Bendrix recognizes that Mr. Savage’s career is a disreputable one but, ironically, continues to justify his own unhealthy jealousy and obsession with Sarah. The phrase “detection of the innocent” implies that Mr. Savage and his men are looking for wrongdoing and are somewhat determined to find it even if it doesn’t exist—they have been hired to find it, and so find it they will. Furthermore, Mr. Savage helps normalize Bendrix’s jealousy by making him feel that he’s doing no more than every other man has done. For Bendrix, this serves to further justify his behavior even though his thoughts about Mr. Savage reveal that on some level he is aware that his actions, like Mr. Savage’s career, lack respectability.