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Jim Luck relates the story of the stolen Tsars' Egg and how a shrewd detective uses his skills and intuition to recover oit from the thief. Listen in to our podcast series ‘Detective Diaries’
Happy Easter!
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[Music]
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The Tsar's Egg - an Easter detective story.
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The city of light has a way of hiding in its darker secrets
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behind the brightest window.
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It was Easter Sunday in Paris, a day for bells,
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brioche, and for the elite of the first arrondissement,
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the kind of eggs that don't come from a chicken.
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I'm Jim Luck, and this is Detective Diaries.
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I was sitting at a corner table at Le Nemours,
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nursing an espresso that tasted like burnt gasoline and regret.
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The spring air was crisp, carrying the scent of damp pavement
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and expensive perfume.
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I was watching the tourists flock towards the Louvre
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when my phone buzzed against the marble tabletop.
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It was Madame Vivienne Lefevre.
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If you don't know the name, you don't know the art world.
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A family's collection of imperial Faberge
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is the stuff of legends and nightmares for any insurance agent.
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But this morning she wasn't calling to talk about dividends.
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She was calling because the Tsar's egg,
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a gold-etched diamond-encrusted egg,
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commissioned for a Tsar,
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had vanished.
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I arrived at her estate
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near Tuileries, 20 minutes later.
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The foyer smelled of lilies and old money.
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Madame Lefevre met me in the hallway,
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her face, a mask of pale fury.
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It was here last night, Mr Luck, she hissed.
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Her diamond ring is catching the morning sun.
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The vault remains locked.
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The lasers were never tripped.
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My security is impenetrable,
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yet the pedestal is empty.
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The Tsar's egg wasn't a trinket.
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It was 20 million euros of history.
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I followed her into the private gallery.
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The vault door, six inches of reinforced steel,
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stood wide open.
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Inside the velvet cushion sat,
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bear, and under a spotlight.
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"Who has the code, Vivienne?" I asked.
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"Only three of us," she replied.
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"Myself, my nephew Julian,
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and my head of staff, Henri."
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I knew Julian, a poet,
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with a penchant for high stakes baccarat,
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and a debt to the Corsican mob
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that was currently the size of the Arc de Triomphe
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He had a motive.
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Then there was Henri,
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a man so disciplined,
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he probably ironed his shoelaces.
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He'd been with a family for 30 years.
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He had the opportunity.
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I walked the perimeter of the room.
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No scratches on the keypad.
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No dust disturbed on the floor.
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I knelt by the pedestal and took a long, slow breath.
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And that's when I caught it, not the scent of lilies,
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not the smell of floor wax.
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It was a faint buttery sweetness,
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the ghost of high-grade cocoa.
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The gallery was cold,
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but the sweat on Julian's brow told a different story.
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He was leaning against a mahogany sideboard,
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clutching a glass of amber liquid
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that definitely wasn't apple juice.
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You look like a man who's seen a ghost, Julian, I said,
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stepping into his line of sight.
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Or maybe just a debt collector.
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Julian forced a laugh,
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but it died in his throat.
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Paris is full of jokes, Luck, especially on Easter.
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It's the anniversary of my last big win at the Cirque Cliche
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Since then, let's just say the cards haven't been kind.
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I heard the word is, you owe the kind of people
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who don't take, 'I'm a poet' for an answer.
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20 million for a Tsar's egg would clear those books
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nicely, wouldn't it?
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He straightened his silk tie, his hands trembled.
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'I have an alibi.
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I was at Le Caveau until four, after the pianist.
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He watched me lose my last 500 euros.
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A poet who can't afford his own drinks,
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wears a bespoke chave shirt.
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I stepped closer, closing the gap.
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You have the vault code.
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Your aunt says you're the only one besides her
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and Henri, who can bypass the silent alarm.
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I didn't touch it, Julian snapped,
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his glass rattled against the wood.
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I came here at three to ask her for a loan, again,
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but the kitchen light was on.
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I saw Henri.
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He was hovering.
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I figured he was just stress-baking for the brunch.
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I don't want a lecture from a Butler, so I left.
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I turned my gaze towards the kitchen door.
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Henri, huh?, the man of iron discipline.
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Discipline, the man's a machine, Julian hissed.
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But even machines need oil.
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He's been bitter since my uncle passed,
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said the grand traditions are dying.
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Maybe he wanted a retirement fund
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that didn't evolve polishing silver.
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I left Julian to his drink and walked towards the kitchen.
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The smell hit me before I even saw him.
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Not the lilies from the foyer, but the thick suffocating scent
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of melted dark chocolate.
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Henri was at the marble station.
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His back to me.
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He was smoothing the surface of a massive chocolate egg
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with a palette knife.
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He didn't turn round when I entered.
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"monsieur luck," he said, his voice as smooth as a ganache.
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The madam tells me you're here to find her treasure.
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A tragedy.
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The house has seen so many losses lately.
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Is that what you call it, Henri?
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A loss.
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I walked a slow circle around the workstation.
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Julian says he saw you here at three in the morning.
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That's a lot of overtime for a brunch.
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Henri looked up.
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His eyes were steady, but his knuckles were white
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where he gripped the knife.
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Art takes time, monsieur.
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Whether it is forged in gold or tempered in cocoa,
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this centerpiece is my masterpiece.
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It must be perfect.
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"It looks heavy," I said, leaning into the dark, shimmering
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shell.
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"Solid," I assume.
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"entirely," said Henri.
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"64% cocoa, no room for anything else.
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I pulled a heavy silver soup spoon from a nearby wrack."
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You know, Henri, back in the States, we have a saying.
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The proof of the pudding is in the eating,
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but in Paris, I think the proof is in the sound.
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I didn't wait for him to agree.
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I bought the bowl of the spoon down hard
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against the side of the chocolate sculpture.
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The chocolate shatters, spilling dark shards across the marble.
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And there, nestled in the hollow center,
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like a yolk made of starlight, was the Tsar's egg.
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The gold filigree shimmered under the industrial kitchen lights,
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mocking the cheap cocoa that had hidden it.
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Henri didn't move.
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He didn't plead.
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He just laid the palette knife down on the counter
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with a soft, final thud.
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"It would have been a beautiful exit, Monsieur Luck," he whispered.
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The egg would have been accidentally dropped during the cleanup.
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The shards thrown away, the gold hidden in the trash
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until I made my rounds.
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I looked at the Tsar's treasure, then at the broken man
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in the white apron.
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In this city, Henri, everyone looks for resurrection.
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You've just picked the wrong kind.
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By noon, the police had the egg.
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The Madame had a new opening for a head of staff.
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And Julian, Julian was still looking for a way to pay his debts.
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Some things in Paris never change.
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The bellsing, the tourist walk, and the truth stays buried
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until someone starts digging.
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I was halfway to the front door when I saw him again.
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Julian, he was standing in the shadows of the grand staircase
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coat on, the cigarette unlit between his fingers.
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He looked like a man who just watched his last escape hatch
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welded shut.
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"Going somewhere, Julian," I asked.
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My heels clicked on the marble, echoing in the now silent
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house.
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He didn't look at me.
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He was staring at the empty spot on the side-board
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where the bollinger had been.
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The gendarmes took Henri out the back.
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My aunt is upstairs with her lawyer and a bottle of smelling
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salts.
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It's a quiet end to a loud morning.
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"Henri's going to a cell," I said, stopping a few feet away.
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But he wasn't the one with the gambling debts.
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Julian was a craftsman.
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He wanted a retirement.
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You wanted a miracle."
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Julian finally turned.
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His eyes were bloodshot.
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The bravado of the trust fund poet stripped away.
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I didn't help him, Luck.
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I swear, I just saw him in the kitchen last night.
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I saw the gold through the chocolate before it cooled.
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And you didn't say a word?
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Why would I?
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He let out a sharp, jagged breath.
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If he made it out, I was going to follow him.
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A little blackmail goes a long way when you owe the Corsicans
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I wasn't the thief, Luck.
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I was just the vulture waiting for the scraps.
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I reached out and took the unlit cigarette from his hand.
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I snapped it in half and dropped it on the pristine floor.
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The vulture usually ends up starving when the lion shows up, kid.
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Your aunt is changing her will this afternoon.
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I'd start looking for a job that doesn't involve a deck of cards
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or a velvet rope.
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Julian didn't move.
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He just watched the broken tobacco on the floor
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as if it were the remains of his future.
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I walked out into the Parisienne rain.
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The air was cold, but it felt cleaner than the house I'd just left.
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Across the street, the bells of the San Germain l'Auxerrois
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were ringing for the final service of the day.
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People think Easter is about finding what was lost.
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But in my line of work, it's usually about realising
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exactly what you've thrown away.
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I'm Jim Luck.
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This has been Detective Diaries.
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See you in the shadows.
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(upbeat music)
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(upbeat music)
