'What was going on in Radek’s mind? He had pulled off his perfect crime. It had gone smoothly down to the very last detail. Nobody suspected him.
‘It was what he had wanted: he was the only person in the entire world who knew the truth! And when he saw the Crosbys sitting round their table in the bar, he thought that one word from him would be enough to put the fear of God into them!
'And yet he wasn’t satisfied. His life was still just as dull. Nothing had changed except that two women were dead, and a poor devil was about to have his head cut off.
‘I couldn’t swear to it, but I’d bet that what weighed most heavily on him was that he had no one to admire him. No one who’d murmur as he passed by:
‘“He’s not much to look at but he committed one of the most perfect crimes imaginable! He outsmarted the police, fooled the courts and changed the course of several lives.”
‘It’s something that’s happened to other murderers. Most of them have felt the need to confide in somebody, even if it was only some tart they’d picked up.
‘But Radek was above that. Anyway, he was never much interested in women.
‘Then one morning the papers reported that Heurtin had escaped. Wasn’t this the opportunity he’d been looking for? He decided to give the cards another shuffle and take an active part once more.
'He wrote to Le Sifflet. He took fright when he saw his erstwhile accomplice watching him and delivered himself up into the hands of the police … But what he wanted was admiration … He wanted to be known as a man who played a good hand.'
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