Eddie Mars—Rusty Regan

Eddie Mars’s connection to Rusty Regan is built around a disappearance that Mars turns into a deliberate public misdirection. Regan had openly warned Mars not to involve Mona in criminal activity; after Regan vanished, Mars used Mona’s concealment, Canino’s presence, and Regan’s abandoned car to sustain the appearance that the two had run away together. The apparent elopement was not merely a way to deflect suspicion: it helped keep the police from discovering where Regan had gone and why, preserving Mars’s opportunity to profit.

Background and Conflict

Before Regan disappeared, Mona was not living with Mars and disliked his criminal operations, particularly the blackmail and other activities associated with his rackets. Regan reportedly told Mars openly that he would intervene if Mars ever implicated Mona in a criminal charge. That warning establishes a direct source of tension between the men: Regan stood between Mars’s criminal business and Mona, while Mars’s conduct put both his wife and his interests at risk.

The account of Regan’s warning and the circumstances around his disappearance is conveyed through Harry Jones’s recollection to Philip Marlowe. Jones says he had seen Regan regularly at Vardi’s, where Regan would drink Irish whiskey and stare at the wall, and that Regan had given him occasional bets to pick up. These details establish Jones’s claimed familiarity with Regan, but they do not prove the cause of the disappearance; his early suggestion that Regan may have run away with Mona is explicitly presented as a possibility.

The Suspected Connection

Jones’s suspicions sharpen after he sees Lash Canino at Vardi’s. He describes Canino as a violent troubleshooter who worked for Mars when needed and did not remain in Los Angeles when his services were not required. Jones imagines that Canino might know something about Regan and might be trying to profit independently from that knowledge, but he does not initially present this as certainty.

Jones says that Joe Brody followed Canino to the Sternwood estate. Canino parked outside; a car arrived with a woman inside, and Jones believed the woman may have handed Canino money. She left, and Jones identified her as Regan’s wife. From this encounter, he reasoned that she knew Canino, who knew Mars, and that Canino might be trying to extract money on his own. The observation gives the suspicion a concrete chain of association, but the later account reveals that the meeting and payment fit into a larger pattern of concealment rather than confirming Jones’s specific theory of Canino’s private extortion.

The Disappearance as a Cover Story

Marlowe’s explanation to Vivian Regan recasts the apparent flight with Mona as a constructed story. He states that Mars hid Mona at Realito and assigned Canino to guard her so that the circumstances would suggest she had run away with Regan. Mars also arranged for Regan’s car to be placed in the garage of the property where Mona had been living, reinforcing the impression that the missing couple had been together.

This false trail addressed a particular danger for Mars: people knew there had been hostility between him and Regan, so Regan’s unexplained absence could invite suspicion that Mars had killed him or arranged his death. Marlowe argues that simple diversion was not the whole purpose. Mars knew where Regan had gone and why, and wanted the police to accept an explanation that would keep them from finding out. The apparent elopement therefore served as a means of controlling the official account of the disappearance, not just obscuring Mars’s possible involvement.

Money, Protection, and Consequences

Marlowe connects the cover-up to a much larger financial prospect. In his reconstruction, Mars wanted to preserve the secret until he could collect a substantial sum from Vivian, rather than settle for whatever money he might obtain from her across a roulette table. The appearance of Regan’s flight with Mona helped keep the authorities satisfied while Mars waited for the opportunity to benefit. The scheme’s scale makes the relationship more than a personal feud: Regan’s disappearance becomes leverage within Mars’s criminal and financial strategy.

Marlowe further identifies the cost of Mars’s protection in the aftermath. He tells Vivian that the fifteen thousand dollars she had available was the established fee and the money she had when she shot Regan; he adds that Canino received that amount for disposing of the body after she went to Mars for help. Vivian then confirms the concealed truth: Regan’s body is in the sump, and she had sought Mars’s assistance. She explains that she feared the truth would be drawn from Carmen by the police and reach her father, whose response would devastate him. Her disclosure confirms that Mars’s assistance was tied to hiding Regan’s fate, while Marlowe’s account identifies Canino as the person paid to dispose of the body.

Significance of the Relationship

Mars’s connection to Regan is thus defined by the way Regan’s absence can be made to serve Mars. Regan’s warning on Mona’s behalf marks the personal conflict; after Regan vanishes, Mars converts that conflict into a misleading account that both implicates a supposed flight with Mona and conceals the facts from the police. The abandoned car, Mona’s hidden location, and Canino’s guard duty give the story physical supports, while the proposed financial payoff supplies its motive.

The revelation also separates what the characters know from what the authorities are led to believe. Jones’s observations generate a plausible suspicion, but Marlowe’s later explanation connects the scattered signs to a deliberate cover-up, and Vivian’s admission confirms that Regan was killed and his body hidden. Mars’s power in this relationship lies not only in violence or money, but in his ability to make a false explanation seem sufficient to those who might otherwise pursue the truth.