The Big Sleep

At the mansion, Marlowe rings the side door, points out the passed-out Carmen to the butler, and refuses an offer to call a cab—Norris agrees to pretend he was never there.

Marlowe walks down toward town through the wet evening, then back up into the hills to Geiger’s house. At his car, he has a quick smoke and a slug of whiskey, then reenters the house. Geiger’s body is gone. Marlowe checks the rest of the house, including a locked room that he opens with Geiger’s keys. It’s a bedroom, spare and masculine. Back in the main room, Marlowe notices marks on the rug that show that the body has been dragged away. It wasn’t the police: They’d still be there.

If officials decide that Geiger is merely a missing person, there might be a way to keep Carmen’s name out of it. Marlowe drives to his apartment and pores over Geiger’s notebook, trying to figure out its code. He reckons it’s a list of Geiger’s 400 customers. Any one of them could be blackmailed and, perhaps, retaliate.