Finding Marlowe: Did this man inspire two of noir's iconic fictional detectives?

Story by Daniel Miller Illustrations by Morgan Schweitzer Photography by Gina Ferazzi

故事作者：Daniel Miller 插图作者：Morgan Schweitzer 摄影：Gina Ferazzi

I t was hot and I was late for lunch.

天气很热，我吃午饭迟到了。

I was feeling mean, like I’d been left out in the sun too long.

我感觉很卑鄙，就像我在阳光下呆得太久了。

We were meeting at a joint on La Brea, the kind of place where the booths have curtains you can pull shut if you need a little privacy.

我们在拉布雷亚的一个聚会上见面，那里的摊位有窗帘，如果你需要一点隐私，你可以拉上窗帘。

I slid across cool leather and got my first good look at Louise Ransil, a wisp of a redhead with high cheekbones and appraising eyes.

我滑过凉爽的皮革，第一次清楚地看到了路易丝·兰西尔（Louise Ransil），她一头红发，颧骨高高，目光充满审视。

She sat with her hands folded on the worn table, a stack of old paperbacks next to her.

她双手交叉坐在破旧的桌子上，旁边放着一叠旧平装书。

Ransil had a script she’d been peddling to the studios.

兰西尔有一个剧本，她一直在向制片厂兜售。

I’d started reading it — a detective caper set in 1930s Los Angeles — and wanted to find out about the claim on the title page.

我开始读这本书——一部以 20 世纪 30 年代洛杉矶为背景的侦探小说——并想了解扉页上的说法。

“BASED ON A TRUE STORY: From case files of P.I.

“基于真实故事：来自 P.I. 的案件档案。

Samuel B.

塞缪尔·B.

Marlowe.”

马洛。”

Marlowe, she said, was the city’s first licensed black private detective.

她说，马洛是该市第一位获得执照的黑人私家侦探。

He shadowed lives, took care of secrets, knew his way around Tinseltown.

他跟踪生活，照顾秘密，熟悉好莱坞。

Ransil dropped the names of some Hollywood heavies — Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Howard Hughes.

兰西尔提到了一些好莱坞重量级人物的名字——克拉克·盖博、珍·哈洛、霍华德·休斯。

But it got better.

但情况变得更好了。

Marlowe knew hard-boiled writers Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, she said.

马洛认识冷酷无情的作家雷蒙德·钱德勒和达希尔·哈米特，她说。

The private eye had written them after reading their early stories in the pulp magazine Black Mask to say their fictional gumshoes were doing it all wrong.

私家侦探在读了低俗杂志《黑面具》上的早期故事后写信给他们，说他们虚构的刑警所做的一切都是错误的。

They began writing regularly, or so her story went.

他们开始定期写作，至少她的故事是这样的。

The authors relied on Marlowe for writing advice, and in the case of Chandler, some real-life detective work.

作者依靠马洛的写作建议，而对于钱德勒来说，则是一些现实生活中的侦探作品。

So his name was Samuel Marlowe …

所以他的名字是塞缪尔·马洛……

and their most famous characters were Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.

他们最著名的人物是萨姆·斯佩德和菲利普·马洛。

Maybe, maybe not.

也许，也许不是。

At the very least, it was a hell of a coincidence.

至少，这是一个非常巧合的事情。

But the letters that would prove it all had gone missing — if they even existed.

但那些能证明这一切的信件却不见了——即使它们存在的话。

Marlowe’s relatives were searching for them.

马洛的亲戚正在寻找他们。

There was talk of a secret compartment in a home in West Adams.

有传言说，西亚当斯的一所房子里有一个秘密隔间。

Or maybe they were hidden at a shuttered thrift shop in South Los Angeles.

或者也许它们被藏在洛杉矶南部一家关门的旧货店里。

Lost letters worth thousands.

丢失的信件价值数千美元。

A family trying to uncover the truth about a man all mixed up in the glamour and the seediness of L.A.

一家人试图揭开一个男人的真相，这个男人卷入了洛杉矶的魅力与肮脏之中。

between the wars.

两次战争之间。

And a Hollywood screenwriter who stood to gain a lot from any story I might write.

还有一位好莱坞编剧，他可以从我写的任何故事中获益匪浅。

I didn’t know if I could trust Ransil, a former executive with Orion Pictures and New Line Cinema who lived alone in a penthouse with a pet parrot.

我不知道我是否可以信任兰西尔，他是猎户座影业公司和新线影业公司的前高管，他独自一人住在顶层公寓里，并养了一只宠物鹦鹉。

But she had gotten to me.

但她已经接近我了。

Chandler and Hammett created two characters that shaped the archetype of the noir detective as a world-weary white man, and she was saying they might have been named after a black private eye.

钱德勒和哈米特创造了两个角色，塑造了黑色侦探作为厌世白人的原型，她说他们可能是以黑人私家侦探的名字命名的。

I started checking out Ransil’s story, looking up the paid obituaries in The Times and the Los Angeles Sentinel from when Marlowe died in 1991.

我开始查看兰西尔的故事，查找《泰晤士报》和《洛杉矶哨兵报》上 1991 年马洛去世时的付费讣告。

Marlowe was born Aug.

马洛出生于八月。

3, 1890, in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

1890 年 12 月 3 日，牙买加蒙特哥湾。

According to The Times obituary, he served in Britain’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force, a World War I fighting brigade that guarded the Suez Canal.

根据《泰晤士报》的讣告，他曾在英国埃及远征军服役，这是一支守卫苏伊士运河的第一次世界大战旅。

After the war, Marlowe immigrated to the U.S., settling in Los Angeles, where he soon became a private detective.

战后，马洛移民到美国，定居在洛杉矶，很快就在那里成为一名私家侦探。

Both obituaries made the same bold — and almost certainly untrue — claim: “In L.A., he was the first licensed P.I.

两份讣告都做出了同样大胆的——而且几乎肯定是不真实的——声称：“在洛杉矶，他是第一个获得许可的私人情报人员。

west of the Mississippi.”

密西西比河以西。”

The notices were larded up with the private eye’s civic achievements, even referencing a few organizations — like the Old Black Screen Actor’s Guild, from his days as a bit actor — that I couldn’t verify ever existed.

这些通知充斥着私家侦探的公民成就，甚至提到了一些组织——比如老黑屏演员协会，从他当小演员的时候开始——我无法证实这些组织是否存在。

I needed to turn to Marlowe’s family members.

我需要向马洛的家人求助。

And to Ransil.

还有兰西尔。

She said that after reading the obituaries, she reached out to the gumshoe’s son, Samuel Marlowe Jr., who gave her access to his father’s archives.

她说，读完讣告后，她联系了刑警的儿子小塞缪尔·马洛，他让她查阅了他父亲的档案。

Over the course of several months in 1991 and 1992, Ransil said, she examined the PI’s papers at the younger Marlowe’s home — rifling through old case files, invoices and correspondence — and took notes in Stenoscript shorthand.

兰西尔说，在 1991 年和 1992 年的几个月里，她在小马洛的家里检查了 PI 的文件，翻阅了旧案件档案、发票和信件，并用 Stenoscript 速记记录下来。

She showed me dozens of pages of them.

她给我看了几十页。

Ransil said she didn’t photocopy anything because it would have amounted to hours of work and she figured there’d be plenty of time to examine it all.

兰西尔说，她没有复印任何东西，因为这需要几个小时的工作，而且她认为会有足够的时间来检查所有内容。

She eventually set aside the project, distracted by her day jobs.

她最终因日常工作而搁置了该项目。

By the time she picked it up again in 2006, Marlowe Jr. was dead.

2006 年，当她再次拿起它时，小马洛已经去世了。

Ransil, 61, acknowledged that doubters could say she’s playing fast and loose with the truth to score a movie deal.

61 岁的兰西尔承认，怀疑者可能会说她为了达成电影交易而不顾事实。

She’s adamant that her motives are pure.

她坚信自己的动机是纯粹的。

At least Ransil wasn’t the only person who claimed to have seen the letters.

至少兰西尔并不是唯一一个声称见过这些信件的人。

Willie Rawls, 74, a Marlowe family friend, said she examined them around 2001 just before they went missing.

马洛家族的朋友、74 岁的威利·罗尔斯 (Willie Rawls) 说，她在 2001 年左右检查过这些物品，就在它们失踪之前。

And one of Marlowe’s great-grandsons, Antoine Durousseau, said he saw them too.

马洛的曾孙之一安托万·杜卢梭说他也看到了它们。

“A lot of them were handwritten — letters between Marlowe and the authors,” he said.

“其中很多都是手写的——马洛和作者之间的信件，”他说。

“Marlowe kept a pretty good file cabinet.”

“马洛有一个非常好的文件柜。”

I followed a lead to a big man drenched in sweat.

我顺着线索找到了一个浑身是汗的大个子。

He was picking through battered steamer trunks and moldy cardboard boxes.

他正在破烂的汽船箱和发霉的纸板箱中挑选。

John Cummings was searching for the lost letters — or anything else that could prove the man he knew as a boy was a trusted advisor to two literary lions.

约翰·卡明斯正在寻找丢失的信件，或者任何其他可以证明他小时候认识的人是两位文学巨星值得信赖的顾问的任何东西。

“He had a gold-capped tooth right here,” Cummings said of his great-grandfather, pointing at one of his own front teeth, “and was addicted to cigars, horses and women.”

“他有一颗金冠牙，”卡明斯指着自己的一颗门牙谈到他的曾祖父，“并且沉迷于雪茄、马和女人。”

As the sun beat down on a dilapidated South L.A.

当太阳照耀在破旧的南洛杉矶时。

building, Cummings, 48, took a break.

48 岁的卡明斯在大楼里休息了一会儿。

He wasn’t satisfied with the objects he’d unearthed at the property, once a thrift shop operated by his late father, who had retrieved some of Marlowe’s personal effects when the private eye died.

他对自己在这处房产中出土的物品并不满意，这处房产曾经是他已故父亲经营的一家旧货店，当私家侦探去世时，他取回了马洛的一些个人物品。

For Cummings, it’s personal.

对于卡明斯来说，这是个人的。

He wants to prove what a 1980s story in the Sentinel asserted: When Marlowe became a PI in 1921, he was the “first black man to have a licensed detective agency in the state of California.”

他想证明《哨兵报》上 20 世纪 80 年代的一篇报道所断言的那样：当马洛于 1921 年成为一名 PI 时，他是“第一个在加利福尼亚州拥有许可侦探机构的黑人”。

“I am more interested in Sr.’s legacy, and the legacy of African American men who have blazed a trail and gone unrecognized,” said Cummings, speaking in a cigar-ravaged rasp.

卡明斯说：“我对先生的遗产更感兴趣，对那些开辟了一条道路却无人知晓的非裔美国男性的遗产更感兴趣。”

The California Department of Consumer Affairs, which issues private detective licenses, has no record of Marlowe, but an agency spokesman said that older files are often incomplete or missing.

颁发私家侦探执照的加州消费者事务部没有马洛的记录，但该机构发言人表示，较旧的文件往往不完整或丢失。

USC history department researcher Angelica Stoddard, whose work centers on L.A.’s first licensed black private eyes, says Marlowe is the earliest one she’s heard of.

南加州大学历史系研究员安吉丽卡·斯托达德的研究重点是洛杉矶第一位获得许可的黑人私家侦探，她说马洛是她听说的最早的人。

Cummings ducked into a rusty white Ford Econoline van parked out back and emerged with a heavy cardboard box.

卡明斯钻进停在后面的一辆生锈的白色福特 Econoline 货车，带着一个沉重的纸板箱出来。

He set it on the ground and plunged his hand in, pulling out a pistol, bullets, stale cigars.

他把它放在地上，把手伸进去，掏出手枪、子弹和陈旧的雪茄。

There was an address book with an entry for Universal Studios’ payroll department and a placard that read, “This property is protected by the Samuel B.

有一本地址簿，上面有环球影城薪资部门的条目，还有一张标语牌，上面写着：“该财产受到塞缪尔·B·

Marlowe Detective Agency.”

马洛侦探社。”

I started re-reading Chandler’s and Hammett’s novels, gulping down their stories of crooks and femmes fatales , dizzy with all that hard language coursing through my head.

我开始重读钱德勒和哈米特的小说，吞咽着他们关于骗子和蛇蝎美人的故事，脑海中流过的那些难听的语言让我头晕目眩。

Hammett’s debut novel, “Red Harvest,” was published in 1929 — the same year Marlowe wrote the author to complain about his writing, Ransil said.

兰西尔说，哈米特的处女作《红色收获》于 1929 年出版，同年马洛写信给作者抱怨他的写作。

The following year, Hammett released “The Maltese Falcon,” with its iconic, white private detective, Sam Spade.

第二年，哈米特发行了《马耳他之鹰》，主角是标志性的白人私家侦探萨姆·斯佩德。

Marlowe claimed that Spade’s first name was an homage to him, and that the character’s surname was Hammett’s “winking inside joke,” because “spade” was a derogatory term for a black person, Marlowe Jr. told Ransil.

小马洛告诉兰西尔，马洛声称斯佩德的名字是对他的致敬，而这个角色的姓氏是哈米特的“眨眼的内部笑话”，因为“斯佩德”是对黑人的贬义词。

In 1933, Hammett published “Nightshade,” a little-known, four-page tale that appeared in Mystery League magazine and is his only work to feature a black protagonist.

1933 年，哈米特出版了《夜影》，这是一部鲜为人知的四页故事，出现在《神秘联盟》杂志上，也是他唯一一部以黑人为主角的作品。

In the story, the lead character, Jack Bye, helps a blond out of a jam with two toughs.

在故事中，主角杰克·拜 (Jack Bye) 帮助一名金发女郎摆脱了与两名强盗的困境。

Afterward, they visit an African American speak-easy called Mack’s.

随后，他们参观了一家名为 Mack's 的非裔美国人地下酒吧。

Once she leaves, the barman tells Bye: “I like you, boy, but you got to remember it don’t make no difference how light your skin is or how many colleges you went to, you’re still a n—.”

她一离开，酒保就告诉拜：“我喜欢你，孩子，但你必须记住，无论你的皮肤有多白，或者你上过多少所大学，你仍然是一个……”。

Ransil said that Marlowe’s cache of letters from Hammett included a carbon copy of a draft of “Nightshade” with an index card clipped to it suggesting the story was inspired by the private eye:

兰西尔说，马洛收藏的哈米特信件中包括一份《茄属植物》草稿的复写本，上面夹着一张索引卡，表明这个故事的灵感来自私家侦探：

“I came across this and thought you might like to have it.

“我偶然发现了这个，我想你可能会喜欢它。

You’ll see I changed a few of the details, but I think it still works.”

你会看到我改变了一些细节，但我认为它仍然有效。”

Marlowe, family members say, provided security for illegal speak-easies during the Prohibition era, when Hollywood types liked to frequent the Dunbar Hotel and other nightspots on South L.A.’s Central Avenue — long the center of African American life in Los Angeles.

家人说，马洛在禁酒令时期为非法酒吧提供了安全保障，当时好莱坞明星喜欢光顾邓巴酒店和南洛杉矶中央大道上的其他夜总会——长期以来，这里一直是洛杉矶非裔美国人的生活中心。

Great-grandson Durousseau said that he’d been told by older relatives that film studios also paid the gumshoe to “pick up actors and actresses who were in the wrong part of town at speak-easies and juke joints.”

曾孙杜鲁索说，年长的亲戚告诉他，电影制片厂还付钱给刑警，“在地下酒吧和自动点唱机里挑选那些不在城里的男女演员”。

The work on Central Avenue, and a walk-on part in the 1933 epic “King Kong,” introduced Marlowe to a slew of movie industry players.

中央大街的作品以及 1933 年史诗片《金刚》中的跑龙套让马洛认识了众多电影业人士。

Among those who relied on Marlowe were Howard Hughes and Charlie Chaplin — both of whom used him to keep tabs on women they were seeing, Ransil said.

兰西尔说，依赖马洛的人包括霍华德·休斯和查理·卓别林，他们都利用马洛来监视他们所见到的女性。

In 1936, Paramount Pictures hired Marlowe to investigate an attempt to blackmail actress Marlene Dietrich, Ransil’s notes show.

兰西尔的笔记显示，1936 年，派拉蒙影业聘请马洛调查勒索女演员玛琳·黛德丽的企图。

Marlowe went to a train station to stake out the delivery of $8,000 in hush money provided by the studio to a “young man.” He turned out to be the son of Dietrich’s makeup artist.

马洛前往火车站，将工作室提供的 8000 美元封口费交给一名“年轻人”。原来他是迪特里希化妆师的儿子。

“Dietrich refused to have the makeup woman and son arrested because she and the makeup woman had been lovers,” Ransil’s notes show.

“迪特里希拒绝逮捕化妆师和儿子，因为她和化妆师曾经是恋人，”兰西尔的笔记显示。

The detective also started doing a little work for Chandler after the author wrote the PI asking if he could retrieve some police files, Ransil said.

兰西尔说，在作者写信询问钱德勒是否可以取回一些警察档案后，侦探也开始为钱德勒做一些工作。

Marlowe’s billing files, she said, show that he was also Chandler’s guide on research expeditions to the “tough parts of town.”

她说，马洛的账单文件显示，他也是钱德勒前往“城镇困难地区”进行研究探险的向导。

Marlowe gave Chandler a bit of advice on how to think like a PI: “Believe no one, even the person hiring you — especially the person hiring you,” according to Ransil’s notes.

马洛给了钱德勒一些关于如何像 PI 一样思考的建议：“不要相信任何人，甚至是雇用你的人，尤其是雇用你的人，”根据兰西尔的笔记。

In 1939, Chandler released “The Big Sleep,” his first Philip Marlowe novel.

1939 年，钱德勒出版了他的第一部菲利普·马洛小说《长眠不醒》。

It turned the writer into a literary star.

它使作家成为文学明星。

Chandler followed up “The Big Sleep” a year later with “Farewell, My Lovely,” considered by some to be his greatest work.

一年后，钱德勒在《长眠不醒》之后推出了《永别了，我的爱人》，被一些人认为是他最伟大的作品。

Ransil believes that the South L.A.

兰西尔认为，南洛杉矶

vignette that opens the book depicts a side of the city that Chandler would have been unfamiliar with unless he had a guide like Marlowe.

这本书的开头小插图描绘了钱德勒对这座城市的一面感到陌生，除非他有像马洛这样的向导。

The novel opens on Chandler’s Philip Marlowe emerging from a barbershop on Central Avenue.

小说以钱德勒饰演的菲利普·马洛从中央大街的一家理发店开始。

He watches the felon Moose Malloy throw a black man out of a bar called Florian’s.

他看着重罪犯穆斯·马洛伊（Moose Malloy）将一名黑人从一家名为弗洛里安酒吧（Florian’s）的酒吧扔出去。

Later, Malloy and Marlowe come across an African American bouncer at Florian’s who says, “No white folks, brother.

后来，马洛伊和马洛在弗洛里安酒吧遇到一位非裔美国保镖，他说：“兄弟，白人不准入内。

Jes’ fo’ the colored people.

天哪，有色人种。

I’se sorry.”

对不起。”

“Where did he get that?

“他从哪里得到这个？

Why Central Avenue?” asked Judith Freeman, author of the biography “The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved.”

为什么是中央大街？”传记《漫长的拥抱：雷蒙德·钱德勒和他所爱的女人》的作者朱迪思·弗里曼问道。

The research institutions that house the two writers’ papers said none mention Marlowe.

存放两位作者论文的研究机构表示，没有人提到马洛。

And scholars have plenty of other ideas about where the characters’ names might have come from.

对于这些人物名字的来源，学者们还有很多其他的想法。

Freeman said the connection would be plausible — “if one could find even the smallest direct link.”

弗里曼表示，这种联系是合理的——“如果人们能找到哪怕是最小的直接联系。”

I thundered down the 110 toward Compton, my coupe shuddering over the highway’s tar-smeared seams.

我沿着 110 公路轰鸣般地驶向康普顿，我的轿跑车在高速公路的柏油路缝上颤抖着。

I was hoping for an audience with Marlowe’s oldest living relative — his nephew.

我希望能见到马洛在世的最年长的亲戚——他的侄子。

Samuel Joseph Marlowe lives in a pink, wood-sided house with a security gate at the front door.

塞缪尔·约瑟夫·马洛住在一栋粉红色的木边房子里，前门有一扇安全门。

It was a Sunday, and down the block a church was flooded with parishioners who spilled out onto a porch.

那是一个周日，街区的一座教堂里挤满了教区居民，他们涌到门廊上。

I parked across the street, where two steely-eyed men sitting in a late-model sedan clocked me as I hustled up the driveway.

我把车停在街对面，当我匆忙驶上车道时，两个目光坚定的男人坐在一辆新型轿车里注视着我。

My visit was unannounced; I’d had a mind to doorstep Samuel Joseph, who didn’t answer my letters or have a working phone.

我的访问是未经事先通知的；我本来想上门拜访塞缪尔·约瑟夫，但他没有回我的信，也没有可用的电话。

Inside I found a withered man lolling deep in a stained couch, as comfortable as an old shoe.

在里面，我发现一个枯萎的男人懒洋洋地躺在一张污迹斑斑的沙发上，舒服得像一双旧鞋。

His speech had been muddied by a recent stroke, but Samuel Joseph, 88, was eager to talk.

88 岁的塞缪尔·约瑟夫 (Samuel Joseph) 最近因中风而讲话有些混乱，但他很愿意讲话。

He spoke of his journey from Jamaica to Los Angeles in 1947 and how his uncle got him a job at a cold storage facility.

他讲述了 1947 年从牙买加到洛杉矶的旅程，以及他的叔叔如何为他在一家冷藏设施找到了一份工作。

Marlowe was willing to lend a helping hand, but when Samuel Joseph needed help filing his taxes, the flinty PI charged him $10.

马洛愿意伸出援手，但当塞缪尔·约瑟夫需要帮助报税时，这位冷酷的 PI 向他收取了 10 美元。

“When he finished my income tax I went by the house and he said, ‘Your paperwork is finished,’ so I reached up to get it,” Samuel Joseph said.

“当他完成我的所得税后，我经过房子，他说，‘你的文书工作完成了，’所以我伸手去拿，”塞缪尔·约瑟夫说。

“He said, ‘You can pay me $10 first.’ I picked it up anyway.

“他说，‘你可以先付给我 10 美元。’我还是接了。

He pulled out his little pistol and said, ‘No, you put it back until I get my money.’ He was joking, but he was meaning it too.

他掏出小手枪说：“不，你把它放回去，直到我拿到钱。”他是在开玩笑，但他也是认真的。

He didn’t pity no man.”

他不怜悯任何人。”

Samuel Joseph smiled at the story but told me that he didn’t know about Marlowe’s connection to the writers.

塞缪尔·约瑟夫对这个故事笑了，但告诉我他不知道马洛与作家们的联系。

He said in a bashful sort of way that I knew more about his uncle than he did.

他害羞地说，我比他更了解他叔叔。

“Oh, what should I say about Uncle Sam?” he trailed off, squinting at something unseen.

“哦，关于山姆大叔我该怎么说呢？”他的声音逐渐减弱，眯着眼睛看着看不见的东西。

Marlowe kept things close to the vest, even with his relatives.

马洛对事情守口如瓶，即使是对他的亲戚也是如此。

But as he grew older, he hinted at his glory years, back when he called himself the “Answer Man.”

但随着年龄的增长，他暗示了自己的辉煌岁月，当时他称自己为“答案人”。

Durousseau remembers watching television with Marlowe years after he’d retired.

杜鲁索记得他退休多年后和马洛一起看电视。

The old man’s eyes lighted up when the film adaptation of “The Maltese Falcon” came on the screen.

当改编自《马耳他之鹰》的电影出现在屏幕上时，老人的眼睛一亮。

Watching Humphrey Bogart hunt down the jewel-encrusted falcon statuette, the elderly former detective gestured at the television and said “he knew that guy from the movie,” Durousseau recalled.

杜鲁索回忆道，看着亨弗莱·鲍嘉追捕镶满珠宝的猎鹰小雕像，这位年长的前侦探指着电视说：“他认识电影里的那个人。”

The private eye died two weeks before his 101st birthday.

这位私家侦探在他 101 岁生日前两周去世。

He’s buried at the Inglewood Park Cemetery.

他被埋葬在英格尔伍德公园公墓。

I visited with Durousseau and watched as he cleaned the grave marker in row 1190 of the cemetery’s Resthaven section, sluicing it with water from a fast-food restaurant cup.

我拜访了杜鲁索，看着他清理墓地休息区第 1190 排的墓碑，并用快餐店杯子里的水冲洗它。

“He outlived his family members, he’d seen Los Angeles [transform] from nothing to everything,” said Durousseau, 44, stifling tears.

“他比家人活得更久，他见证了洛杉矶从无到有的转变，”44 岁的杜卢梭强忍着泪水说道。

“He just felt he was ready to go.”

“他只是觉得他已经准备好出发了。”

After the detective died, some of his possessions were transferred to his son’s house in West Adams.

侦探去世后，他的一些财产被转移到他儿子位于西亚当斯的房子里。

The old Dutch Colonial became the focus of a family legal battle when Marlowe Jr. died in 2003, and that may have led to the loss of the private eye’s files.

2003 年小马洛去世后，这座古老的荷兰殖民地成为家庭法律纠纷的焦点，这可能导致私家侦探的档案丢失。

After three years of legal skirmishing, the house was put on the market — and the feuding heirs never retrieved the files from it.

经过三年的法律冲突后，这所房子被放到市场上，而相互争斗的继承人却从未取回其中的文件。

When buyer Ethan Polk toured the property before making an offer, it was filled with the belongings of the late PI and his son.

当买家伊森·波尔克 (Ethan Polk) 在出价前参观该房产时，发现里面摆满了已故 PI 及其儿子的物品。

As part of the transaction, Polk stipulated that it be cleaned out.

作为交易的一部分，波尔克规定将其清除。

“The real estate agent hired a crew of people to clean out the house,” Polk said.

“房地产经纪人雇了一群人来清理房子，”波尔克说。

“They basically dumped everything.”

“他们基本上抛弃了一切。”

It had been a year of hard work but even harder luck when I met Ransil for lunch again, this time at an Italian place on Hillhurst Avenue.

这是我努力工作的一年，但当我再次见到兰西尔共进午餐时，运气就更差了，这次是在希尔赫斯特大道的一家意大利餐厅。

She appeared more frail than I’d remembered.

她看上去比我记忆中更加虚弱。

As I walked in, the faint sound of an army of air conditioners registering their protests set me on edge.

当我走进去时，一群空调发出的微弱声音记录着他们的抗议，这让我感到紧张。

We were in the middle of a ferocious heat wave and AC units had been surrendering all across the city.

我们正处于猛烈的热浪之中，整个城市的空调机组都在投降。

Ransil ordered a tuna melt with fried potatoes and picked at the food.

兰西尔点了一份金枪鱼配炸土豆，然后在食物中挑选。

I barely gave her time to eat.

我几乎没有给她吃饭的时间。

I peppered her with questions, asking again why she hadn’t photocopied Marlowe’s files.

我向她提出了很多问题，再次询问她为什么没有复印马洛的文件。

I told her about the real estate agent’s crew, and what they’d done.

我告诉她房地产经纪人团队的情况以及他们所做的事情。

I needed a good night’s sleep, I needed a change of scenery, and I needed a break in the case.

我需要睡个好觉，我需要换个环境，我需要在案子中休息一下。

It didn’t look like any were coming.

看起来没有人来。

Ransil slumped back into the green leather booth.

兰希尔重重地跌回绿色皮革隔间里。

She said she felt ashamed that she’d let the story slip through her fingers.

她说她为自己让这个故事从指缝中溜走而感到羞愧。

“It's a long and twisted tale that didn't turn out the way I’d hoped,” she said.

“这是一个漫长而曲折的故事，但结果并没有像我希望的那样，”她说。

“I'm kicking myself in a lot of ways.”

“我在很多方面都在自责。”

There was another lead to pursue, and I wasn’t some soft-boned flatheel who’d give up without a fight.

还有另一条线索需要追寻，而我又不是那种不战而屈人之兵的软弱平底鞋。

The Dutch Colonial once owned by Marlowe’s son is a husk, shedding roof shingles and sloughing off its white clapboard exterior.

马洛的儿子曾经拥有的荷兰殖民地建筑现在只剩下一层外壳，屋顶瓦片脱落，白色隔板外墙也脱落。

But it could hold the private detective’s secrets.

但它可以保守私家侦探的秘密。

Word is, the house contains at least one hidden compartment where the younger Marlowe had stashed valuables.

据说，这所房子至少有一个隐藏的隔间，年轻的马洛曾在那里藏匿贵重物品。

Ransil said that the private eye’s daughter, Rena Hughes, once told her about this.

兰西尔说，私家侦探的女儿雷娜·休斯曾经告诉过她这件事。

A former resident, Stacie Ottley, recalled one in a bedroom too.

一位前居民史黛西·奥特利 (Stacie Ottley) 回忆起卧室里也有一个。

“There’s a room that had a little thing in the floor,” Ottley said.

“有一个房间的地板上有一个小东西，”奥特利说。

“One of the floorboards moved.”

“其中一块地板动了。”

Could the letters still be there?

那些字母还会在那里吗？

I asked Polk, the current owner, if he’d mind if I tore up a room.

我问现在的主人波尔克是否介意我拆掉一个房间。

He gave me a look and, laughing a little, agreed.

他看了我一眼，微微一笑，同意了。

I called up my handyman, a street-smart Cincinnatian named Dan Boster who keeps his salt-and-pepper hair short.

我打电话给我的勤杂工，一个街头聪明的辛辛那提人，名叫丹·博斯特（Dan Boster），他留着椒盐色的短发。

I asked for a favor.

我请求帮忙。

A week later, the two of us stooped in one of the house’s closets.

一周后，我们两个弯腰走进房子的一个壁橱里。

Boster yanked up musty carpet.

博斯特猛地拉起发霉的地毯。

He rapped his fingers on the hardwood floor.

他用手指敲击着硬木地板。

Sweating now, he leaned in and edged a steel scraper between two boards.

他现在满头大汗，倾身向前，在两块木板之间插入了一把钢刮刀。

The wood gave way.

木头让开了。

Cool air rose from below.

凉爽的空气从下面升起。

I swallowed and looked down.

我咽了口口水，低下头。

I’d spent a year chasing dead men.

我花了一年的时间去追寻死人。

They weren’t talking.

他们没有说话。

Maybe they never would.

也许他们永远不会。

Contact Daniel Miller | Illustrations by Morgan Schweitzer | Photography by Gina Ferazzi | Design and production by Armand Emamdjomeh and Lily Mihalik

联系丹尼尔·米勒 |摩根·史怀哲 (Morgan Schweitzer) 插图 |摄影：Gina Ferazzi |由 Armand Emamdjomeh 和 Lily Mihalik 设计和制作