How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"There's ample evidence of his guilt, sir. Both men were shot with those weapons. It's a very simple matter for the police-department-experts to determine that the bullets that killed the men were fired from those weapons. You know that; you've mentioned it yourself. And that, it seems to me, ample proof of his guilt."
"Maybe," Spade agreed, "but the thing's more complicated than that and I've got to know what happened so I can be sure that the parts that won't fit in are covered up." (19.32)
Gutman has finally agreed to use Wilmer as the scapegoat, but Spade has to make sure he's got the details straight to tell the police. Here, we see that Spade is actively trying to "cover up" the parts of the story that aren't true. Is Spade bluffing here to trap Gutman? Or does Spade really intend on turning Wilmer in for both murders, even though Spade knows that Wilmer is only responsible for one them?
Quote #11
"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. Then it happens we were in the detective business. Well, when one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all around—bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere." (20.80)
Spade makes quite a pretty speech at the end of the novel to explain to Brigid why he's turning her over to the police. It seems that Spade does ultimately uphold his code of principles by capturing Archer's murderer. But there are moments in his speech when we can sense that Spade is operating at least somewhat on self-interest. Spade says that it's "bad business" letting the killer get away, so does this mean that Spade can't afford to let his reputation get sullied by coming to the police empty-handed? Is Spade more concerned about his detective business than his love for Brigid?