This answer is an addendum to my answer (#2) directly above.
In Chapter 5 of The Maltese Falcon there is an interesting exchange between Sam Spade and Joel Cairo, who has just retained the private detective to find the falcon. Spade asks:
“What sort of proof can you give me that your man is the owner?”
Spade is just fishing for information. He still knows virtually nothing about the statuette. Cairo replies:
“Very little, unfortunately. There is this, though: nobody else can give you any authentic evidence of ownership at all. And if you know as much about the affair as I suppose—or I should not be here—you know that the means by which it was taken from him shows that his right to it was more valid than anyone else’s—certainly more valid than Thursby’s.”
Cairo is referring to General Kemidov and thinks Spade knows about the Russian general and the theft of the falcon from him by Brigid O’Shaughnessy. But Spade keeps fishing. He asks:
“What about his daughter?”
Excitement opened Cairo’s eyes and mouth, turned his face red, made his voice shrill. “He is not the owner! … Is he here, in San Francisco, now?”
Cairo thinks Spade is referring to Caspar Gutman, who has a beautiful daughter. But Spade is guessing that Brigid (Miss Wonderly), might be representing a man who might be her father. Spade thinks she is too young to be acting as her own agent. This is partly true. She was acting as Gutman’s agent when she stole the falcon, but then decided to keep it for herself. Spade replies:
“It might be better all around if we put our cards on the table.”
But Cairo refuses to be drawn out any further.
This is very subtle dialogue. Spade shows his brains and experience as a police detective, using bits of information to obtain more information from suspects he is grilling. The writing also shows Dashiell Hammett’s brains and experience as a private detective employed for many years by Pinkerton’s, as well as his exceptional talent as a fiction writer.
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