‘Look,’ Mallon said, ‘I feel a degree of responsibility for this. Now, I’m picking my words carefully here. I was the one who asked you to . . . shall we say . . . “locate” the protection logs. If I hadn’t done that there never would have been any search at your home.’ He paused. ‘You’re exhausted and you’re angry. If you could see the cut of yourself, you’d believe me. You need to go home, get them to fill a hot bath for you, take a few hours’ sleep and then come down to my house later. We’ll have a drink and you’ll eat supper with us. You’ll feel a lot better.’

Under his anger, Swallow knew that Mallon was right. He had not slept properly for three nights. His mind was racing to cope with too many issues. He needed rest in order to restore his judgement.

‘I’ll do that, chief,’ he said more calmly. ‘And I hear what you’re saying about the protection logs. There’s no fault on your part in any of what happened. You couldn’t have known they’d break into my home or threaten my wife. Civilised Englishmen aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing to senior officers of their own police force.’

Mallon nodded.

‘Thank you. I appreciate what you say.’

‘I’d just like to fill you in on what happened in Berlin,’ Swallow said. ‘I think we’re nearly home and dry on the Alice Flannery murder.’

‘I got the gist of it from your messages,’ Mallon answered. ‘Mossop kept me up to date on it. You’ve brought this fellow Carmody back, I know.’

‘Carmody’s in the Bridewell now, or in Mountjoy. I’ve enough to keep him in custody for as long as it takes. I’ll do a full written report of course, but in summary Carmody will give evidence of Stefan Werner threatening the girl because she wanted to claim compensation for the accident in the restaurant.’

‘It’s circumstantial,’ Mallon said. ‘You’ll need more.’

‘There’s more, chief. Werner left the restaurant early on the night Alice Flannery was murdered, and he made her tell him her address. And it turns out that Werner has a record of violence.’

Mallon nodded.

‘Well, that’s more persuasive. So what do you intend to do next?’

‘I’ll do like you said, chief. I’ll get some sleep and then I’ll bring Mr Werner in as a suspect for murder.’

‘Fair enough,’ Mallon said. ‘I’ll get the warrant organised. There’s two magistrates sitting in the police courts all day.’

‘There’s one other thing to tell you, Joe.’ Mallon attempted a humourless smile. ‘There’s some news in that could please you in the light of what we’ve been talking about.’

‘It’ll be a change to hear something good,’ Swallow said.