- Myra Robbins: What did he do, Captain Chambers?
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: He didn't do anything... he didn't see anything; he didn't hear anything, but we got a man on a slab in the morgue and we have a witness who says your brother saw the men who put him there!
- [discussing a murdered man]
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: Maybe he wanted more for keepin' quiet - two slugs only cost twelve cents.
- Mike Hammer: No, no, no. He must have had some important reason for refusing to talk.
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: Well, he's got an even more important reason now. He's dead.
- Mike Hammer: [narrating] Jimmy Nelson made a mistake, but they made an even bigger mistake in murdering him. Alive, Jimmy constituted a threat; dead he was a death sentence and I didn't intent to rest until that sentence was carried out.
- Mike Hammer: Listen, you knew most of Jimmy's friends. Did he ever mention an Al Adams?
- Myra Robbins: Well, I've never heard of him.
- Eddie Robbins: Who?
- Mike Hammer: Al Adams.
- Eddie Robbins: Did you say he was a friend of the kid?
- Mike Hammer: Well, in a way, yeah. He's the one who killed Jimmy.
- [last lines]
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: Hey, Mike...
- Mike Hammer: What?
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: Come here.
- [Pat shows Mike a photograph of a bullet]
- Police Captain Pat Chambers: This is the one we dug out of Eddie Robbins. You're a really lucky guy - it had your name on it.
- Mike Hammer: [chuckling] They spelled it wrong.