‘I just want to be clear on this,’ Susanne interjected. ‘The BAO is the special unit set up to fight international terrorism?’

‘Yes,’ Maria answered. ‘It is a cooperation between ourselves, the Bundeskriminalamt, the BND secret service and the American FBI. Its principal aim is intelligence-gathering.’

‘And,’ added Fabel, ‘they probably run covert operations.’ He turned to Maria. ‘Is she still seconded to the BAO?’

‘Yes. And her secondment started just over a year ago.’

Van Heiden and Fabel exchanged looks. But it was Werner who expressed what they all were thinking. ‘Just before Klugmann was discharged from the service. This victim …’ he looked at Maria.

‘Tina Kramer.’

‘This victim, Tina Kramer,’ Werner continued, ‘is a serving officer with the BAO, a highly secretive criminal and counter-terrorism intelligence unit, and she’s also ex-SEK. Klugmann is an ex-Mobiles Einsatz Kommando member.’

Maria Klee returned to her place at the table, leaned back in her chair and ran her hands through her short blonde hair. ‘Added to which is the fact that we have a hidden video camera and whatever it recorded missing from the scene. All of this at a time when one of the top organised-crime godfathers is assassinated.’ She leaned forward, clasping her hands with interlocking fingers and resting her weight on her elbows. ‘Do you remember I thought I recognised Klugmann?’

‘Yes … God, that’s right,’ said Fabel. ‘You couldn’t place him though.’

‘It’s been bothering me. I couldn’t place him anywhere. But when I found out who Tina Kramer was, I thought I’d check out Klugmann’s files at the Bundeskriminalamt. And guess what, his records stored at Federal Records and his service record at the Polizei Hamburg don’t match. The dates are all over the place. Specifically his discharge from the army. He got out six months earlier than his records show here, and they place him somewhere very interesting indeed.’

‘Where?’

‘Weingarten.’

Fabel’s face was split by a bitter, knowing smile. ‘Of course. I might have known. The NATO Long-Range Reconnaissance School?’

‘Exactly.’

Van Heiden said: ‘Fabel?’ and made a gesture of impatient confusion.

‘We’ve got the whole bloody lot of them in here now. If it goes by initials then it’s involved.’ He slumped back into his chair and threw his pencil onto the table. ‘The Long-Range Reconnaissance School at Weingarten is where GSG9 is trained. An elite counter-terrorism unit that’s officially made up of policemen and is part of the Federal Border Police. But, nevertheless, our British cousins send over their SAS to train GSG9.’

‘As soon as I saw that, it all clicked,’ said Maria. ‘I met Klugmann at a seminar at Weingarten, when I was attached to a Mobiles Einsatz Kommando myself. I can only have said a couple of words to him and I didn’t know his name. He was shaven-headed then and a lot slimmer. But I’d bet a month’s pay it was Klugmann.’ Her mouth tightened into a grim straight line. ‘This is an undercover operation. Klugmann is the deep-cover guy, using as much of his real history as possible to give him credibility. Tina Kramer is his control. She has a fake identity but she’s not deep cover.’