“How nicely you put it.”

“Well, we are body and soul, you know,” he said with a placid smile. “But why go all through this now? You know how to rise out of your body. This isn’t going to be difficult for you.”

“I might surprise you. What happened to him after he was in your body? Did he realize what had taken place?”

“Not at all. You must understand the man was deeply psychologically crippled. And, of course, he was an ignorant fool.”

“And you didn’t give him even a moment’s time, did you? You killed him.”

“Monsieur de Lioncourt, what I did was a mercy to him! How dreadful to have left him in that body, confused as he was! He wasn’t going to recover, you realize, no matter what body he was inhabiting. He’d murdered his entire family. Even the baby in the crib.”

“Were you part of that?”

“What a low opinion you have of me! Not at all. I was watching the hospitals for such a specimen. I knew one would come along. But why these last questions? Didn’t David Talbot tell you there are numerous documented cases of switching in the Talamasca files.”

David had not told me this. But then I could scarcely blame him.

“Did they all involve murder?” I asked.

“No. Some involved bargains such as you and I have struck.”

“I wonder. We are oddly paired, you and I.”

“Yes, but well paired, you must admit. This is a very nice body I have for you,” he said of himself, placing an open hand on his broad chest. “Not as beautiful as yours, of course. But very nice! And exactly what you ought to require. As for your body, what more can I say? I hope you didn’t listen to David Talbot about me. He’s made so many tragic mistakes.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a slave to that wretched organization,” he said sincerely. “They completely control him. If only I could have spoken to him at the end, he would have seen the significance of what I had to offer, what I could teach. Did he tell you of his escapades in old Rio? Yes, an exceptional person, a person I should like to have known. But I can tell you, he’s no one to cross.”

“What’s to stop you from killing me as soon as we switch bodies? That’s just what you did to this creature you lured into your old body, with one swift blow to the head.”

“Ah, so you have talked to Talbot,” he said, refusing to be rattled. “Or did you merely do the research on your own? Twenty million dollars will stop me from killing you. I need the body to go to the bank, remember? Absolutely marvelous of you to double the sum. But I would have kept the bargain for ten. Ah, you’ve liberated me, Monsieur de Lioncourt. As of this Friday, at the very hour when Christ was nailed to the cross, I shall never have to steal again.”