‘There won’t be any news of deportees until Germany is defeated.’ He couldn’t bear to tell her of the stories that were circulating, about a work camp in southern Poland. Half the time he did not believe such tales himself. He thought, desperate people exaggerate to gain help, not realising that when horrors go beyond the bounds of credibility, their power to move is lost. ‘But perhaps I should see the child, take some details of her family. Would that be possible?’

‘Of course. After school perhaps. The day after tomorrow, at Papa’s house.’

She sat up at the table, on the edge of her chair, and took her cup in both hands to transfer it carefully to her lips. She seemed very young for her age, which was thirteen, the same as Sabine’s, but whereas Sabine was tall, Suzie’s small stature and unformed body seemed to belong to a child two or three years younger. She had an odd little face, almost triangular, narrowing from a wide forehead to a small chin, trimmed to a point by a sharp, upturned nose. Her fair hair and blue eyes gave her an almost Germanic appearance.

‘The colonel is here to ask you a few questions about your family,’ Ariane explained. ‘He is going to help us to trace them, so that we can find them as soon as the war ends.’

Suzie looked at him so blankly that Theo felt that there was something retarded in her understanding.

‘There was Papa and Maman,’ she said slowly.

Theo waited. ‘Did you have any aunts and uncles and cousins?’ he prompted. The interrogation proceeded painfully. Relatives she had, but she only knew them by their first name or family nicknames. Where they had lived was equally unclear. Uncle Iza and Aunt Lola had had a big house near Omi and Opa, but she thought they went away a long time ago. She had once met cousins Lena and Ari in Paris. They had a son called Shmuel and a baby who was very sweet.

The only question that elicited more than the scantest response was, ‘Were there any relatives abroad, in America, for example?’

A long time ago … Before … She used to write cards to Cousin Avery who sent her toys. He sent her a beautiful doll with long golden hair. ‘We called her Rahel, too. But terrible things happened to her. Policemen came to take her away. One day the children chased her and she lost her purse.’

Theo was bemused. Did she mean that these things happened to her? When he had finished his questioning and Suzie was sent away, Ariane said apologetically, ‘She’s very shy.’

‘We haven’t much to go on.’

‘Her father was caught here in Paris in forty-two, not the Vel d’Hiver, when they took thousands in one day but another round-up, a month later. Papa went to Drancy to try to rescue him, but since he was German there was no hope for him. He was sent to a camp. Suzie and her mother were at Clermont Ferrand where I found them and took Suzie away. Her mother must have been expelled on 5 September 1942, when all Jews were ordered to leave the city. She was sent to Drancy on 9 October, then on to a camp. These camps seem to be in a Jewish enclave in Poland. Do you think the Russians have reached them yet?’ Theo closed his notebook. ‘When the war is over, and it can’t be long now, a few months at most, we’ll find them for her.’ He put his palm to her cheek. ‘Ariane, our flat, come and see it again. Meet me there tomorrow.’