- Joe Mannix: All right, Frankie, what do you want?
- Frankie West: To make you an offer. How does ten grand sound?
- Joe Mannix: For what?
- Frankie West: A little information.
- Joe Mannix: Keep talking.
- Frankie West: There's some kind of letter floating around. It's supposed to contain proof that I'm the guy that was mixed up with Stonehurst International and Tip Ellis.
- Joe Mannix: Mm-hmm. I see. How do you, uh, know about the letter?
- Frankie West: Lt. Malcolm and some hick cop from Fresno gave me a bad half hour this morning. Nothing my lawyer couldn't handle. But Fresno let it slip. Have you any idea what's in that letter, Joe?
- Joe Mannix: A pretty good idea.
- Frankie West: [smiles] No. No, I don't think you do know. Because if it had anything to do with me, true or false, you'd have told Malcolm and I'd be in custody by now.
- Joe Mannix: Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
- Frankie West: The letter's a fake, Joe.
- Joe Mannix: How do you know that?
- Frankie West: Someone's trying to frame me.
- Joe Mannix: Someone's always trying to frame you, Frankie.
- Frankie West: 20,000 bucks, Mannix, if you find that letter and give it to me unopened.
- Joe Mannix: You said the letter was a fake.
- Frankie West: It is, but someone else might not think so.
- Joe Mannix: You know what I think really happened, Frankie?
- Frankie West: No, tell me.
- Joe Mannix: The second-story man you hired to burgle my safe double-crossed you. He read the letter and decided it was worth a thousand times what you paid him to steal it. So if you're offering me 20,000 for it because he wants a million. Oh, uh, pardon the intrusion, ma'am.