La Paloma Summary

After Spade awakes from his drugged state, he returns to his office where Effie once more tends to his cuts and bruises. Spade shares the story of the falcon with Effie and asks her to visit her cousin at the university to determine the veracity of the tale.

Spade is unable to locate Gutman or Brigid at their respective hotels and asks the hotel detective let him into Cairo's room at the Belvedere. He finds a copy of yesterday's newspaper. Some information has been torn out, and whatever was there must be important. After securing a fresh newspaper, Spade is able to determine that the information Cairo tore out was listings of ships arriving in San Francisco.

The ship La Paloma has arrived from Hong Kong, and since this is the city from which Brigid sailed not too long ago, Spade...