K Is For Killer Quotes
"Malice" in the law doesn't necessarily convey hatred or even ill will but refers instead to a conscious desire to inflict serious injury or cause death.
"Most homicide victims are killed by close relatives, friends, or acquaintances."
"The victims of unsolved homicides I think of as the unruly dead: persons who reside in a limbo of their own, some state between life and death, restless, dissatisfied, longing for release."
"They mourn themselves. They sing a lullaby of the murdered. They whisper the names of their attackers, those men and women who still walk the earth, unidentified, unaccused, unpunished, unrepentant."
"I lie awake listening, hoping to catch a syllable, a phrase, straining to discern in that roll call of conspirators the name of one killer."
"The night outside was chilly by the usual California definition, which is to say fifty degrees."
"I heard a tap at the side entrance and I lifted my head, tilting an ear in that direction like a dog on alert."
"Sorry to bother you, but the directory downstairs says there's a private investigator up here in this suite. Is he in, by any chance?"
"I'm him," I said. "Millhone Investigations. The first name is Kinsey. Did you tell me yours?"
"It's for parents of murdered children. My daughter died here last April. Lorna Kepler. She was found in her cottage over by the mission."
"I don't know how she died, but I know she was murdered just as sure as I'm sitting here."
"We're not like regular people anymore. You have a child murdered, and from that moment on you're from some other planet."
"I know what it's like to have your heart ripped out. I probably look like an ordinary woman, but I'm a zombie, the living dead, maybe a little bit cracked."
"I want to tell him face-to-face exactly what he did to my life the day he took hers."
"I understand. Maybe that's why it took me so long to come up here. I've told this story probably six hundred times, but it never gets any easier."
"She was hoping to be a model, but it didn't work out."
"She liked her privacy, and people learned to leave her pretty much alone."
"She didn't want to live in some apartment building with tenants on all sides, bumping and thumping and playing loud music."
"She was a nice person and she could be generous if she wanted, but she wasn't what you'd call loving or nurturing."
"I can't even imagine what it must be like," I said.
"And I can't describe it, either. That's the hell of it."
"Our emotional injuries just come in different forms."
"You're going to have to do a bit more talking if you want my help."
"I'll be right back. Will a thousand dollars be all right?"
"If I waited to submit a final bill of any substance, Mace would probably refuse to pay."
"I can't be effective if you keep on playing games."
"You're lucky I didn't open my big mouth and put my foot in it."
"I didn't want to tarnish her memory when it's all we have."
"He's a damn liar, and you can tell him that's what I said."
"You figure he's already hostile toward me, so what difference would it make?"
"Just don't leave me in the position of knowing more than he does."
"People know a place is empty, and they'll steal you blind."
"She didn't have enemies, either, at least as far as we know."
"You put it in the bank and you let it collect interest."
"He's paying for the service, so if the equipment doesn't work, it's her fault."
"She kept her distance. She didn't buddy up to people."
"I felt compassion, but I didn't try to 'fix' her."
"Living with that got to be too much for him."
"I've been in business long enough to smell trouble."
"If you're really bored, you can always do the crossword puzzle in the back."
"He's got her to blame and he can paste her in the chops."
"God knew what creatures might be lurking in the abyss."
"Max dropped the stick at Esselmann's feet and then shook himself vigorously."
"I'd better not. Wine makes me sleepy, and I have work to do yet."
"I'm not so old or infirm that I can't make decisions about what I'll do on any given day."
"I'm in the wrong business. Wait till Roger hears this."
"Sometimes all I have is tea if Lester's taken my money."
"I lost interest. Plus, the money's not that hot."
"Well, no wonder you get cranky. What a drag."
"Laugh all you want. I bet I'm healthier than you."
"This is the only rental. My landlord's eighty-five."
"You might as well go on home," she said. "Danielle's still in surgery, and once she comes out, she'll be in the recovery room for another hour. After that, they'll take her to intensive care."
"Could be, I guess. We'll never know unless we catch him."
"This is business. I don't create the market. It's supply and demand."
"I feel the same way as them. But they treat me like the enemy, that's what I don't get."
"You're okay to drink this? I don't want you cheating because I don't know any better."
"It's not an alibi. Now, goddamn it. How can it be an alibi when all I'm doing is telling you where we were?"
"I'm always taking flak from these women's libber types."
"I'd rather stick around here than go home," I said. "I'll be fine if you want to go. Honest. You don't have to baby-sit."
"I'm just trying on theories, like throwing dinner plates against the wall to see if one will stick."
"You're right about that. Let me think some and see what I can do."
"This case belongs to the county sheriff. It's got nothing to do with you."
"I know it's illegal for starters, and you don't even know it's Lorna."
"Quit being such a stickler and play the game."
"I think she was killed because she knew too much."
"I'm sick of watching people get away with murder."
"I felt like a baby in the early stages of development, moving my limbs randomly in an attempt to turn."
"The ocean was a dazzling carpet of diamonds, the air freshly scented with the briny smell of the sea."