Fabel had some difficulty finding the road back to the city, continually tripping up over Blankenese’s elaborate one-way system. Eventually he turned the BMW onto Elbchaussee.

‘Well, what did you think?’ he asked Werner.

‘She’s holding something back. I suspect that Blüm was involved with someone and Kessler is trying to keep that someone out of all of this.’

‘That’s exactly what I think.’ Fabel paused for a while. ‘Werner, how would you describe Hans Schreiber, the Erste Bürgermeister?’

Werner turned to Fabel with a puzzled frown. All Fabel gave was his profile.

‘I don’t know … tall, I suppose. Expensively dressed. Grey-blond hair. Obviously works out … broad shouldered … Why?’

Now Fabel turned to Werner. ‘Now describe the man your witness saw going into Angelika Blüm’s apartment block.’

Part Three
Thursday 19 June
to Sunday 22 June

Thursday 19 June, 10.20 a.m. Hamburg Rathaus, Hamburg.

Kriminaldirektor Van Heiden had reacted almost exactly as Fabel had anticipated. Almost, but not quite. Van Heiden had been shocked by Fabel’s revelation that Erste Bürgermeister Schreiber was now a suspect in this most high profile of investigations and Fabel had watched his boss from across the vast desk in Van Heiden’s fourth-floor office. Van Heiden had seemed frozen in his leather chair, gazing at the desktop, as if all physical movement had been suspended to divert energy to his racing thought processes. Eventually, and unexpectedly, Van Heiden had looked up with an expression of resignation and asked Fabel what they should do next, as if Fabel were the senior officer and Van Heiden the subordinate.

‘Arrange to see him,’ Fabel had said. ‘If he were anyone else I would haul him in … but I do appreciate the need for, um … diplomacy, shall we say, in this case.’

‘When do you want to do it?’

‘Schreiber has been placed at the last murder scene … or at least someone very close in appearance to him … and he has a … history … with the victim. That would not incline me towards seeking out the next convenient “window of opportunity” in his diary. I need to talk to him now.’

‘Leave it with me.’

Van Heiden had made a call to the Rathaus and had obviously encountered some bureaucratic resistance. The threats that Van Heiden had made to the poor administrator at the other end of the phone had been given added menace by the quiet, restrained and cold voice in which he had delivered them. He had been put through to Schreiber. The conversation had been short and to the point. Schreiber had agreed to meet them in his chambers immediately. Van Heiden had stared at the phone after replacing the receiver.

‘It was almost as if he had been expecting the call. I got the feeling he was relieved.’

The Rathaus is Hamburg’s city hall, home to the Hamburg state government and one of its most striking buildings. The main entrance to the Hamburg Rathaus sits immediately beneath the clock tower and spire which soar above and dominate the vast Rathaus square.