Chapter 1 Summary

Tom Ripley glances behind him, as he leaves the Green Cage. He is almost positive a man is following him. Should he take a chance and go to Raoul's for another drink or play it safe and try to disappear into the dark doorways on Park Avenue? Tom decides to take a chance at Raoul's. The man following him does not look like a policeman or a detective. He looks like somebody's father, a graying businessman in a suit. Tom cannot imagine the man gripping his shoulder and saying, "You're under arrest." He can't get more than 10 or 15 years in jail, anyway, and with time off for good behavior it will be much less. Surely, the man is a cop, and not just a pervert who can easily be told "no."

In Raoul's, the man introduces himself as Richard Greenleaf's father. Tom remembers...