Justice

Marlowe is not especially concerned with seeing that traditional justice is served. He sometimes alters evidence and refuses to give confidential information to the police that might aid their murder investigation. When he accidentally discovers two bodies he covers his involvement by wiping his fingerprints and other evidence from the scene. When he finds Vannier's body, he alters the crime scene to make it look like a suicide.

But Marlowe does have a code of justice to which he adheres when he sees that Merle Davis is taken back to her parents after she is taken advantage of by the wealthy Mrs. Murdock. In his scheme of justice, the strong manipulating the weak and innocent is a worse crime even than murder, and he does what he can to right the situation.

Marlowe's sense of justice seems to be tempered by his sense of duty to his client...