Mireille Day

He was not used to dealing with this kind of thing.

And he was relying on Jean's savoir-faire and experience and chutzpah to get him through.

On his own, he couldn't really do it.

Now, before they had parted company, after the phone call, you know, the two couples got into their two separate cars...

Jean had said what would be his last words to Hervé, if you run into any difficulties, blame me.

I've been in jail before.

I've done the time.

And so what Hervé did was blame Jean well and truly, as I say, nailed him to the wall.

Jean had told me this later.

He was as upset as I've ever seen Jean get, that Hervé had so completely put the blame onto Jean.

Yes, well, that was the million-dollar question.

The eight-million-dollar question.

To the eight million francs.

Jean and Danny, his girlfriend, first of all, they bought a red Alfa Romeo and she bought lots of, you know, shoes and jewellery.

This time it was the humanitarian was giving to these four poor people.

So they split the money, 4 million francs each.

So they rush through the night in this Alfa Romeo and deposit the rest of it in Swiss bank accounts.

Well, we'd kept in touch for a few years after the sea voyage and then he dropped out of communication and re-emerged again in the digital age and he was able to send an email to my publishers.

By that time I was a published writer and

And I remember the publicist forwarding his email and saying, it sounds a bit weird.