- Murray Franklin: It might convince a couple of other people who can help us.
- Chuck Powell: Who?
- Murray Franklin: Two guys who just opened an investigative office here in town. One's a cop - Frank MacBride. Well, maybe I should say ex-cop. Mac ran bunco for twenty years. Used to go undercover a lot. Pretended to be a mark. Nailed some of the biggest grifters in the country that way, including his partner.
- Chuck Powell: He arrested his own partner?
- Murray Franklin: Oh, Pete Ryan wasn't his partner then, just the best con man Mac had ever tried to catch. It was a battle of wits for ten years. Mac retired from the department just about the time Pete was getting out of San Quentin. They decided to use their talents as, well, kind of investigators. They work like no other guys I know of. They may be the only hope we have of breaking this frame.
- Frank MacBride: Pete?
- Pete T. Ryan: Yeah?
- Frank MacBride: Be careful, will ya? It's not easy to find a hard-working crook like you.
- Pete T. Ryan: You're not bad for a cop, either.
- Frank MacBride: This, this whole thing. The the kids, the distraught young wife. One gigantic sympathy plea. Do you ever stop being a con man?
- Pete T. Ryan: Do you ever stop being a cop?
- [Pete and Mac are visiting a client in jail]
- Pete T. Ryan: Let's keep this short, huh? This place makes me nervous.
- Frank MacBride: I thought that you'd might feel at home.