Arthur Gwynn Geiger—Carol Lundgren

Arthur Gwynn Geiger and Carol Lundgren are lovers, a fact that links Geiger’s murder to Carol’s later killing of Joe Brody. Carol’s devotion is expressed through a mistaken act of vengeance: he believes Brody killed Geiger, but Philip Marlowe tells him that he has targeted the wrong man and that Brody did not kill the person Carol regarded as his beloved.

Relationship and Its Disclosure

The relationship becomes explicit after Carol is taken into custody. When Philip Marlowe asks his name, he answers, “Carol Lundgren,” and Marlowe immediately identifies the error driving his violence: “You shot the wrong guy, Carol. Joe Brody didn’t kill your queen.” The brief exchange makes Carol’s motive intelligible while separating his belief from the facts of the case. His attachment to Geiger has become bound to a false accusation against Brody.

The police account confirms that the two men had been living together. Bernie Ohls tells Captain Cronjager that Geiger was living with the young man caught in Ohls’s car, making the intimacy between Geiger and Carol a matter of investigative record as well as Carol’s personal allegiance. This information also places their relationship within the concealed circumstances surrounding Geiger’s illicit book business and murder.

Geiger’s Murder and the Missing Body

The relationship’s central rupture is Geiger’s death. Philip Marlowe is outside Geiger’s house when a flash of light and a scream are followed by three shots; he hears someone leave by the back steps and drive away. When he later returns, he finds that Geiger’s body has disappeared. Strips of embroidered silk are missing from the wall, another rug has been placed where the body had lain, and marks on the rug suggest that someone dragged it toward the front door. The initial disappearance delays the full recognition of Geiger’s death and leaves room for the mistaken story on which Carol’s revenge depends.

Geiger’s body is eventually found in the hard, separate bedroom across the hall, arranged beneath the two missing strips of tapestry, while Carol is being held nearby. The candles, incense, and deliberate placement of the body contrast with the earlier concealment. The discovery confirms the death that Carol has sought to avenge, but it does not validate his belief that Brody was responsible.

Revenge and Consequence

Carol kills Joe Brody because he believes Brody murdered Geiger. Marlowe’s correction exposes the fatal gap between loyalty and knowledge: Carol’s devotion is real, but his account of who killed Geiger is wrong. The relationship therefore drives a second killing without resolving the first. Carol’s love for Geiger becomes the motive for an act of vengeance that compounds the violence surrounding Geiger’s illicit business and leaves Carol in custody.