I got the credit for saving him — another gold star for my college applications, should I throw modesty to the winds as my father suggested and attach the newspaper article that was published a week later — but it wasn’t me, not really. / It was Radar that saved him, with those desolate howls.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Even though both Charlie’s father and a journalist try to give credit for saving Bowditch, Charlie insists that it was actually Radar who saved her master. This refusal to take credit demonstrates Charlie’s sense of moral responsibility.

You did a big deal with him, a huge deal, and now he’s dead. If someone got your name out of him… if he was tortured, or even promised that he wouldn’t be killed…
-- Charlie (Chapter 8)

Importance: Charlie tries to warn Bowditch that whoever murdered Heinrich might have gotten Bowditch’s name from the jeweler. He fears the murderer...