The Black Dahlia Quotes
"I fold you down, my drunkard, my navigator, My first lost keeper, to love or look at later."
"She exists for me through others, in evidence of the ways her death drove them."
"As brutal as the facts were, she would have wanted all of them known."
"Cops were also soldiers, even though we were a whole lot less popular."
"Blanchard hit hard, taking six to give one, a classic headhunter; I danced and counterpunched."
"Stylewise, Lee and I were like oil and water."
"Blanchard and Bleichert: a hero and a snitch."
"Then we went into action side by side, and my early notions about Lee—and myself—went blooey."
"I was terrified because the good guys were really the bad guys."
"Kinda hard to tell who to put the cuffs on, ain't it?"
"We found a house with a stack of daily papers on the porch a few blocks away and broke in."
"You could go on the feds. I know you've got pals on the Alien Squad."
"I got a hardship deferment and joined the Los Angeles Police Department."
"I admitted to myself how bad I wanted Johnny Vogel's rumor to be true."
"Fighting what was next by concentrating on my landlady's cat stalking a bluejay."
"I made ham sandwiches and highballs, the pachuco had killed half the jug."
"Manslaughter Two's a gas chamber jolt for spics."
"We'll never be able to get him booked tonight."
"I ran down here because I knew there wasn't a goddamn thing I could do about restoring order."
"You were too young, you haven’t made sergeant, you’re shacking with a woman."
"He’s promised me the next Warrants spot he can wangle."
"My girlfriend saw you fight at the Olympic and said you’d be handsome if you got your teeth fixed."
"I’ll lay you ten to one that when he hits the gas chamber she’ll be right there with him."
"Lying down, I listening to sirens and gunshots in the distance."
"Leaving the sky hung with soot and the streets littered with broken liquor bottles."
"And in the end, she was to own the two of us completely."
"She looked so sweet and pretty and I felt so bad when I saw her picture in the paper."
"I didn’t kill her, mister. I just wanted a ticket to the honor farm. Three hots and a cot’s all I wanted."
"I do such bad things, nasty, nasty things. Nasty, nasty, nasty."
"Take the Sergeant’s Exam. In a year or so I’ll go to Thad Green. He owes me one, and when Harry retires you’ll be my partner."
"When I thought he’d die I took him to the hospital and bribed the administrators into putting ‘car crash victim’ on their records."
"You know how it is when a weak man needs you to look after him. It’s a special bond, like having a daft little brother."
"I couldn’t let Georgie go because he saved my life."
"Georgie made me crawl under all these arms and legs and guts and stay there, and when it was over he cleaned me up and talked about America to cheer me up."
"Probably because she looked like me … his daughter."
"We got separated from our company, all alone in a big field of stiffs."
"Beth asked to use my phone. I acceded, and she dialed a number with a Webster prefix and asked to speak to Marcy."
"She said, ‘It’s Betty,’ and listened for a while, then said, ‘Really? A man with a medical background?’"
"Corporal Dulange stormed away, and Beth walked across 6th Street and sat down at the westbound Wilshire Boulevard bus stop."
"I thought of all the things I'd have to explain to Kay, evidence to keep a new foundation of lies from destroying the two—or three—of us."
"She would have to know that I was a detective without a badge, that for one month in the year 1949 I possessed brilliance and courage and the will to make sacrifices."
"She would have to know that the heat of that time would always make me vulnerable, prey to dark curiosities."
"She would have to believe that my strongest resolve was not to let any of it hurt her."
"And she had to know that it was Elizabeth Short who was giving us our second chance."
"I asked Betty to grant me safe passage in return for my love."
"The clouds broke up and the plane descended, a big bright city at twilight below."
"I reached for Betty then; a wish, almost a prayer."