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Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain ...more

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A wedge of sunlight slipped over the edge of the desk and fell noiselessly to the carpet.

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She poured us some more Scotch. It didn't seem to affect her any more than water affects Boulder Dam.

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It was a cool day and very clear. You could see a long way-but not as far as Velma had gone.

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It's goddamned funny in this police racket how an old woman can look out of a window and see a guy running and pick him out of a line-up six months la...more

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He didn't know the right people. That's all a police record means in this rotten crime-ridden country.

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Being a copper I like to see the law win. I'd like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at ...more

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So you shoot people," she said quietly. "You're a killer.""Me? How?""The papers and the police fixed it up nicely. But I don't believe everything I re...more

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It's like this with us baby. We're coppers and everybody hates our guts....nothing we do is right, not ever. If we get a confession we beat it out of ...more

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When I got home I mixed a stiff one and stood by the open window in the living room and sipped it and listened to the groundswell of traffic on Laurel...more