Scotty is questioning Dottie who is sensitive about being, as they put it, an "Old Maid." In reference to the victim, he says "She had sweethearts to spare, and you had none." This is a reference to the old nursery rhyme that goes: "I am a pretty wench, And I come a great way hence, And sweethearts have I none. But every dirty sow, Can get sweethearts enow, And I, a pretty wench, can get never a one."
Alice Miller was murdered in September 1943.