Red Harvest

The Op ventures out into the town, visiting many disreputable establishments to find out information. Each place he visits, including cigar stores and speakeasies, he talks about the boxing match. He shares Whisper’s tip that “Ike Bush takes a dive in the sixth” (69). As he speaks to more people, the odds of the match change. Cooper becomes the favorite. 

When the Op talks to an angry man named Bob MacSwain, he learns that MacSwain placed all his money on Ike Bush to win the fight. Displeased, he complains about Bush to the Op, mentioning that he knows a secret about Bush that would interest the police: Bush is a pseudonym for a man named Al Kennedy. Before he was known as Bush, Al Kennedy was part of the Scissors Haggerty gang in Philadelphia. There, he was involved in a double murder. The police still want to talk to him. 

With MacSwain’s permission, the Op takes this information to Bush. He wants to give Bush an incentive to win the fight. He finds Bush at the Maxwell hotel and threatens to reveal the boxer’s real identity unless he abandons his promise to Whisper to lose on purpose in the sixth round. Bush agrees. 

At the fight, the Op sees Dinah. He tells her that the supposedly fixed fight is no longer fixed, so Dinah bets a large sum on Bush at good odds. The fight begins. Sensing that Bush is going to take a dive, the Op shouts, “[B]ack to Philly, Al” (76), which other patrons begin to shout. Contrary to his agreement with Whisper, Bush knocks out Cooper. 

Amid the chaos of the fight, the Op sees the flash of a knife. Bush collapses with a “black knife-handle” buried into his neck.

The Op leaves the fight. Outside, Dinah is waiting for him in a car while talking to Whisper. As she talks to Whisper, the Op gets into a car alongside her. Dinah is pleased that her bet paid off. Whisper, on the other hand, lost his big bet on Cooper. The Op ignores Whisper’s threatening suggestion that he leave town. 

The Op and Dinah eat at a restaurant and then return to her apartment, where the sickly Rolff has been consuming laudanum. Dinah does not believe that the Op really plans to deal with the town’s corruption. For the right price, she hints, she would be willing to offer him information that would help him. Rolff criticizes Dinah for betraying her friends. 

Dinah is displeased, slapping Rolff in plain sight of the Op. Rolff responds by drawing his gun and shooting in the Op’s direction. He misses, so the Op lunges at him. They fight and the Op knocks Rolff down. Once the unconscious Rolff is in bed, the Op explains to Dinah that Rolff is in love with her. He treated Rolff like “a man instead of a down-and-outer who could be slapped around by girls” (82). Dinah reiterates her offer to help the Op, claiming to be “a girl who knows her Poisonville” (83). The Op explains that he is committed to the idea but admits that he does not have a fully formed plan yet.

The Op continues to talk to Dinah. She tells him about Tim, the brother of police chief Noonan. Several years ago, Tim supposedly died by suicide but Dinah believes that he was actually killed by Whisper in a disagreement over a woman named Myrtle Jennison. 

Dinah tells a story that took place a year before. A party was being held at a resort at Mock Lake. Before the party, Myrtle received a note from Tim in which he threatened to die by suicide. She planned to give her spurned lover “an earful” but agreed to speak to him. 

At the party, Dinah spotted Myrtle sneaking away to speak to Tim. Just a few minutes later, someone shot and killed Tim. Dinah claims that Myrtle told her that Whisper killed Tim. Allegedly, Tim whispered a name to Myrtle just before he died: He said the word “Max,” Whisper’s real name. According to Dinah, Max paid off the former police officer Bob MacSwain to make the murder look like a death by suicide. Whisper had an alibi, while Myrtle gave MacSwain a diamond ring and $200 to keep quiet. 

Now, Dinah reveals, Myrtle is terribly sick in a hospital. Dinah says to the OP that one of the men who supported Whisper’s alibi has since turned against him. This man, Peak Murry, may be willing to turn on Whisper. The Op returns to his hotel. In his room, he writes down what he has learned, telling the story from Myrtle’s perspective. He writes that Tim named Whisper as his murderer and that MacSwain accepted a bribe. The Op visits Myrtle, who is dying in the hospital. Showing her the note, she agrees to sign it as a witness. She bitterly complains that it is “hell to die ugly as this” (92).

The Op searches for Bob MacSwain. He fails to find him, but MacSwain comes to the Op’s hotel, and they talk in the Op’s room, where MacSwain admits that he made a good deal of money on the boxing match, only to lose it all in a craps game. 

The Op shows the note—signed by Myrtle—which accuses MacSwain of taking a bribe. When asked to explain himself, MacSwain tries to fight the Op. He is beaten and the Op drags him to the local police station, where MacSwain is made to tell his story to Noonan. When MacSwain has confessed, Noonan calls for his “wrecking crew” to question MacSwain more intensely. 

The chief of police decides to question Peak Murry, who changes his story and admits that he and three other men lied about Whisper’s alibi. Noonan departs to get a full statement from Myrtle. The Op feels the need to sleep so returns to the hotel.

Dinah invites the Op to her apartment. There, she asks him not to use the information she gave him regarding Whisper. She does not want to “turn rat.” The Op reveals that he has already told Noonan everything. At this point, Whisper steps out from his hiding place. He has a gun in his hand and is flanked by his henchmen. A big fight breaks out. Amid the punches and the gunshots, a man is killed. The Op seems to emerge victorious, only for Dan Rolff to arrive with a gun of his own. 

The Op offers Dinah money to help him take down Whisper. She negotiates and, when the Op offers $200.10, she accepts and manhandles Rolff so that he must put his gun down. The Op calls the police station to tell Noonan that he has Whisper in his custody. Noonan orders the Op not to kill Whisper until he arrives.

Whisper’s crew breaks him out of jail. The Op walks through the streets, observing the violence between criminals and police officers as they attempt to recapture Whisper. MacSwain accosts the Op from the shadows of an alley. The Op quizzes MacSwain, who insists that Whisper killed Tim. The Op makes a sudden accusation: MacSwain was the killer. This, he reasons, is because the dying word in Myrtle’s ear was not Max, but “MacS —the first part of MacSwain” (111). 

At first, MacSwain denies this. Eventually, however, he caves and admits that the Op knows the truth. MacSwain reveals that his wife fell in love with Tim. When MacSwain saw Tim at Mock Lake, cavorting with Myrtle, he attacked him. The gun fired accidentally. MacSwain did not want to kill Tim, but he allowed Myrtle to believe that Whisper was the killer. A week later, MacSwain says, his wife died in “an accident” of her own. The Op believes that his actions are driving a wedge between Whisper and Noonan, two of the corrupt leaders in the town. He gets a good night’s sleep.