I get pretty tired of playing second fiddle to Sam Spade in our own detective firm. Sure, the clients come in, when they do, and play up to him. That’s because I’m usually out of the office, trying to drum up business, anyway. You know, hanging around the precinct, listening to what the cops and reporters have to say, that sort of thing.

Maybe that’s why I never got to tell my story, the case I was working on when my partner Sam stumbled onto this Maltese Falcon business, and that cast of movie characters: Joel Cairo, Kasper Gutman, Wilmer Cook, and, oh yes, Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Sam had sent me out with never a second glance, chasing this fellow Floyd Thursby, who was after O’Shaughnessy—at least that’s what Brigid had told us. I never made it back, as you probably know, although I have seen the movie, watching it over your shoulder from time to time.