Farewell, My Lovely

In the bar area, “a group of Negroes chanted and chattered in the cone of light over a crap table. […] There were a few customers, men and women, all Negroes” (7). Once Marlowe and the large man walk in, everyone gets silent and stares at them, apparently because they’re white, and the bar patrons aren’t used to seeing white people in their establishment. The bar bouncer tries to stop them and says, “No white folks, brother. Jes’ fo’ the colored people. I’se sorry” (8). The large man asks the bouncer about Velma, and he says that she used to work there but not anymore. Then the bouncer puts his hand on the large man’s shoulder, and the large man punches him. The bouncer “went over with a table and smacked into the baseboard with a crash that must have been heard in Denver. His legs twitched, then he lay still” (10).

The customers all leave, and Philip and the big man sit down at the bar and get whiskey sours. The bartender says that the bar, Florian’s, has been a “dinge Joint” for at least five years (10). The large man tells Philip that Velma used to be a singer at Florian’s, when it was a white person’s bar, and that she was a redhead and “[c]ute as lace pants. We was to be married when they hung the frame on me” (11). He says that his name is Moose Malloy, and that he was imprisoned for “The Great bend bank job. Forty grand. Solo job” (12). Apparently, someone told the police he did it.

Moose goes into the back to talk to the bar owner; Marlowe stays at the bar. Moose comes back out with a gun in his hand and tells them to stay put. He leaves, and Philip runs to the back room to see that Moose has killed the bar owner. Marlowe calls the police, but by the time they get there, the place is empty except for Marlowe. 

Marlowe says, “A man named Nulty got the case, a lean-jawed sourpuss with long yellow hands which he kept folded over his kneecaps most of the time he talked to me” (16). Nulty looks at Marlowe’s business card which reads, “Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator” (17). Nulty questions Marlowe about what happened at the bar, and Marlowe retells the sequence of events while harboring a sarcastic attitude towards Nulty.

While they’re talking, Nulty gets a phone call saying that the police have got Moose on their radar and it’s only a matter of time before he’s caught. Marlowe is doubtful and says that the best way to catch Moose is to find Velma, since “Malloy will be looking for her. That’s what started it all. Try Velma” (19). Nulty asks Marlowe to do him a favor and search for Velma with himself. Nulty says that he’s got his back if Marlowe will do him this favor. Marlowe agrees but only because he’s curious and because Marlowe “hadn’t had any business in a month. Even a no-charge job was a change” (21). 

Marlowe visits the “Negro hotel” across the street from Florian’s (21). A half-sleeping man sits at the welcome counter, and a sign on the counter reads: “This Hotel is Under the Protection of the International Consolidated Agencies, Ltd. Inc.” (22). Marlowe uses this sign to his advantage and says that he’s an “H.P.D. man checking up” (22). H.P.D. apparently stands for “Hotel Protective Department, which is the department of a large agency that looks after check bouncers and people who move out by the back stairs leaving unpaid bills and second-hand suitcases full of bricks” (22).

The man says that Marlowe isn’t an H.P.D. man because he hasn’t seen any of those people in a long time, and that he got that sign as decoration. Marlowe admits that he’s not with the H.P.D., but rather he’s a private investigator looking into the murder that happened across the street at Florian’s. The man invites Marlowe behind the counter, and Marlowe pulls a “flat pint of bonded bourbon out of [his] pocket and put[s] it on the shelf” (23). The two men share drinks and the man is clearly appreciative because he begins to talk about what he knows: he says that the former white owner of the bar died and left behind a widow named Jessie, and that Marlowe can find her info in the city directory. 

Marlowe goes to visit Jessie. She lives in a poor neighborhood, and at first she’s reluctant to open her door when Marlowe says that he’s a detective. She lets him in, and Marlowe takes note that her house is dumpy and she “had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn’t enough life in it to be ginger, and isn’t clean enough to be gray. Her body was thick in a shapeless […] flannel bathrobe many moons past color and design” (26). He smells alcohol in the home and it becomes clear that she’s an alcoholic. Marlowe offers her a drink and she begins talking. She says that her husband had a thing for “cheap blondes” (27).

He asks specifically about Velma, and lies and says that Velma’s parents hired him to look into her whereabouts. Jessie drinks all of Marlowe’s liquor and then stumbles to the back room. Marlowe secretly follows her and watches her dig in an old trunk. She pulls out an envelope, but purposefully discards something first. The two meet in the living room, and Jessie hands Marlowe the envelope, which is full of pictures of women that used to work at the bar. Jessie takes another drink, and Marlowe runs to the back room and grabs what she discarded. He tells her not to play dumb, and that she’s not “dealing with a simple-minded lug like Moose Malloy this time” (33). Jessie swallows hard; it’s clear that she knows Moose.

Sarcastically, Marlowe thinks that Jessie is “[a] lovely old woman. I liked being with her. I liked getting her drunk for my own sordid purposes. I was a swell guy. I enjoyed being me. You find almost anything under your hand in my business, but I was beginning to be a little sick to my stomach” (34). He opens the envelope and finds a picture of a pretty girl with beautiful long legs in a “Pierrot costume” (34). It’s signed by Velma. He asks Jessie why she hid the photo, and she blatantly says that Velma is dead. She then gets violent and says, “I am a poor sick old woman […] [g]et away from me, you son of a bitch” (35). She’s too drunk to do anything and falls asleep, and Marlowe leaves with the picture. A nosy neighbor next door watches him walk to his car.