- [first lines]
- Mike Hammer: [narrating] The town of Ossining isn't far up the Hudson River from Manhattan - just thirty miles. It doesn't take much more than an hour to get there, but getting back is something else again... for some the round trip takes years, for others, an eternity.
- Captain Pat Chambers: Alright, Stark, what's on your mind?
- Otis Stock: Oh, I've been thinking about a lot of things, Chambers. Mostly, I've been thinking about you and Mike Hammer - wondering how you two would feel if you found out you sent an innocent man to the chair.
- Captain Pat Chambers: Meaning yourself, Stark?
- Otis Stock: Oh, you're a good cop as cops go, Chambers, but I figured you'd be bothered by a thing like that - jobbing an innocent guy - oh, and Hammer, too. He's tougher than you, maybe, but I'd give him the hives, too... inside, where a guy can't scratch 'em.
- Mike Hammer: [narrating] It was one of those days when New Yorkers wished they bought an island from the Eskimos instead of the Manhattan Indians. The humid heat was like a barber's towel draped over the city.
- Captain Pat Chambers: As far as the Department is concerned the Bennett case is closed. There's not enough new evidence to justify reopening it.
- Mike Hammer: Yeah, but that's not good enough for you, huh? Why? Do you know something more than is here in Stark's statement?
- Captain Pat Chambers: Yeah. Stark said he could prove it was on the level.
- Mike Hammer: How?
- Captain Pat Chambers: I don't know; he wouldn't say. He said the proof would come out after he'd gone to the chair.
- Mike Hammer: After he goes...? Oh, that's cute. He's real cute, isn't he? Well, if Stark's planted a time bomb somewhere, I'd better get dressed and see if I can find it before it blows up in our faces.
- Anna Sterovsky: Maybe you wonder why I do not cry for my son, Mister. For me, Otis die a long, long time ago, Mister. His badness killed him for me and I cried for him then - not now.
- Eve Bennett: You remember me, don't you?
- Mike Hammer: Of course - you're Wally Bennett's...
- Eve Bennett: ...widow. That's the word you were looking for, Mr. Hammer.
- Mike Hammer: Well, are you going to shoot or not?
- Eve Bennett: Maybe you think I haven't the nerve.
- Mike Hammer: I wouldn't know... but I hope you have better sense!
- Eve Bennett: Well, you can stop hoping, Mr. Hammer.
- Mike Hammer: [narrating] In thirty seconds, I'd gone from feeling like an expectant father to a bridegroom who'd been left waiting at the church.
- Eve Bennett: If my brother dies, I'll kill you. I'll kill you!
- Paul: Hey, you're in a real killin' mood today aren't you? First it was Mike Hammer and now it's me... but so far the only one you've managed to hurt has been Dave.
- Mike Hammer: Did you check with the hospital about David Kendall?
- Captain Pat Chambers: He's going to live... just long enough to die.
- Mike Hammer: Well, that's just about all any of us do, Pat.