Lance WhiteNo, I promise to stay out of the way this time. You've got the job, the one being paid. I'm just here as a friend.
AAngela
[in complete adoration] I think it's wonderful that Lance cares for others. It's why everyone loves him.
Yeah, well we got snarled up in a case in August. I ended up doing ninety days on a county honor farm.
Lance White
Well, I'm sorry about that Jim. I had my clients' interest to protect, and you did break into that hotel room.
What client? Who were you working for? Nobody ever seemed to know.
Lance White
Well, that was kind of a strange one. Those three little boys hired me.
The triplets? They were only eight years old!
Lance White
[humbly] Yeah well, when their folks were killed by the Mob I took them in. Finally I made arrangements for them to live on a friend's farm in Vermont.
[sarcastically] Oh, isn't that nice, a happy ending; all of us got to go to a farm!
[Referring to an unsolicited tip just received] It hasn't occurred to you this is a trap?
Lance White
[laughing] A trap? C'mon Jim, I doubt that.
I can't explain why you're still walkin' around. It's not gonna last long. You're naive, Lance, you really are! Ya hafta be cynical, you have to question things. You can't take someone named "Belle LaBelle" on face value! What's her angle, huh? Who's payroll is she on? You find out the answers to those things and then you start moving fast and crooked. You go through door sideways and low, at odd angles. You look for the Big Lie. Question everything!
Lance White
I'm going up to Lake Malibu. Why don't you come with me?
[Appealing to heaven] They'll kill 'im!
Lance White
Maybe we should forget about lunch and follow up a lead or something?
Which lead did you have in mind, Lance?
Lance White
We don't have one, Jim.
[laughing] Then I guess it would be hard to follow up then, huh?
Lance White
C'mon, you and I both know that when you need a lead one always shows up. That's the way it works.
[Frustrated] No, it never just shows up, Lance. Never. Watch my lips: NEV - VER.
[He gives Rockford a picture]
I found this last night with the Senator. It was in his hand.
[Disbelievingly] Sure it was.
Yeah, I put it in my pocket and forgot about it.
Lance White
This could be the lead we've been waiting for, Jim.
Wait, wait, wait a minute, let me get this straight.; ten seconds ago we had no leads - nothing, huh?
Lance White
That's right.
And now Beamer pulls this picture of a band leader or something out of his pocket and says it was in the dead man's hand, and then he tells us it's been in his coat for 18 hours, and it shows up right now when we need it?
Lance White
That's exactly right, Jim. What's the problem?
Oh, no problem. No, no problem at all. I just want to get it straight. I may want to tell an analyst.
[Turns and walks away]
A state senator and a bus driver? What's the connection?
Lance White
Some things you just have to accept. You know, this is just a hunch, Jim, but I think the bus driver had something on the senator. Maybe the senator was having an affair with the bus driver's wife?
And just where did that come from?
Lance White
Hunches don't come from any place, Jim, they're just hunches. That's how we solve our cases. We get hunches, they turn out to be right, and the case gets solved. Gee, I don't know how you survive as a private investigator, Jim. You don't seem to know any of this stuff.
Lance White
When you look at the sun and the stars, the majesty of the firmament, well, our little problems seem very insignificant. And when you add to that the fact that you have friends, *good* friends, friends who want to help you, well, this old world just seems a whole lot better, doesn't it, Fred?
Dontcha think you ought to load that gat in case we gotta smoke a bad guy or somethin'?
The Rockford Files · 359 quotes
