Chapter Detailed Synopsis and Commentary of The Big Sleep - Study Guide by Raymond Chandler

The next day and Marlowe is being ticked off by the cops - again - but it seems he's going to be let off for killing Canino. Marlowe goes to the Sternwood, where the General seems annoyed that he has tried to find Regan, but then says he'd pay him "another thousand dollars to find Rusty." Marlowe then encounters Carmen, and gives her back her gun. She asks Marlowe to teach her how to shoot, and they take a drive to a secluded spot by an old oil-sump. She tries to shoot Marlowe, but he has loaded the gun with blanks. She has a fit and passes out, and he drives her back home where he calls on Vivian, and reveals how "it all ties together":

"Geiger got his hooks into your sister... and tried to blackmail your father... in a nice way. Eddie Mars was behind Geiger, protecting him and using him for a cat's-paw. Your father sent for me instead of paying up, which showed he wasn't scared about anything. Eddie Mars wanted to know that. He had something on you and he wanted to know if he had it on the General too. If he had, he could collect a lot of money in a hurry. If not, he would have to wait until you got your share of the family fortune, and in the meantime be satisfied with whatever spare cash he could take away from you across the roulette table. Geiger was killed by Owen Taylor, who was in love with your silly little sister and didn't like the kind of games Geiger played with her. That didn't mean anything to Eddie. He was playing a deeper game than Geiger knew anything about, or than Brody knew anything about, or anybody except you and Eddie and a tough guy named Canino. Your husband disappeared and Eddie, knowing everybody knew there had been bad blood between him and Regan, hid his wife out at Realito and put Canino to guard her, so that it would look as if she had run away with Regan."

And why else would Eddie do this? Because "He had another motive. He was playing for a million or so. He knew where Regan had gone and why he didn't want the police to have to find out. He wanted them to have an explanation of the disappearance that would keep them satisfied." The reason no one can find Regan is that he's dead - shot by Carmen when he rejected her. Vivian went to Eddie Mars for help - which is what he has on her. "I knew Eddie Mars would bleed me white, but I didn't care," says Vivian. "I had to have help and I could only get it from somebody like him."

Vivian offers Marlowe fifteen thousand dollars to keep quiet. ("What Mr Canino got for disposing of the body when you went to Eddie Mars for help.") Marlowe rejects the offer, but instructs Vivian to take Carmen away - "Somewhere far from here where they can handle her type... Hell, she might even get herself cured, you know. It's been done."

"Part of the nastiness now", Marlowe walks out of the Sternwood, and his last thought as the novel closes is of Mona Mars.