Spade leaves his office and notices a small young man of about 20 standing on the corner near his building. The young man follows Spade everywhere for the rest of the evening. Spade eventually heads toward the theatre to find Cairo, knowing he will be there from the orchestra ticket he found in his wallet earlier, and asks Cairo if he knows who the young man is. Cairo denies having ever seen the man before, so they assume he must represent another party that is interested in the bird. Spade leaves Cairo and easily loses the young man on the way to Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s apartment.

She is relieved to see Spade again, and he informs her that he will be able to keep her identity from the police. Spade continues to accuse O'Shaughnessy of not being the shy, innocent, helpless woman she pretends to be. She responds that if his belief is true, it is a role she has grown into and is incapable of changing now. Knowing that she is still hiding things from him, Spade casually mentions that he ran into Cairo and that he offered him $5,000 to find the black bird statuette so that he can gauge her reaction.