Spade informs the police about Wilmer, Gutman, and the other parties involved

Sam Spade informs the police about Wilmer Cook, Casper Gutman, Joel Cairo, and the others involved in the Falcon affair, converting an investigation conducted through private bargaining into actionable information for the authorities. He names Wilmer as the gunman responsible for the shootings of Floyd Thursby and Captain Jacobi, identifies Gutman and Cairo as accomplices, supplies descriptions and a location, and offers physical exhibits. The disclosure culminates in the police taking Brigid O’Shaughnessy into custody for Miles Archer’s murder, while the news that Wilmer has killed Gutman confirms how little order the handover restores.

The Investigation Behind the Report

Spade’s account to the police rests on a case built from circumstances, timing, and material evidence, rather than from a single complete witness account. At the scene of Miles Archer’s death, the broken top rail of a fence and Archer’s position below it give Spade the basis to reconstruct the shooting: he indicates where Archer stood and where the shooter fired, then traces how the shot sent Archer backward through the fence and down the slope. The reconstruction is an inference from the physical scene, not by itself proof of the shooter’s identity.

That distinction matters when Tom Polhaus later tells Spade that the gun found at the scene belonged to Floyd Thursby and that the bullet recovered from Archer came from it. A hotel bellhop had seen the distinctive Webley-Fosbery in Thursby’s room that morning, lending support to the identification. Yet the gun links the weapon to Thursby, not necessarily Thursby to the act of killing Archer. Spade’s final report supplies a different conclusion: Wilmer Cook was responsible for the shootings of both Thursby and Jacobi. The movement from a plausible early attribution to a later, wider account shows how evidence acquired through the investigation changes the case’s apparent shape.

The Network Spade Exposes

The people Spade identifies are bound together by a pursuit of the Falcon, but their changing alliances and private movements make the affair difficult for the police to follow. Brigid O’Shaughnessy tells Spade that she met Thursby in the Orient, came with him from Hong Kong, and believed he had promised to help her before betraying her. She later explains that her own role was to help the group get the Falcon from Kemidov, a Russian. These disclosures establish the larger contest behind the killings without resolving every part of her account.

The trail leads through La Paloma and Captain Jacobi. Spade relates that Brigid reached the vessel shortly after noon, asked for Jacobi by name, waited for him to return, and spent time with him aboard. Later, Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer’s intermediary joined them in Jacobi’s cabin. The group argued; a shot was heard, and a bullet hole was found in the cabin. This sequence places the rival parties together before the Falcon changes hands again, but the available account also makes clear that information from the crew was incomplete.

Gutman’s explanation further clarifies the group’s strategy and its limits. He says his party did not initially think Thursby possessed the Falcon, though it knew Brigid had entrusted the bird to Jacobi in Hong Kong to bring across on the Paloma while she and Thursby traveled on a faster vessel. Gutman says he attempted to make a deal with Thursby, who remained loyal to Brigid; after the negotiation failed, Wilmer followed him back to his hotel and killed him. Gutman also describes Wilmer pursuing Jacobi after the Falcon was taken from Brigid’s apartment. This account comes from a participant in the conspiracy, and Spade’s decision to inform the police does not make every detail of Gutman’s explanation independently verified.

The Telephone Call and Its Contents

After Gutman and Cairo leave, Spade pauses, consults the telephone directory, and calls Sergeant Polhaus. He identifies himself as Samuel Spade and reports that Thursby and Jacobi were shot by a young man named Wilmer Cook. He describes Wilmer in detail, then names Gutman as the man for whom Wilmer works and Cairo as another member of the group. He gives Gutman’s reported lodging at the Alexandria Hotel, suite 12C, warning that the men have just left and that the police will need to act quickly.

Spade’s call is practical as well as accusatory. He warns Polhaus that Wilmer is considered dangerous with a gun, and says he has what he believes are the guns Wilmer used. The information thus combines identities, associations, a possible location, urgency, and physical evidence: it is designed to direct police action rather than simply offer a theory of the case. Spade also tells Polhaus that Gutman’s daughter is involved, and describes her, extending the report beyond the three men he has already named.

From Disclosure to Custody

The phone call is followed by the police arriving at Spade’s apartment. With Lieutenant Dundy, Polhaus, and two other detectives at the door, Spade first asks whether they have caught the others. Polhaus confirms that they have. Spade then presents Brigid as another person for the police to take and states that she killed Miles Archer.

He identifies the evidence he can hand over: Wilmer’s guns, one of Cairo’s guns, the black statuette at the center of the pursuit, and the thousand-dollar bill he says he was supposed to accept as a bribe. The bill and statuette connect the report to the failed negotiations over the Falcon; the guns connect it to the shootings. Spade’s announcement therefore joins the murder investigation to the object and money at the center of the competing claims.

The police arrival also brings a final complication. Polhaus says Gutman is dead: Wilmer had just shot him when the police reached him. Spade responds that Gutman should have expected that outcome. The report has helped the authorities move against the group, but its immediate aftermath is not a clean resolution: one named suspect has been killed, Brigid is being handed over, and the Falcon’s pursuit has left behind a chain of violence as well as evidence.

Significance

Spade’s disclosure marks the point at which he stops keeping the case within the bounds of private dealings and gives the police a usable account of the people and evidence involved. Earlier, when pressed about his client, he had insisted that he could not identify that client before discussing it with them, and he resisted a search of his home without a warrant. The eventual call does not erase that guarded stance; it shows him choosing what to disclose when the accumulating evidence and the consequences of the case demand action.

The report also distinguishes explanation from proof. Spade’s reconstruction at Archer’s murder scene, Polhaus’s account of the Webley-Fosbery, Gutman’s disclosures about the failed dealings with Thursby, and the final inventory of exhibits each supply different kinds of support. Together they enable police intervention, but they do not undo the deaths or make every account equally certain. The action’s decisive consequence is that Spade turns the network he has traced into information the police can pursue, then personally places Brigid in their hands.