The High Window

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy widow Elizabeth Bright Murdock to recover a missing Brasher Doubloon, a rare and valuable coin.The man identifies himself as George Anson Phillips, an amateurish private detective, who wants to enlist Marlowe's help on a case he cannot handle.Returning to the Murdocks, Marlowe is told a story he doesn’t believe: Leslie gave the coin to Morny to secure his debts, then changed his mind and retrieved it.Marlowe leaves, beginning to suspect a dark secret involving Merle, the timid family secretary, and Mrs. Murdock's first husband, Horace Bright, who died falling out of a window.Marlowe visits Vannier's home, finds him dead and discovers a photo of a man falling from a window with a woman behind him.Marlowe visits Mrs. Murdock and tells her he has figured out that Bright once tried to force himself on Merle, and she either pushed him or allowed him to fall out of a window to his death.He watches her and her family as he drives away and says, "I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again.
A 1787 Brasher Doubloon , the same type featured in The High Window
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