La Paloma fire

The La Paloma fire is an episode in the falcon investigation whose cause is initially unknown and later linked, uncertainly, to Wilmer Cook. The blaze supplies a visible clue to the ship’s disappearance from the investigation’s view, while Casper Gutman’s later account connects it to a failed attempt to secure the falcon and to the pursuit that ends with Captain Jacobi carrying the bird toward Sam Spade’s office.

Discovery and Early Uncertainty

Effie Perine sees a boat burning as she returns by ferry. It is being towed away from a pier, and smoke blows across her ferry. When Spade asks whether she could read the vessel’s name, she identifies it as La Paloma. Her observation gives him a specific lead, but the conversation does not establish what started the fire or how it relates to the falcon.

Spade later tells Effie that the fire was discovered late that morning in the ship’s hold, in the rear section. He says it probably began sometime the previous day and that it caused considerable damage, although the fire was put out. Its importance is sharpened by the absence of Captain Jacobi: the captain has not returned, has missed a noon appointment with shipping agents, and cannot be told about the fire. Spade has not yet learned enough to explain either the blaze or the captain’s whereabouts, and stops speaking when someone enters the office.

The Fire and the Search for the Falcon

Gutman later recounts that he, Joel Cairo, and Wilmer went to see Captain Jacobi and found Brigid O’Shaughnessy aboard. By midnight, they believed they had persuaded her to come to terms: she would provide the falcon, and Gutman would pay her at his hotel. But while the party left the boat and travelled toward the hotel, Brigid, Jacobi, and the bird escaped them. Gutman describes the loss as a reversal in a negotiation they thought they had settled.

Asked whether they deliberately set the boat alight before leaving, Gutman denies doing so intentionally. He nevertheless allows that his party, or Wilmer in particular, may have been responsible. Wilmer had gone out to look for the falcon while the others talked in the cabin; Gutman suggests that he may have been careless with matches. This is an explanation offered after the fact, not a confirmed finding: the account leaves the fire’s precise origin uncertain even as it places Wilmer near a plausible cause.

Jacobi, the Bird, and the Consequences

Gutman’s account continues with the search for Brigid and the falcon. After the group finds what they believe to be her apartment, they hear movement inside and ring the doorbell. When Brigid asks who is there and they identify themselves, they hear a window opening. Wilmer goes around to cover the fire escape and encounters Jacobi in the alley, carrying the falcon. Gutman says Wilmer shoots him more than once, but Jacobi continues running with the bird and knocks Wilmer down. Seeing a policeman approach, Wilmer abandons the pursuit and returns to the others without, Gutman claims, being recognized.

Brigid later tells Gutman and Cairo that she instructed Jacobi to take the falcon to Spade. The group tries to divert Spade by having Brigid phone his office, while Wilmer follows Jacobi. The effort fails: Jacobi’s attempt to deliver the bird and the group’s pursuit become part of the same unfolding chain. The fire thus belongs to the broader contest over possession of the falcon, but the available account does not establish that it was set to create the escape, conceal a crime, or cause Jacobi’s later death.

Its Place in the Investigation

Spade recognizes that, if the group’s account leaves them needing to prosecute Wilmer for Jacobi’s murder, an arson charge could also be brought against him. His remark treats the possible fire-setting as an additional legal consequence, not as proof that Wilmer started the blaze. Gutman’s qualification remains central: the fire was not intentional as far as he knew, and Wilmer’s carelessness with matches is presented only as a possibility.

The episode therefore advances the investigation through accumulating, differently sourced information. Effie supplies the ship’s name after seeing it burning; Spade reports when and where the damage was discovered; Gutman supplies a retrospective account that implicates his own party while assigning the likeliest responsibility to Wilmer. These details connect the fire to the shipboard meeting and the scramble for the falcon, yet preserve a distinction between a clue, a suspect’s explanation, and an established cause.