"Nevada Gas" is a short story by writer Raymond Chandler. It was first published in June 1935 in the magazine Black Mask.
Contents
Plot
Crooked lawyer Hugo Chandless is at his club with an employee named George Dial. Dial declines a ride home with Chandless, who leaves in a chauffeured limousine. But the backseat is sealed off and rigged with cyanide gas, killing Chandless. Dial is with his lover, Francine Ley, and urging her to ditch her boyfriend. He mentions a scam Chandless played on a mobster named Zapparty. Francine’s boyfriend, Johnny De Ruse, comes home and Dial leaves. De Ruse is aware of the affair, and tells Francine he is leaving town, due to his giving evidence against Mops Parisi, a dangerous mobster. He gets kidnapped by the same rigged car, but manages to escape and kill the driver. He traces the plot to Zapparty and goes to his club to confront him. Parisi is there too, and he dies in the ensuing gunfight and Zapparty is captured. He admits the gas car was his way of getting revenge, but Parisi carried it out and blackmailed him over it. De Ruse returns to Chandless’s apartment and finds Dial, who is the one who sold out Chandless and De Ruse. He is about to skip town with Chandless’s girlfriend and money, but a security guard kills him and wounds her. De Ruse forgives Francine and takes her back.
Adaptions
The story was made into an episode of the HBO series Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.