Reich burst into a roar of triumphant laughter. The pain of his bruised and broken body made him groan as he laughed, and his eyes smarted with tears. He pulled himself up, brushed past Chervil and left the Commissioner’s office. He was more a Neanderthal vestige as he paraded down headquarters’ corridors streaked with blood and mud, laughing and groaning, bearing himself with limping arrogance. He needed a stag’s carcass on his shoulders or a cave bear borne in triumph behind him to complete the picture.