Chapters 15 through 20 Summary

Marlowe says that even a great detective has to have a place to start and he goes to a friend, George Peters, who works for the Carne Agency, which is apparently a type of detective agency. Marlowe asks for the file on the "barred window boys" and it's later explained that these are places with "barred windows" such as sanitariums. Peters gives him a list of three doctors with names that begin with "V." After a brief discussion on the practices and problems of each, Marlowe decides that he "likes" Verringer who runs a type of retreat for artistic types. He's in Peters' file because of a woman who committed suicide there.

As Marlowe prepares to leave, Peters tells him that he'd come across some information about Terry Lennox and thought Marlowe would be interested. He says that an operative named...