The Long Goodbye

The next day, Marlowe speaks to Endicott on the telephone. The lawyer repeats his offer to help, but Marlowe declines again, so Endicott warns Marlowe not to investigate the matter further. After the call, a gangster named Mendy Menendez visits Marlowe’s office. He mocks Marlowe’s business and status, calling the detective “very small time” (44). Menendez explains that he, Lennox, and Randy Starr all served in the same unit during World War II. Lennox saved Menendez and Starr from an artillery shell, injuring his face in the process. He was captured and tortured by the German army. They “hurt him too much” (45), leaving him psychological damaged and in need of cosmetic surgery. Menendez and Starr made a fortune from black market operations during and after the war. They paid a large amount to find and save Lennox to thank him for saving their lives. After the war, Lennox sunk into a cycle of alcoholic self-destruction, and Menendez rues the fact that he could not help his friend. He tells Marlowe to lay off the Lennox case as “the guy suffered too much” (46). Marlowe dismisses Menendez’s thinly veiled threats, punching the gangster in the stomach in the process. Menendez is impressed by Marlowe’s gumption and leaves with his bodyguard.