Crooked prosecutor Hugo Candless is at his private club with an employee named George Dial.
The backseat has been sealed off and rigged to fill with cyanide gas, which the driver activates to kill Candless.
De Ruse is aware of the affair, and tells Francine he is leaving town after giving evidence against Mops Parisi, a dangerous mobster.
He is about to skip town with Candless's wife and money, but a security guard kills him and wounds her.
[3] The story was made into an episode of the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.