (100).

Vivian pushes forward her winnings for one last spin. It’s a huge bet, and the croupier balks. Eddie Mars is called in. Calmly he offers to have someone drive her home. Vivian begs, “One more play, Eddie. Everything I have on the red. I like red. It's the color of blood” (102). Mars permits only Vivian to play. He pulls out a wallet and tosses it to the croupier, who counts out thousand-dollar bills against her all-in bet. The croupier spins the wheel and the ball drops, landing on Red 25—Vivian has won. She laughs in triumph.

The crowd disperses; Marlowe collects his hat and coat and steps out into the foggy evening. He walks to the old stable where the cars are parked. He hears a cough and sees a man in a mask standing nearby.

Vivian walks through the fog toward the cars. The masked man steps out, points his gun, and demands her purse. She gives it to him. The man turns away, chuckling, but Marlowe pretends his pipe is a gun and confronts him, identifying him as Lanny, one of Mars’s goons. Marlowe takes the purse and Lanny’s gun. Lanny takes off. Marlowe hands the purse to Vivian, who accepts it casually. When she asks why he’s there, Marlowe explains that he came to the casino to talk to Mars, who seems to think Marlowe is searching for Regan.

Vivian’s date, the wealthy Larry Cobb, is dead drunk and sleeping it off in her car. Bitterly, she makes fun of him. The attendant offers to call Cobb’s house and have someone pick him up. Vivian agrees. Marlowe walks Vivian to his car. She holds his arm tightly, shaking with pent-up tension from the robbery. They stop at a drugstore, where Marlowe buys a pint of rye and two coffees. As they drink their spiked coffee, Vivian admits that she worries a lot about Carmen, and doesn’t want her father to die despising his own family. She figures that Marlowe thinks the Sternwood blood has turned rotten, but he says, “Not yours. You're just playing the part” (110). Marlowe shares a cigarette with her. Vivian says he’s a killer. He says he didn’t shoot anyone, but he might have.

They drive through sleeping coastal towns toward home. At Del Rey, they park to look at the ocean. Vivian tilts backward across his lap and says, “Hold me close, you beast” (111). He gathers her up and they kiss. However, when Vivian asks to go home with him, Marlowe rejects her: “Kissing is nice, but your father didn't hire me to sleep with you” (112). Marlowe finds her attractive, but he takes his job seriously. She pulls out a handkerchief and tears at it with her teeth. They drive back in silence. At the Sternwood mansion, Vivian is out of the car almost before it stops. Marlowe drives home.

Marlowe arrives home to find Carmen lying under the covers in his bed, giggling. He goes to his chessboard, which has a six-move problem he’s trying to solve. Carmen bets he can’t figure out how she got in. He says, “[T]hrough the keyhole, just like Peter Pan” (114). She doesn’t know who that is.

Carmen sucks on her thumb in the usual manner, then announces that she’s naked and dramatically sweeps off the covers. Marlowe ignores her. She explains how she got in: She stole Marlowe’s calling card from Vivian and used it to convince the apartment manager that she was supposed to wait in the apartment. Marlowe begs her to get dressed—he appreciates her offer, but he’s just too tired to have sex with her. Also, her father wouldn’t want him to do it.

Marlowe again studies the chessboard: There’s no good position for knights. He offers her a drink and promises to give it to her when she’s dressed. He goes to the kitchen and mixes two drinks, then brings them back, sits by the chessboard, and tells her to get dressed within three minutes or he’ll throw her and her clothes out in the hall. She hisses, dresses, stares at him—eyes “full of some jungle emotion” (117)—and leaves.

As her car drives off, he sets down his drink and shreds the bed sheets.

The next morning, it’s raining. Marlowe drives to the office, again followed by the gray sedan. He parks, yanks open the gray car’s passenger door, and tells the driver to come up in 20 minutes. Upstairs, Marlowe gets Sternwood’s check, which makes him happy. The driver of the gray car enters—a short man in a careworn tweed overcoat named Harry Jones.

Jones used to smuggle liquor. Marlowe guesses Jones is an associate of Joe Brody and knows Eddie Mars. Jones is surprised by Marlowe’s correct surmise and rattled by Mars’s name. He tells Marlowe that Agnes sent him and that he has vital information about Rusty Regan that he’s willing to sell, but Marlowe gets Jones to give up some of it for free.

Jones claims that Mars had Regan killed. Regan was soft on a singer, Mona Grant, but she married Mars, so Regan married Vivian, a woman he’d never get along with. Jones knows all this because he used to courier Regan’s bets to Puss Walgreen, a bookie. When Regan stopped showing up at the bar he frequented, Brody heard about it from Jones and figured he could get paid twice for locating Regan—by General Sternwood and Vivian. Meanwhile, a killer-for-hire, Lash Canino, is in town. He’s got brown hair and eyes, wears brown suits and hats, and drives a brown car. Brody tailed him and saw him accept a packet from Vivian. Agnes knows the rest.

Marlowe and Jones agree to meet that night—Jones will take Marlowe to Agnes after Marlowe pays him. Marlowe goes to the bank, deposits the Sternwood check, and withdraws some cash.

Marlowe goes to the address Jones gave him, a low-rent place filled with hard-luck businesses and scam artists. He finds the offices of Walgreen Insurance and hears someone inside talking to Harry Jones. It’s Canino; he sounds dangerous.

Marlowe jimmies the lock on a side door and slips in. He walks through two offices toward the one where the men are talking. The connecting door is ajar; he listens through the crack. Canino says Eddie Mars wants to know why Jones is tailing Marlowe. Jones explains that Marlowe can bring money to Agnes, who needs to get away. Canino pulls a gun and orders Jones to tell him where Agnes lives. Jones resists but finally rattles off her address. Canino says they’ll go together and pours drinks. They toast and then Marlowe hears Jones cough, retch, and fall down. Canino says, “So long, little man” (130), and leaves.

Marlowe enters the office. Jones is seated in a chair, head atilt, skin blue, eyes staring at nothing, vomit on his chest. Marlowe sniffs an open whiskey bottle and notes the scent of almonds—cyanide. Marlowe calls Information and gets a phone number for the address Jones gave Canino. He dials the number, but this isn’t Agnes’s place—Jones died giving Canino the wrong address for Agnes. Marlowe checks the dead man’s pockets—they contain nothing—and is about to leave when the phone rings. It’s Agnes, looking for Jones. Marlowe says he has her money but needs her address; he lies that Jones ran off. She agrees to meet Marlowe outside Bullocks Wilshire in 30 minutes.

Agnes shows up in Harry’s gray sedan and Marlowe gives her the money. Several days earlier, she and Brody went for a drive east of the city and saw Eddie Mars’s wife in a car driven by Canino. They followed Canino’s car to a house in the foothills near a plant that manufactures cyanide for fumigation.

Agnes drives off, and Marlowe drives east, through a hard rain, past orange groves and small towns, searching for Mrs. Mars’s hideaway. Just past Realito, Marlowe’s car hits tacks on the road, and he skids to a halt with two flat tires. Nearby is a side road leading to a house with lights on. Marlowe pulls out Lanny’s gun and pockets it.

He walks to the house, passing an auto-repair garage. Canino’s brown car is parked next to it. Marlowe walks back to the garage, pounds on a door, and says he has two flats and needs help. A voice tells him they’re closed. He keeps pounding. Canino’s voice says, “A wise guy, huh? Open up, Art” (137). A man with a gun opens the door—Art Huck. Huck says the local bank was robbed earlier in the day and the robbers may be holed up in the foothills. Canino, sitting in the dark, tells Art to go out and fix Marlowe’s car. Art puts on rain gear, grabs tools, and leaves.

Canino offers Marlowe a drink. Marlowe sniffs the glass—no suspicious smells—takes a careful sip, then sets the glass down. Shortly, Art returns with the two tires. He patches one quickly, then takes the second and slams it down around Marlowe. Canino walks over with a roll of nickels and hits Marlowe in the head several times. Marlowe blacks out.

Marlowe awakens in the house. He’s trussed up in ropes and handcuffs and laid out on a couch. Eddie Mars’s wife, Mona, sits nearby. She asks why Marlowe came around snooping. He says her husband is a killer and describes how Canino just killed a guy on Mars’s orders. She disbelieves him. She pulls off her platinum wig; underneath her hair is cut very short. She did it to prove she’s loyal to her husband.

Marlowe points out that she’s merely guarding him while Canino and Art dig a grave to put him in. She retrieves a kitchen knife and cuts through the knots in Marlowe’s ropes. She wants him to leave, but he explains how Harry Jones sniffed around and got killed for his troubles. She denies it with decreasing confidence. Marlowe says she must leave if she wants to live. She still loves her husband. When Marlowe turns to leave, she runs ahead of him, opens the door, looks out, and says that Regan is alive and will show himself eventually.

Marlowe leans up against her, saying, “All this was arranged in advance, rehearsed to the last detail, timed to the split second. Just like a radio program” (147). He tells her to kiss him. She takes his head in her hands and kisses him hard. Her lips are cold.

Marlowe walks out through the rain, his hands still behind him in cuffs. He walks down to his car: Its tires are repaired, ready to be driven away by Art and perhaps sold. Marlowe retrieves his gun, and walks back up to the house.      

Headlights approach and Marlowe dives into a ditch. Canino drives past and parks. Marlowe sneaks up to listen at the window as Canino and Mona speak quietly. Marlowe tosses some gravel at the window and darts behind Canino’s car, but Canino doesn’t take the bait. Canino’s keys are in the car, so Marlowe starts it and hides again. Three shots fire at the car. Marlowe makes loud noises of pain and gurgling death: It works, and Canino laughs in victory.

Mona steps outside. Hiding behind her is Canino. She peers at the car but says the windows are fogged. He pushes her forward with his gun. Suddenly she cries out, “I can see him! […] Through the window. Behind the wheel, Lash!” (149) Canino pushes her aside and fires three more times into the driver side of the car. Marlowe says, “Finished?” and with his cuffed hands manages to shoot four times. Canino grabs his stomach, falls forward, and lies still.

Marlowe retrieves Canino’s gun. Mona knew Marlowe might return. He says, “We had a date. I told you it was all arranged,” and laughs stupidly. Mona retrieves Canino’s keys and uncuffs Marlowe. When she asks, “Did you have to kill him?” Marlowe stops laughing and she continues, “I suppose you did” (150).

The next morning, Marlowe reviews the previous evening: He drove Mona to DA Wilde’s house, where Sheriff Ohls and two homicide detectives listened to his story. He went with an official team to the Fulwider Building to deal with Harry Jones’s body, and then returned to Wilde’s house to sign a statement. There, Eddie Mars appeared and greeted his wife happily, but she ignored him. Wilde scolded Marlowe, declaring he’d “throw you to the lions” (154) if the detective acted on his own in such a manner again.

Norris the butler calls and asks Marlowe to drop by. Marlowe collects Carmen’s little gun and drives to the Sternwood estate. General Sternwood, propped up by pillows, looks dead except for the eyes. The general is upset that Marlowe searched for Regan when not asked to do so. Marlowe offers to return his pay and explains that his methods are more complex than most clients realize—in this case, learning about Regan became a part of the task. Marlowe always acts to protect the client, or else he refuses the job. Geiger put pressure on the General Sternwood to see if he was being pressured already by someone else. The general must have been worried that Regan pretended to be his friend simply to find out how to steal from him.

Marlowe has been warned off any further search for Regan by the police. The job thus isn’t complete by his standards, and that’s why he’s offering to return his fee. The general says, “Quit, nothing,” and offers Marlowe double that fee to locate Regan: “Find him for me, Marlowe. Just find him” (159).

On his way out, Marlowe asks Norris why the general likes Regan so much. Norris answers that Regan has “[y]outh” and a “soldier’s eye” (160) that’s somewhat like Marlowe’s.

Outside, Marlowe notices Carmen sitting in the garden, looking dejected. He greets her and hands back her gun. She asks him to teach her how to shoot properly. They drive down among the oil derricks to a remote, private place. Marlowe hands the weapon to Carmen and sets up an old can as a target. Carmen suddenly aims her gun up at him, hissing with hatred, and fires until the gun is empty—but the bullets are blanks, since Marlowe saw this coming. Marlowe takes the gun from her. She shakes, moans, and faints.

Marlowe drives her back to the mansion. As they draw near, Carmen awakens and asks what happened. He says nothing; she says something must have, because she peed on herself. He says, “They always do” (164), and Carmen moans with the realization that she had a seizure.

Marlowe waits for Vivian in her all-white sitting room. Vivian enters dressed in all-white pajamas trimmed in white fur. She accuses Marlowe of brutally killing a man and then terrorizing her sister.

Marlowe explains how everything ties together. Eddie Mars was the boss of Geiger, who did the dirty work of blackmailing General Sternwood. Owen Taylor shot Geiger out of a foolish loyalty to Carmen. Mars hid his wife when Regan disappeared to pretend that Mona and Regan were having an affair—Mars feared that otherwise the police would pin Regan’s death on him.

Marlowe tells Vivian he found Carmen in his bed and threw her out; he guesses that Regan did the same thing at one time, saying, “But you can't do that to Carmen” (169). Carmen asked Regan to teach her to shoot, and when he went with her to the oil derricks, she shot him. She tried the same trick on Marlowe, but he had loaded the gun with blanks as a precaution. Vivian must have paid Mars a lot of money to dispose of Regan’s body.

Marlowe says Carmen should be placed in an institution where they might be able to cure her. Vivian admits that everything happened as Marlowe described it. She let Carmen continue her wild ways, hoping Carmen would forget what she’d done, since epileptic seizures erase short-term memory. Vivian didn’t really love Regan, but keeping his death from her father became a top priority. As a result, Mars bled her of money.

Marlowe gives Vivian three days to get Carmen institutionalized or he’ll go to the police. She agrees. He leaves, thinking that it doesn’t matter if a person is rich or poor: When they’re dead, they’re all the same, “sleeping the big sleep” (171).