Mexican gunmen attack Marlowe and take Lynn Peterson

The attack on Marlowe and abduction of Lynn Peterson mark the investigation’s turn from questions about Nico Peterson’s disappearance to immediate danger for those connected to him. At Peterson’s Napier Street residence, two armed men enter while Marlowe is speaking with Lynn. They recognize her despite his attempt to obscure her identity, overpower him, and take her. When Marlowe comes to, she and the men are gone, the house has been ransacked, and the reason for the attack remains uncertain.

Setting and Immediate Circumstances

Marlowe is questioning Lynn when he wonders whether to tell her what Clare Cavendish reported: that she saw Nico hurrying through a crowd on Market Street in San Francisco, although he was supposed to be dead. He has not decided what to say before a car arrives outside and the back door opens. Two men enter, one holding a gun. The sudden interruption turns a conversation about a possible sighting into a confrontation with people who already appear to know who Lynn is.

Marlowe later assigns the men the names Gómez and López because he never learns their actual names. The distinction he makes between them is practical: Gómez is the armed leader, while López acts as his muscle. Their clothes make them conspicuous rather than discreet. Gómez wears a powder-blue double-breasted suit and a tie bearing a painted bathing beauty; López wears a loud Hawaiian shirt, worn white deck pants, and open-toed sandals. The earlier description of the pair as stylish dressers proves unreliable, but their appearance does nothing to soften the threat they bring into the house.

The Attack

Gómez first asserts authority by claiming that the men are police. He addresses the woman as Cavendish, then makes clear that he knows this is not her real name and says he knows who she is. Lynn’s protest does not dissuade him. His recognition exposes the limits of Marlowe’s attempt to keep her identity from the intruders: whatever her assumed name may be, they have come with information about her.

López moves toward Lynn and menaces her. Marlowe intervenes, grabbing López’s wrist and elbow and pulling his arm away. López breaks free, revealing a small knife in his other hand. Marlowe tells him to keep away from the woman, but the intervention does not shift control of the room. Gómez demands Marlowe’s wallet and strikes him with his gun before Marlowe can finish objecting.

Marlowe uses the moment to reach toward his holster, but he is knocked unconscious before he can draw. The attack leaves him unable to prevent what happens next. When he regains consciousness, he still has his wallet, but the .38 Special that had been in his holster is gone. He cannot establish exactly how long he was unconscious or identify what caused the final blow; his watch has stopped, and his immediate attention is on orienting himself and finding Lynn.

Lynn’s Abduction and Marlowe’s Discovery

Lynn is no longer in the kitchen, living room, or bedroom. The men have searched the house thoroughly, opening drawers and closets and cutting into the sofa and bedroom mattress. Marlowe concludes that they were looking for something and suspects they did not find it, but he has no evidence identifying the object or explaining its connection to their visit. The damage establishes that the encounter was not simply an effort to frighten him or question Lynn: the intruders searched the residence and left with her.

The attack also confirms for Marlowe that they have taken her. He had seen how López regarded her, and the men had recognized her despite his attempt to conceal her identity. He does not know where they have gone; they could already be headed toward the border. With no lead to the gunmen and no account of their vehicle, the abduction immediately becomes a practical problem of locating both Lynn and her captors.

The telephone in the house is dead, its service having been disconnected weeks earlier. Marlowe considers calling the police but cannot do so from the residence. He also knows there is little point in trying to conceal his presence: his fingerprints are throughout the rooms, and he has already discussed Nico with Joe Green. He plans to return to the office and speak with Joe about Lynn as soon as he can manage it.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The episode makes the possible San Francisco sighting of Nico part of a more dangerous chain of events. Before the men arrive, Marlowe is weighing whether to disclose Clare’s report to Lynn. Afterward, Lynn is missing, the house has been searched, and the explanation for the attackers’ interest remains unknown. The question of what they wanted is left open rather than answered by the scene, preserving the connection between Nico’s disappearance and the danger surrounding his sister without establishing a motive the evidence does not supply.

The action also changes the terms of Marlowe’s work. His earlier decision to tell Joe about Clare’s sighting has already made him uneasy about whether he has betrayed her trust; now the consequences of the investigation are no longer confined to gathering and sharing information. The attack forces him to reckon with an abduction, a stolen weapon, and the absence of a usable telephone. His return to Joe is therefore not just a further investigative step but the immediate response available to a detective who has been overpowered and left without a clear lead.

The scene’s account is shaped by Marlowe’s limited, embodied point of view. He notices the men’s clothes, their weapons, and the danger of moving for his own gun, but the knockout leaves a gap in his knowledge of how Lynn is taken and where the men go. The house’s disarray supplies evidence of a search, while its missing occupants and missing weapon establish the consequences. The attackers depart with Lynn; Marlowe is left to reconstruct events from what remains.