- Jaycie: Mr. Mannix?
- Joe Mannix: Yes.
- Jaycie: Billy Moss said you wanted to talk to me.
- Joe Mannix: Ah, you're Jaycie.
- Jaycie: He said you were asking about Mr. Brady.
- Joe Mannix: Yeah, did you know him?
- Jaycie: Just as a customer. It was awful, how it happened, wasn't it?
- Joe Mannix: *How* it happened?
- Jaycie: I mean, for something to go wrong over the ocean like that.
- Joe Mannix: Oh. Chris Allison tells me that Brady was an excellent pilot.
- Jaycie: Do you know Chris?
- Joe Mannix: Yeah, I met him today.
- Jaycie: Here?
- Joe Mannix: No, in L.A.
- Jaycie: Where in L.A.?
- Joe Mannix: He was with Mrs. Brady.
- Jaycie: Oh. The merry widow.
- Joe Mannix: You, uh, don't like her?
- Jaycie: Do I have to?
- Joe Mannix: Well, I understand they were very old friends. She's probably very glad to have him around right now.
- Jaycie: I'll bet she is.
- Joe Mannix: Hmm. Tell me, did Chris leave the club at the same time Victor Brady did the other night?
- Jaycie: Well, soon after. He had business in L.A.
- Joe Mannix: He goes back and forth a lot?
- Jaycie: Last couple of weeks. He has more shifts there than here.
- Joe Mannix: Well, you can keep in touch with the laundry. I've got a feeling he should be back very soon.
- Jaycie: Is, uh... Is she pretty?
- Joe Mannix: Mrs. Brady?
- [Jayice nodes]
- Joe Mannix: Well, on a scale of one to ten, I'd say she's about, uh... a niner. Why?
- Jaycie: Oh, nothing. It's just, if you're a widow, I guess it's easier if you're pretty. Rich and pretty.
- Joe Mannix: Hmm.
- Joe Mannix: [Mrs. Brady has told him that she feels that her husband is still alive] I know how you feel Mrs. Brady, but...
- Eve Brady: No. No, it's true. Victor is alive.
- Joe Mannix: But you just came from his memorial services.
- Eve Brady: I had to go through with the services. In fact, Victor insisted on it. Oh, yes, Victor is very much alive. I talked to him on the phone this morning. I picked up the phone, and it was Victor. And he said... "Hi, Eve, baby. Nice day for a funeral." Then he said, "I think somebody is trying to kill me."
- Joe Mannix: Did he say what happened?
- Eve Brady: I asked him. He just laughed... and said old Navy pilots never die, they just swim away.
- Joe Mannix: Did he say why he didn't want you to call the police?
- Eve Brady: How did you know?
- Joe Mannix: I'm here. The police aren't.
- Eve Brady: He said he was in a spot.
- Joe Mannix: Which means exactly how much, in round figures?
- Eve Brady: Nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
- Chris Allison: I warned him about those dice tables.
- Joe Mannix: Mrs. Brady, your husband's in "Who's Who" of the electronic business. Couldn't he somehow have put together a quarter of a million dollars in a pinch?
- Eve Brady: There were too many pinches lately, too close together. He lost two big contracts in three months. He couldn't raise that kind of money. Or any kind of money.
- Joe Mannix: Mr. Allison, how well did you know Mr. Brady?
- Chris Allison: I flew with him years ago. The Navy.
- Joe Mannix: Good pilot?
- Chris Allison: Victor could fly a barn door through a hurricane by its hinges.
- Joe Mannix: What about his plane?
- Chris Allison: He kept it at my place in Las Vegas. I serviced it from time to time. As a matter of fact, I gassed it up and rubbed it down a couple of hours before he took off.
- Joe Mannix: Could anyone have gotten to it?
- Chris Allison: I suppose so. Sometimes kids hang around.
- Joe Mannix: I'm not talking about kid stuff.
- Eve Brady: Then you do think somebody tried to kill him?
- Joe Mannix: He thinks so.
- Conforti: All right, Mr. Mannix, what can I tell you about Victor Brady?
- Joe Mannix: Just looking around here, I'd say you're a pretty good judge of the value of things.
- Conforti: Why don't you say what's on your mind and save us both time?
- Joe Mannix: For instance, you knew that Victor Brady was more valuable dead than alive, maybe.
- Conforti: You know, whenever one of our more important patrons meets with a fatal misfortune, it's naturally assumed that we somehow manipulated his fate. It's a very unfair stereotype, believe me.
- Joe Mannix: Please, please. Spare me the violins. Victor Brady was your loser of the month, wasn't he?
- Conforti: The best reason I know of to want him alive and well.
- Joe Mannix: Unless you also knew he was broke.
- Conforti: I had no idea. Oh, well, we both know that gambling debts are not collectable.
- Joe Mannix: Aren't they?
- Conforti: Not even weight lifters use muscle anymore.
- Joe Mannix: Well, Mrs. Brady will be very comforted to hear that. You know, extortion on this scale could cost somebody about 20 years. It sure would be a shame to waste this bodybuilding program.
- Conforti: Look, Mannix, I've got a lot of live ones out there to worry about. So, if you came here to lean on me... you did.
- Joe Mannix: Oh, not lean. Learn.
- Conforti: [opens the door leading to the hallway outside his office] School's out. Careful going home.
- Pete Ricardo: Mannix? I got some medical advice for you, for your health. Get on a plane, get back to L.A., and stay there.
- Joe Mannix: I suppose this prescription came straight from Dr Conforti?
- Pete Ricardo: No, Dr. Luger.