35 pages 1 hour read

James M. Cain

Double Indemnity

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1936

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Chapters 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary

Huff plans to kill Phyllis. He believes that murdering her is an inevitability to cover his own tracks. Huff thinks that Phyllis and Sachetti planned to set him up from the beginning to take the fall for the murder due to Sachetti’s frequent visits to Phyllis in the last few weeks.

Huff plans to frame Sachetti for the murder; he has a copy of the key for Sachetti’s car as liability for Sachetti’s loan. Huff tells Phyllis to meet him in a park at night and gives her a description of Sachetti’s car as the car he will be driving. He lies and says he got a new car, which tips Phyllis off on his planned betrayal.

Huff then goes to a midnight theater production for an alibi, slips out, and steals Sachetti’s car. He drives to the park and waits for Phyllis. Phyllis shoots Huff from the bushes, leaving him to bleed out in Sachetti’s car. Huff manages to stumble back to his car, which he stashed in the park as a getaway vehicle, and blacks out.

Chapter 12 Summary

Huff wakes up in a hospital room. Keyes tells him that the theater program pamphlet he tucked in his jacket saved his life by slowing down the bullet.