- Sid Fairgate: So, what were you saying, Richard?
- Richard Avery: I... I was just saying I wish Karen would let me handle this case. Look, I... I have an investigator on her.
- Karen Fairgate: You don't need an investigator to dig up her dirt. She's been broadcasting it all over town. "I'm no good, all right, but that doesn't mean I can be raped."
- Richard Avery: It's a neat gimmick, and it won't work.
- Karen Fairgate: It's working already. She's a media hero. She gives a great interview, "I'm trash, but I wanna be trash." And everybody says "What an honest girl." And honest Sid Fairgate is going right down the drain!
- [as Diana comes down the stairs:]
- Karen Fairgate: Oh, Richard. Look... can't you get a criminal lawyer to work with you? Maybe... somebody in your firm?
- Richard Avery: Well, I guess it's time to play my ace in the hole.
- Karen Fairgate: What?
- Richard Avery: I spoke to the prosecutor. He's willing to deal.
- Karen Fairgate: To deal?
- Richard Avery: Mm-hmm. We take a fall on harassment and simple assault, and he'll throw out assault with intent to rape. And he'll out contributing to delinquency.
- Karen Fairgate: [annoyed tone] You want Sid to plea-bargain?
- Richard Avery: It's done all the time.
- Karen Fairgate: [to Sid] He wants you to plea-bargain.
- Richard Avery: Karen! Karen! Look, law is not an exact science. It's a discipline of the possible. I mean,
- [to Sid:]
- Richard Avery: the DA doesn't wanna throw the book at you. But... you gotta give him something.
- Karen Fairgate: I don't believe this!
- Sid Fairgate: [tries to pacify] Karen...
- Karen Fairgate: If you'd done your job to begin with!
- Richard Avery: I did it.
- Sid Fairgate: Now wait a minute... Wait just a second. Look... the fact is this. I gave that girl a lift for her own protection. Now she's trying to blackmail me. If we let her succeed in any way,
- [shakes his head]
- Sid Fairgate: she's gonna try this again on somebody else.
- Richard Avery: Somebody else is not your problem.
- [packs up to leave]
- Richard Avery: Sleep on it. I'll talk to you in the morning.
- Sid Fairgate: I don't have to sleep on it, Richard. I'm gonna fight *every* charge all the way.
- Richard Avery: Okay. You wanna be Don Quixote, I guess I'll just have to be your Pancho Sanchez.
- [heads for door]
- Karen Fairgate: [to Sid, without conviction:] I'm sure Richard will handle it. It'll be okay.
- [as Richard closes the door behind him:]
- Karen Fairgate: Sancho Panza.
- Diana Fairgate: [from the stairs] Why don't you do what Mr. Avery says, Daddy?
- Sid Fairgate: I can't.
- Diana Fairgate: *Why* can't you?
- Sid Fairgate: You heard the reasons.
- Diana Fairgate: I've also heard what that girl's been saying. I mean... it's all over town!
- Sid Fairgate: That's just why we have to fight this, to prove that what she says is not true.
- Diana Fairgate: But...
- [gives up and turns back towards her room]
- Gary Ewing: [grabs quarrelsome Richard] Come on, Richard, you're drunk!
- Richard Avery: Ah, you should know, rum pot, you're the expert.