- Cathy Kendrick: My father is not the type of person to imagine things!
- Inspector Richard Queen: Well, I am - and I'm beginning to imagine that you're being overly protective of your father.
- Cathy Kendrick: [to Ellery] How do you put up with him?
- Ellery Queen: Practice.
- Ellery Queen: I've got it; how do you have it figured? Was it the husband? The stepdaughter? The lawyer, the doctor, or the nurse, or somebody else. Now, I know you don't think it was Simon Brimmer - or do you? Anyway, there's a hint: the body was moved to make room for something, and time is of the essence.
- Ellery Queen: Dad, you have the most wonderful habit of asking leading questions.
- Inspector Richard Queen: And you have the most wonderful habit of not answering them.
- Ellery Queen: Dad, you keep saying you want facts, not suppositions.
- Inspector Richard Queen: Next time I say that, ignore it.
- Simon Brimmer: [hearing a rich woman died] With all that money, there's sure to be some fire to go with the smoke.