The Long Goodbye

Nursing a hangover, Marlowe receives a telephone call from Linda Loring. They meet at his office and argue about Lennox. Eventually, she tells Marlowe that her father would like to meet him.

Marlowe goes to meet Harlan Potter, an enormous and cold man with little time for pleasantries. Potter accuses Marlowe of “interfering” (128) in his affairs. Marlowe methodically explains why he continues to hold an interest in Lennox’s death. Potter calmly but firmly insists that Lennox killed his daughter. He admits that he had no particular love for Sylvia and was more concerned about avoiding any scandal or intrusion into his private life. By the end of the conversation, Potter admits that Marlowe seems like “a pretty honest sort of fellow” (131) but warns him not to be a hero.

A week later, Marlowe accepts a lunch invitation from Wade. Before he leaves, he contacts a member of the private detective agency to follow up on a rumor about Lennox. He learns that a man who was almost certainly Lennox lived in England under the name Paul Marston. He wore a service badge associated with the British Army, implying that he was wounded in the military. Marlowe asks Detective Green about Lennox’s other name, but Green insists that Lennox did not have a war record.