"You're always meeting that sort of creep in this sort of business. I ought to have been able to handle him. But what the hell. It just wasn't my night to be tactful."
"You'd met him before, of course."
"Oh, yes. He's always hanging around the joint. Cookie introduced him the other night. He's one of her pets."
"So I gathered. Is it Love, or is he treating her? I should think a little deep digging into her mind would really be something."
"You said it, brother. I wouldn't want to go in there without an armored diving suit."
He cocked a quiet eye at her.
"She's a bitch, isn't she?"
"She is."
"Everybody's backslapper and good egg, with a heart of garbage and scrap iron."
"That's about it. But people like her."