Before going to Gutman’s hotel, Spade stops at a bus station to store the falcon in a locker. He then mails the key to his apartment and catches a taxi to the hotel. Gutman’s door is answered by his daughter, Rhea, who has clearly been drugged. Spade helps her into the apartment and discovers that she has been keeping herself awake by poking and scratching herself with a bouquet-pin. Rhea manages to mumble an address in Burlingame and intimates that Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer have taken O'Shaughnessy there and intend to kill her. Spade lays her down in her bed and calls the emergency line at the hospital to get them to take care of her. Spade has the hotel order him a surreptitious taxi driver and heads toward the address Rhea gave him.

The address is for an empty house in the suburbs with a for-sale sign. After looking around and seeing no signs of anyone, Spade heads to the real-estate dealer listed on the sign to get the keys. After searching inside the house, Spade determines he must have been tricked because the place is empty and has been for weeks. Back at the hotel, the front-desk clerk informs Spade that people from the emergency hospital showed up at Gutman’s room, but there was no one there.