Smart-Aleck Kill

Private detective Mallory has been hired by a film studio to handle a blackmail threat against director Derek Whalen, but Whalen is uncooperative. Two armed men barge into the apartment and demand payment from Walden. They take Mallory and leave for the bank, but Mallory’s driver helps him escape. Later, Mallory receives a call from Walden’s girlfriend worrying about him; Mallory checks on him and finds him dead from a gunshot to the head, made to look like suicide. Mallory enlists help from another studio detective, Denny, and traces the gun to its former owner, a blonde involved with Sutro, a city councilman; she denies knowing anything. On the way out, Mallory and his driver are shot at and the driver is wounded. Denny stakes out the blonde and tells Mallory she tried to contact a mobster named Donner; now Denny is holding her at his home. Mallory goes there and realizes Denny is playing the other side, when a hit squad shoots up the home, narrowly missing them. Mallory visits Donner, who has Sutro present, and reveals that Whalen is dead. Donner blames the hotheaded henchman who attacked the driver against orders, but Mallory explains the full story: Whalen was involved in the dope business with Sutro and Donner, but wanted out. Donner was blackmailing him, but Sutro had too much to lose and simply killed him. Sutro hired Denny to learn what Mallory knew, and set up the hit squad attack. Donner, his henchmen, and Sutro shoot it out and Sutro ends up dying. The police are content to contain the story to just Whalen and Sutro’s deaths.

The story was made into an episode of the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.

• Raymond Chandler. Smart-Aleck Kill