The Seventeenth Murder
- The Op has a dream about a woman wearing a veil. He knows that she's important to him, but he can't remember who she is. The woman yells out "Fire!" and fire engines come racing down the street and the woman disappears. The Op wanders street after street without finding her, and returns to his hotel to discover her in the lobby. She kisses him and the Op feels uncomfortable because everyone is staring at them.
- The Op then has a second dream about being in a strange city, hunting down a man he hates. He's holding a knife and chasing a man in a brown hat up the stairs of a tall building. They reach the roof and the man in the hat jumps off the building. The Op tries to grab him and then finds that he's also falling off the building.
- The Op wakes up from his dreams and it is morning. His right arm is holding an ice pick. The ice pick is buried in Dinah Brand's left breast.
- Yes, you read that right.
- Dinah is the 17th death and it looks like the Op might be the killer.
- The Op feels like he's been drugged. He slowly and methodically wipes away all his fingerprints in the room, gathers his belongings, and leaves Dinah's place. At least he got his head back on straight?
- He phones Dick Foley and tells him that Dinah had been killed. He wants Dick to look for Whisper, Dan Rolff, and Bill Quint.
- The Op then goes to Reno and asks for help finding an alibi for Dinah's murder.
- Reno agrees to give the Op an alibi since he needs all the friends he can get.
- He tells the Op to say that he went to the Tanner house in Tanner after he left Willson's and stayed there til morning.