In the end Marlowe doesn't take the jade necklace why?
When there are two, one betrays-Jean-Pierre Melville
I assume that (in accord with Chandler's noble knight figure) he feels it doesn't belong to him and therefore it's not to be accepted.
"I love chicken, and chicken loves me. And we do not abide coveters."
Besides, as in The Maltese Falcon, in the end there is some kind of issue to make it clear that -contrary to everyone's thinking- Marlowe is not the materialistic, mundane guy it seems he is.
I thought the policeman was going to hand it to Anne. She would be the right person to keep it, don't you think?
Yeah! I kinda thought that he'd hand it right to Anne! After all, it was her father's great passion, his jade, and she certainly was very close to her father.
And wouldn't there be some kind of problem with Randall accepting a gift worth six figures?? as a public servant and all that? I mean, we all know that the LAPD is corrupt, but that was kind of a loose end, wasn't it?
I guess it kind of puts a button on that Marlowe and Randall relationship - since Randall was so vocal about putting Marlowe down for being nothing but a cash machine. Marlowe shoots that theory by just walking away from the jade.