Joe Mannix: [Mark Prentiss enters Mannix's office] Mr. Prentiss.
Mark Prentiss: Mr. Mannix. Can we, uh, get right to the point?
Joe Mannix: Of course. Please sit down.
Mark Prentiss: Thank you. I use the safe deposit vault at the Bedford Hotel. And last night, that vault was broken into.
Joe Mannix: Yes, I was just reading about it. They got away with about $150,000 in jewelry, a hunk of cash, bonds...
Mark Prentiss: And a briefcase.
Joe Mannix: A briefcase?
Mark Prentiss: Mine, as it happens. Recover by Tuesday, Mr. Mannix, and I'll write you a check for $5,000.
Joe Mannix: That's some briefcase. What was in it?
Mark Prentiss: Papers, depositions... to be used as evidence in a murder trial. Useless to anyone else, but absolutely essential to me, if I'm to free my client. I must have them back.
Joe Mannix: Now, who's your client?
Mark Prentiss: Vince Adante.
Joe Mannix: Yeah. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Prentiss, but suddenly I don't like the smell of your briefcase.
Mark Prentiss: Adante is innocent.
Joe Mannix: Vince Adante doesn't know what the word means.
Mark Prentiss: Mr. Mannix, my client is facing a 20-year sentence. Suppose a year from now, two years, five- that missing evidence turns up? How responsible would you fell for Adante's false conviction? The law judges a man's guilt on a particular charge. It acquits a man on the basis of evidence, and that evidence was in my briefcase in my safe deposit box at the Bedford Hotel, and I must have that briefcase back. It is worth $5,000 to me.
Joe Mannix: But not to me. Now I have a great deal of respect for you, counselor, but I don't like Vince Adante, guilty or innocent. Now, you'd be wasting your money. Besides, that briefcase is probably in a sewer by now.
Mark Prentiss: All right, Mr. Mannix... find me that sewer.
