- Marty Hatch: Can I get you a drink, Joe?
- Joe Mannix: No thanks. I got a big day ahead of me.
- Marty Hatch: Well, I don't have to watch the clock anymore. What brings you here?
- Joe Mannix: I understand you know Cathy Lawson.
- Marty Hatch: Mm, yeah. Yeah. Bumped into her in Vegas last night, as a matter of fact.
- Joe Mannix: Did she drive back with you from Las Vegas?
- Marty Hatch: Why all the questions? Something wrong?
- Joe Mannix: She's missing.
- Marty Hatch: No kidding.
- Joe Mannix: Her roommate hired me to look for her.
- Marty Hatch: Joanna? That, uh... that's her name, isn't it?
- Joe Mannix: Yeah.
- Marty Hatch: Well, uh... Joe, Joanna can't afford a private investigator, and I can. So this one's, uh... this one's on me, okay?
- Joe Mannix: Okay. Did Cathy drive back with you?
- Marty Hatch: Well, now you're working for me, right?
- Joe Mannix: Right.
- Marty Hatch: And that means that anything I say to you is, uh...
- Joe Mannix: Privileged.
- Marty Hatch: That's the word I was looking for. Yeah, she rode down with me. We ran out of gas on the way. I left her in the car; went back to a filling station. Highway Patrolman picked me up, and, uh, when we got back to the car, she was gone.
- Joe Mannix: Did you tell the Highway Patrol?
- Marty Hatch: You've, uh... heard of Ben Kessler, haven't you, Joe?
- Joe Mannix: Owns the Caravan and a string of bookie joints.
- Marty Hatch: He owns Cathy, too.
- Joe Mannix: "Owns"?
- Marty Hatch: Mm-hmm. And the penalty for trespassing is sudden death.
- Joe Mannix: I take it Kessler didn't know she was driving back with you?
- Marty Hatch: No, he was out of town. New Orleans.
- [sighs]
- Marty Hatch: But if it ever got into the newspaper that is given his girl a lift...
- [wry chuckle]
- Marty Hatch: ... good-bye, Marty Hatch.
- [the phone rings]
- Marty Hatch: If that's for me, Dave, I'm not here. All right, Joe, it was stupid. I... I thought that she got scared and started to walk. Got a lift to L.A. I didn't know what to do.
- Dave Tremble: Hey, Marty, this call you better take.
- Marty Hatch: Who is it?
- Dave Tremble: It's from a hospital in San Bernardino. Woman they brought in early this morning. She keeps asking for you.