- Philip Vickers: That's not a sweater she's knitting - it's a noose. She and Treherne are going to fasten it on me together and tie it into a true lover's knot. She's been down there since early morning trying to talk me right into death row.
- Joan Merrill: They're just not the kind of people who commit murders.
- Insp. Treherne: I wish I had a week's holiday with pay for every time I've heard that. I wouldn't have to work again till 1994.
- Philip Vickers: Joan, how'd you like to go down to the cottage for a while.
- Joan Merrill: I don't understand.
- Philip Vickers: Angie and I have a lot of years to make up for. We'd like to be alone. If the cottage doesn't appeal to you, choose a hotel. I'd suggest a trip somewhere if it weren't for the police.
- Joan Merrill: If you want to get rid of me, Philip, why don't you just say so?
- Philip Vickers: All right, I say so!
- Insp. Treherne: What I may or may not know and what I can prove are two different things, Miss Merrill.
- Philip Vickers: Thanks for getting Angie out of that.
- Joan Merrill: There's nothing to thank me for.
- Philip Vickers: I know. I was only trying to be civil.
- Insp. Treherne: It isn't cold-blooded. It's hot and it's violent. And that kind of murder won't wait.
- Bill Saul: I suppose you want to hear my story about what happened on the fatal night.
- Insp. Treherne: If you have one.
- Bill Saul: Sure, I've got two or three. Which one do you want to hear?
- Insp. Treherne: Oh, the one you think will keep me from breathing my hot little breath down your neck.
- Sgt. Johnson: [over phone] This is Johnson, sir. We've found the murder weapon, I think.
- Insp. Treherne: You have? What is it?
- Sgt. Johnson: It's a short length of inch metal piping drilled and bolted to one end...
- Insp. Treherne: Uh-huh. Could a woman have used it?
- Voice in Nightmare: Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers! Turn around, Vickers!
- Philip Vickers: [suddenly waking] Turn around, Vickers!
- Insp. Treherne: Somebody might at least have stepped in that puddle so we'd have a nice handy bloodstain shoe print to check on. Not even a sign of a track. Oh, well, they told me detecting wasn't easy.
- Insp. Treherne: Check two things particularly. Could he have done it falling? And could a woman have done it, an active woman in good condition, the sort that sails boats and things?
- Medical Examiner: Ah, women. They're getting too capable for their own good these days.
- Philip Vickers: I suppose I remember those words because even when you're drugged you remember a sentence of death.
- Philip Vickers: I don't know what hit me or how long it was before I came to. But when I did I was aboard the Mexican tramp with nothing in my pocket to tell me who I was. Nothing in my head either. Except a big hole.
- [first lines]
- Philip Vickers: [to dog] Hello, Coolin, boy. Hello, old boy. You didn't forget, did you, huh?
- [last lines]
- Philip Vickers: Well, thanks for the ride, Treherne.
- Angie: Goodbye.
- Philip Vickers: Goodbye.
- Insp. Treherne: Goodbye.
- Insp. Treherne: [leaving] You'll be hearing from us, Mr. Vickers.
- Philip Vickers: We'd be most unhappy if we didn't, Inspector.
- [turning to the party guests]
- Philip Vickers: And now if you don't mind, you can all leave, and while you're at it, start covering up tracks and rehearsing alibis. Somebody's gonna need a good one!
- Insp. Treherne: Revenge is a strange thing, Miss Merrill. It'll eat into a person's soul and rot away the insides until there's not one shred of decency or one speck of human feelings left.
- Insp. Treherne: We're holding you for further questioning, Miss Merrill.
- Joan Merrill: But...
- Insp. Treherne: The only way I can solve this case is by getting the truth out of all the people concerned. Which I've NOT been getting from any of them yet... but I'll get it. And now if you'll excuse me, I have things to do.
- Joan Merrill: I can't imagine any one of those three killing someone - they're just not the kind of people who commit murder.
- Insp. Treherne: I wish I had a week's holiday with pay for every time I've heard that. I wouldn't have to work until 1994.
- Medical Examiner: [re the dead man] Could a woman have done it? An active woman, in good condition. The sort that sails boats and things. Ah, women they're getting too capable for their own good these days.