The man below who’d lifted his head to drink must have heard Jake because he tilted his head a bit more and eyed as where we gazed at him through the crossties above. He lowered the bottle. ‘Dead,’ he said. He nodded toward the man on the ground. ‘As a doornail. You boys want to, you come on down here and see.
-- Frank/Warren (Chapter 3 paragraph Page 33)

Importance: Frank and Jake are witnesses to the second death of the summer in the small town of New Bremen. Under very suspicious circumstances, Warren is sitting next to a dead man who he claims just died for no apparent reason. But with the murder of young Bobby Cole, Frank immediately suspects Warren of being a murderer, perhaps a serial murderer.

And what is happiness, Nathan? In my experience, it’s only a moment’s pause here and there on what is otherwise a long and difficult road...
-- Emil (Chapter 7 paragraph Page 73)