Maria didn’t switch on the engine immediately. Her face was thoughtful and her gaze unfocused.

‘It’s weird, isn’t it?’

‘What?’ asked Fabel.

‘The way people are always reaching out for something. And sometimes that something is as scary as hell.’

‘You mean the breakaway group Janssen was talking about? The fringe element’s fringe element?’

‘Yeah. Do you think Janssen really believes all of that Asatru crap? Or the people carrying out these rapes? Do they feel they have some religious justification?’

Fabel pursed his lips. ‘I doubt it, Maria. Not on any meaningful level, that is. As for Janssen … maybe. As you say, there are so many people clutching at moral straws, trying to give shape and meaning to their lives. It’s a dark and lonely universe otherwise.’

Maria started the engine and pulled out into the traffic.

Friday 20 June, 12.00 p.m. Polizeipräsidium, Hamburg.

Norbert Eitel’s secretary’s sole mission seemed to be to prevent the outside world from having any contact with her boss. She eventually put Fabel’s call through, but only after he threatened to arrive unannounced with a team of officers and arrest anyone who obstructed them.

‘Yes, Herr Kriminalhauptkommissar …’ Norbert Eitel sounded distracted, as if he were reading something of much more importance while he spoke to Fabel. ‘What is it I can do for you?’

‘I would very much like to come and talk to you … and to your father, should he be available at the same time.’

‘May I ask in regard to what?’

‘I understand you knew Angelika Blüm?’

‘Oh … yes … a terrible, terrible thing. But how can we help?’ Fabel could tell he now had Eitel’s full attention.

‘Background mainly.’

‘But my father didn’t know Angelika. I think they only met once and very briefly … I can’t see what use he can be.’

‘Well I think we’re better discussing this when we meet. Could you make time at two-thirty this afternoon?’

‘Well … I suppose so, but I can’t speak for my father. He does not work in this business. He has his own interests.’

‘That’s fine, Herr Eitel. If your father can’t make it, we can arrange for a car to pick him up and bring him down to the Präsidium … I wouldn’t want to inconvenience him.’

Eitel’s voice turned cold and hard in the face of the threat. ‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he said, and hung up.

Fabel arranged lunch for everyone to be delivered to the Mordkommission from the canteen. He was keen for Anna to go through her briefing for the MacSwain operation the following evening. Anna had made only a few changes from her initial proposal. She had asked for two extra officers to work on the surveillance team, boosting its number to ten, not including herself. Fabel approved of the added security and suspected that Paul Lindemann had insisted on it. As Fabel had hoped, Anna had chosen Paul to lead the back-up teams. There would be two officers inside the club; the other eight would be split between five vehicles. The main vehicle would be a panel van that would house two heavily armed MEK officers, Paul and Maria, as well as the electronic equipment to listen in on Anna’s wire. The van would operate as the command centre, monitoring activity and issuing instructions to the rest of the team. There would be two team members on motorcycles, allowing them to match MacSwain’s Porsche for speed, and two cars, each with a Mord-kommission officer. Altogether, it meant that MacSwain’s tail could continually change to avoid suspicion, and if he put a foot wrong, he would be swamped by police officers within seconds. As Van Heiden had already pointed out, it was an expensive operation to launch based on Fabel’s hunch and Anna’s on-the-spot improvisation. This was as secure an operation as Fabel could justify a budget for.