Jules Amthor ( Otto Kruger), a psychic healer who treated both Helen and Marriott, shows up just as Marlowe is leaving. Grayle collects rare jade and was attempting to recover a necklace worth $100,000, stolen from Helen while she was out dancing with Marriott. She introduces him to her weak, elderly and wealthy father, Leuwen Grayle ( Miles Mander) and his seductive second wife, Helen ( Claire Trevor). She mentions that the jewels were jade, and he sees through her disguise. Posing as a reporter, Ann Grayle ( Anne Shirley) tries to pry information out of Marlowe about the murder. When Marlowe reports the murder, the police ask him if he knows a Jules Amthor, and warn him not to interfere in the case.
The money is gone, and Marriott has been viciously murdered by an amateur, with repeated blows from the blackjack. When Marlowe comes to, he sees a young woman shine a flashlight on his face and then she runs away. In the canyon, Marlowe is knocked unconscious from behind by an unknown assailant using a blackjack. The next morning, Lindsay Marriott ( Douglas Walton) turns up at Marlowe's office, offering $100 if Marlowe will act as his bodyguard when he acts as a go-between in a secluded canyon at midnight to pay a ransom for some stolen jewels. Later, from outside, Marlowe observes a clearly disturbed (and suddenly no longer as inebriated) Jessie make a phone call. However, Marlowe finds a photo of Velma that Jessie hid from him, and she drunkenly blurts out that Velma is dead. Marlowe tracks down Jessie Florian ( Esther Howard), the alcoholic widow of the nightclub's former owner, who claims not to know what became of Velma. They go to "Florian's", the nightclub where Velma last worked as a singer, but the owner died years earlier, and no one remembers her. Marlowe tells how he was hired by Moose Malloy ( Mike Mazurki) to locate Velma Valento, a former girlfriend Moose had lost track of while he was serving eight years in prison. Temporarily blinded with his eyes bandaged, private detective Philip Marlowe ( Dick Powell) is interrogated by Bay City police lieutenant Randall ( Don Douglas) about two murders.
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