The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4 Quotes

“The Advancement of Learning,”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“About nine miles south of Montpelier the county road takes another long curve and you wind up going west for a while, almost at right angles. There’s a dirt road by Clyde Johnson’s farm”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“That was Sheriff Whitley up at Sand Valley,” he said. “The driver told him the redhead got off at North Montpelier Junction, two miles out of Sand Valley. Her ticket would have brought her all the way in, but she wanted out. He said she looked sick. He stopped and let her out.” “What’s up there at the Junction,” I asked, “besides the gas station and that hamburger stand?” “Nothin’,” the deputy said. “But Highway 40 goes through there and she could have got”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“The paper was in my left hand coat pocket. I reached into my right, felt Bonnie’s gun. I didn’t have time to aim it or even to arrange it. I just twisted enough to swing it in his direction and let it shoot in the general direction of his stomach. As I squeezed off I sidestepped, moved in close beside him and kicked at the soldering iron in his left hand. I’d hit him all right, but not in the right place to knock him down. He swore at me and twisted to bring his gun around. I stepped inside it and hit him with my fist where I guessed the bullet had hit him. It must have been the spot because he staggered and dropped the gun. But he was tough and he came after me swinging both hands. I put my foot in his stomach and pushed and he sat down on the floor. When he tried to get up, he found it difficult. He sat there long enough for me to pick up his gun and to kick the soldering iron across the floor out of reach. He started to get up again and I laid the gun barrel across the top of his head. He sat down again, then keeled over sideways and lay with his head under the stove. I pulled off his crushed hat. He had red hair. I’d been awfully lucky so far today and I just stood there for a couple of minutes, breathing hard and thanking my guardian angel. Then I paid some more attention to the man on the floor. I didn’t want him to pass out just yet. I pulled him out from under the stove and turned him on his back. His eyes were closed but his mouth moved. I went to the sink, got a milk bottle half full of cold water and poured it on his face. He opened his eyes. “Where’s Singer Batts?” I asked. “Who?” he said weakly. I nudged him on the sore side of his stomach and said, “Singer Batts. The guy you took out of a cab this morning.” “I don’t know.” “Where is he?” I kicked him in the wound again. I didn’t like doing it, but I remembered the hot soldering iron and I remembered Singer Batts.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“This time he kicked the other shin. I felt tears in my eyes and blinked to keep them back. He backed across the kitchen to the gas stove, turned on one of the burners and the pilot lit it. On top of the oven was a soldering iron, the old fashioned kind with a wooden handle and a heavy point. He stuck the pointed end in the flame of the burner and left it there. His eyes didn’t leave my face. “All right,” he said. “Donna’s in your apartment at the motor court. Later, if you can still talk, you’ll call her up and tell her to meet you someplace. But right now I’ve got another question. What are you and your hick friend looking for up here?” “Dolly Spangler’s murderer,” I said. “Who do you figure that might be?” “I haven’t figured. Singer Batts does the figuring. Where did you take him?” “Forget about him. Just concentrate on what I say. I want the paper—the report out of the Control Board files that you and your hick friend are looking for. Where is it?” “What makes you think we found it?” He lifted the soldering iron out of the burner and looked at it. It was pink. He stuck it back in the flame. “I think you did,” he said. “If you didn’t, you know where it is.” “All right,” I said. “Franklin Hollander’s got it. Bonnie Claire and her boys planted it on him.” One of his eyebrows flickered. “If you know that much,” he said, “you know Hollander doesn’t have it any more. Where is it?” He lifted the iron out of the fire. It was nice and red now. He spat on it and it sizzled. He walked my way. “You win,” I said. “I’ve got the paper. It’s in my pocket. You want me to reach in and get it?” He stopped and looked me over, looked at my pockets and back at my face. He didn’t want to come close enough to reach in my pocket. He would have to put down either the gun or the iron and he didn’t want to do that either. “Yeah,” he said finally. “Reach for it slow. Pull it out and drop it on the floor.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“a good building in a good neighborhood where a girl lived in Apartment 424.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“It was too early for the inner foyer door to be unlocked so I went down the line, ringing bells—all except the bell for 424—and finally somebody buzzed off the lock and I pushed through into the corridor. I imagine there must have been quite a racket in the speaking tubes but I didn’t stay to listen.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“I drove to a nearby filling station and bought a map of the city for twenty five cents.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“When we hit the last long curve leading into Montpelier we could see the lights of the Blue Parrot off to the left. That’s all farm country around there and there’s a lot of empty space. Also the ground is flat so you can see lights a long way off.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“There was no hard liquor license in Preston, except for package goods.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“But that was in another country,’” he quoted, “‘and besides, the wench is dead.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4

“Weaver was a pompous little guy with a pot belly and pig eyes. I’d run into him a year before when Singer figured out for him who killed the man and wife in Montpelier. I hadn’t liked Weaver then and I didn’t like him now. Of course, I’ve got an ingrown prejudice against cops. Years of hoboing made me pretty sour.”
― Thomas B. Dewey, The Singer Batts Mystery MEGAPACK #1-4