‘He had a bloody good try,’ said Maria.

‘No … I don’t think he did. The doctor here says it was very professional … that he knew how to render me unconscious. If he wanted to kill me he could have finished me off, silently and with no fuss, instead of laying me out on Blüm’s bed.’

‘But we’ve sighted him at two murder locations. That more than makes him a suspect,’ protested Werner.

‘But why was he there after the murder? And why choose now to turn over her apartment, instead of when he was there committing the murder?’

‘Maybe he thought he’d left something behind,’ Maria suggested.

‘We all know this killer doesn’t leave anything behind. Anyway, Brauner’s team went through that apartment at a microscopic level. They wouldn’t miss anything, and our guy would know that. The other thing is, the guy who attacked me doesn’t fit the description the girl from the apartment building gave us.’ Fabel paused. The sunlight through the tall, narrow hospital window sliced a bright triangle across the floor of Fabel’s room and glittered coldly on the porcelain and the stainless-steel pipes and taps of the washstand by the door. His head ached and he closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillow. He spoke without opening his eyes. ‘What is really bothering me is the strength of that old guy, and the way he was able to put me out so professionally. That takes training.’

Werner stretched his legs out, resting his feet on the steel bars beneath Fabel’s hospital bed. ‘Well, both you and Maria say he looks foreign. Like a Russian. If he is so handy, could he be one of the “Top Team” – the Ukrainian outfit Volker was talking about?’

‘Could be, I suppose.’ Fabel still didn’t open his eyes. ‘Everything about him says special forces. But again, why didn’t he finish the job?’

‘It’s a big thing to kill a Hamburg policeman,’ said Werner. ‘Klugmann is one thing, but murder a Mordkommission Hauptkommissar and you’d have nowhere to hide.’

‘Whoever he was and whatever he was doing there,’ said Maria, ‘we’ve got the whole of Hamburg out there looking for him.’

Fabel slowly eased himself up, the effort stretching his voice. ‘I’m not so sure he’s going to be that easy to find, Maria. What about MacSwain? Have we got him under close watch?’

‘Paul and Anna are on him tight,’ said Werner. ‘They’re there most of the time, even when we’ve got others on shift. I think they’re afraid of another screw-up like the Klugmann surveillance.’

‘Good. I’ll be out of here tomorrow and we can go over everything. In the meantime, if anything comes up, let me know.’

‘Okay, Chef,’ said Werner. Fabel closed his eyes again and rested his head on the pillow. Werner looked across to Maria and jutted his chin in the direction of the door. Maria nodded and rose from the bed.

‘We’ll see you later, Chef,’ she said.