Nearest to a clean bill of health

It could have been worse, of course. If it hadn't been for the blood test, he may well have been convicted for murder. However much he thought about it afterwards, he could still not work out how he had got away with it.

Now he was free. Certainly, he had a police record. But it was a minor thing. Even though he had not served the full term, it was over. Not for him any arduous suspended sentence. Nor would there by any probation officer probing into his affairs and looking for signs of suspicious behaviour. Such a practice did not exist in the Soviet Union.

In fact, there was a sense in which the period in jail would actually help him to go on killing with impunity. He had been arrested, checked and then released. It was the nearest to a clean bill of health that he could possible have hoped for.

Pg 112