A detective is drawn into a case when a well-known client’s car, left running outside his office, is stolen and later used to fatally run over a local printing proprietor. The case appears, at first, to involve two separate traffic incidents—a reckless driving charge stemming from an earlier accident and a fatal collision. The client, a blundering man in a gaudy suit with a penchant for drunken behavior, insists that he had no part in the fatality, claiming the car was taken by unknown thieves. Tasked with finding the culprits before a looming court appearance, the investigator begins by gathering police reports and canvassing the neighborhoods where the car was stolen and abandoned. His inquiries lead him to the printing establishment, where a foreman reveals that the deceased proprietor had a history of frequent illness and recent financial pressures at the shop. Adding to the intrigue, two recently discharged politically active printers—fired for their radical affiliations—appear to have been replaced swiftly by inexperienced, possibly complicit, new workers. Clues begin to mount when the foreman recounts that a Dutch customer had come in with foreign currency—a hundred-florin note—which the proprietor had accepted to be shown to his staff before it could be exchanged. The presence of this notable banknote, together with other suspicious details such as the proprietor’s unusually brief absence due to sickness, suggest that the death was not an accident but part of an elaborate plan. The inspector surmises that the foreign money was connected to a larger counterfeit operation orchestrated by outsiders. As the investigation deepens, the detective’s inquiries uncover a connection between the counterfeiter—a Dutchman with a reputation in Europe—and the recently substituted printing staff. The evidence points to a scheme in which counterfeit currency was produced in a printing shop burdened by understaffing and disruption due to recent firings, with the deceased proprietor unwittingly caught up in the conspiracy. His attempt to expose the forgery by carrying the questionable banknote when en route to police headquarters makes him a target. The culprits use a stolen car to force the fatal accident, banking on the proprietor’s poor health to ensure that the impact would prove lethal without leaving unmistakable evidence of foul play. The investigation takes a violent turn when the detective, while pursuing leads, is ambushed in a cramped office by a group of conspirators. An ensuing melee leaves him battered, his gun confiscated in the melee, and forces a reluctant police intervention. Despite the physical setback, the detective’s analysis of witness testimonies and crime scene details gradually coalesces into a coherent narrative: a premeditated murder engineered to cover up a counterfeiting ring. Critical evidence, including a concealed cache of hundred-florin notes discovered at the counterfeiter’s premises, corroborates the detective’s theory. In the end, the detective’s methodical gathering of seemingly contradictory details—from the inconsistencies in the printing proprietor’s health and employment records to the timing and direction of his movements on the day of his death—uncovers a criminal enterprise that used a staged traffic accident as a smokescreen for a high-stakes counterfeit operation.
By Dashiell Hammett · First published 1925 · Genre: Hardboiled Detective Fiction, Noir Fiction, Crime Fiction