Double Indemnity

Huff waits in the dark for Phyllis. He cannot see her car and worries that she has abandoned him or got caught by the police. Eventually, Phyllis arrives and hauls her husband’s corpse up to the train tracks on her back. Huff is agitated and criticizes her as they leave her husband’s corpse on the tracks. The relationship between the two breaks down as they drive away from the scene of the crime. Phyllis demands silence while Huff insists on having the radio on for his alibi. The two get into a shouting match.

Huff arrives home to find that nobody called or knocked. He loses control of himself and has a nervous breakdown. He tries to repeat the Lord’s Prayer but forgets the words. He temporarily loses the ability to speak. Once he gets himself under control, he calls Ike Schwartz, another agent at General Fidelity. He asks Ike to look up rates for the winemaker’s insurance, to make it look as if he’s been working on the winemaker’s insurance all night.

Huff feels a “drawstring” tightening around his throat (54). He realizes that Phyllis now has power over him because of his involvement in the murder. He hates her and never wants to see her again.

The morning paper has an obituary for Nirdlinger. The police believe that his broken ankle caused him to fall off the train. Huff goes to his office for the day and finds the office abuzz with the news. Norton, the company president, believes Nirdlinger died by suicide because Nirdlinger never filed an accident claim on his broken ankle. A suicide would mean that General Fidelity would not have to pay out to Phyllis. Norton wants to deny Phyllis’s attempts to collect on the insurance and force her to take the company to court.

Keyes believes that Nirdlinger was murdered. He has no proof, but the lack of proof gives him a gut instinct. The death looks too clean to Keyes and a suicide by jumping off of the back of a train is a statistical anomaly. He believes Phyllis murdered her husband, likely with help on the train.

Keyes wants to have Phyllis detained and barrage her with questions until she confesses. Norton refuses, because the company has an image to maintain as “the friend of the widow and orphan,” and accusing Phyllis of murder with no evidence would ruin the company’s image (62). Norton and Keyes argue over how to continue while Huff listens. Huff is incredibly afraid of Keyes; he is certain Keyes will find out the truth.

Huff has a mental health crisis and starts drinking heavily. Phyllis calls him and tells him Lola is hysterical over her father’s death. Huff instructs her on their next steps and warns her about the pending lawsuit General Fidelity is planning. When Huff hangs up, he prays for the first time in years.

Lola visits Huff in his office and asks him to keep secret the things she wants to tell him. She believes Phyllis murdered her father. She tells Huff about her mother, who was Nirdlinger’s previous wife and Phyllis’s best friend. Lola’s mother died under mysterious circumstances while on vacation with Phyllis. After her father’s death, Lola began to believe Phyllis killed her mother as well. Huff worries that Lola knows too much and is in danger of being murdered by Phyllis. After her father’s death, Lola moved out of the “House of Death” and into her own apartment. Huff stays true to his word and does not tell Keyes.

Keyes believes he has found Phyllis’s accomplice for the murder. He tells Huff that a man, Sachetti, has been visiting Phyllis nearly every night for a week. That night, Huff returns to the office to snoop through Keyes’s office. He finds a memo from Keyes to Norton that reveals Norton wanted Huff surveilled. Norton suspects Huff is involved in the crime but Keyes believes Huff is innocent. Huff discovers from Keyes’s files that Phyllis is being watched by private investigators, but that Lola is not. Huff doesn’t want Lola to see him in his office any longer since he wants to keep her away from Keyes and Norton. Huff and Lola begin seeing one another in the evenings for dinner and drives around the city.

Lola reveals that she met Sachetti through Phyllis. When Sachetti showed an interest in Lola, Phyllis began telling horrible lies about him. Unknown to Lola, this was because Phyllis was afraid that Sachetti knew about her murdering the children that cost Sachetti’s father his career as a doctor. Huff realizes he is in love with Lola and wishes to protect her from his crimes.

Phyllis files her claims and General Fidelity refuses to pay out her husband’s insurance. Phyllis has no choice but to take the case to court. Huff can no longer stand the sound of Phyllis’s voice and hates every interaction he has with her. Meanwhile, Huff continues to see Lola nearly every evening during the week.

Huff and Lola decide to watch the moon rise over the ocean together while out on a drive. Huff learns that Sachetti is no longer spending time with Lola. Sachetti is seeing Phyllis every night and Lola follows them in secret. Lola still loves him and cannot move on.

Huff and Lola cannot be together, despite their mutual feelings. Unlike Keyes, Lola is certain Sachetti is not an accomplice to the murder. Lola wants to testify in court and expose Phyllis’s odd behavior, such as dressing up as Death and shopping for black mourning dresses the week before her father died. Huff is terrified something bad might happen to Lola and tries to talk her out of her plans unsuccessfully. Lola declares nobody will stop her from exposing Phyllis.