Fabel raised an eyebrow.

‘Just get your experts to look into it all.’ Volker leaned forward, resting the weight of his broad shoulders on his elbows. ‘As for Vitrenko … I honestly cannot give you any clue about where to find him. It’s like he’s a phantom. We do, however, have locations for a couple of his lieutenants.’ Again he dipped into the file and pulled out a couple of photographs. He placed them both on the desk, turned round for Fabel and Maria to see. They were typical close-surveillance images: taken from a distance through telephoto lenses. Both men were in their late forties; one was lean and wiry; the other heavy set. Both had the dangerous look of seasoned soldiers. Volker tapped the image of the lean man.

‘This is Stanislav Solovey. It was he who pointed out the advantages of retirement to Yari Varasouv. The other is Vadim Redchenko.’

‘Klugmann’s contact?’ asked Maria.

‘And possible executioner,’ added Volker.

Fabel shook his head. ‘Hansi Kraus said the killers spoke unaccented German. And they deliberately left a Ukrainian security-services handgun to be found. I think they were trying to point us in the wrong direction.’

‘Well, Redchenko is a killer through and through, whether he took out Klugmann or not. He was based in Reinbek, running a drugs factory and network from a disused mill. We launched a raid in conjunction with the drugs MEK unit a month back.’

‘Let me guess,’ said Maria, ‘no one was home?’

‘Exactly. In fact the place burst into flames just as we took up position. Some kind of Soviet mine and strategically placed vats of flammable chemicals did the job. Very professional and very thorough. It destroyed any evidence we might have picked up. Since then we’ve been unable to track Redchenko to any particular address, although we do have a couple of operations he visits regularly. Every time he does, we put a tail on him, and every time he loses us. These people could not be better trained. Take Vitrenko himself – it’s not been easy getting information out of the Ukrainians, but from what we have uncovered he served not just with MDV Kondor and Alpha brigades, but also the Vysotniki brigade, as did some of his current group. Vysotniki was – and still is – based on the British Special Air Service model, made up of small operational units of eleven men. From what we have been able to squeeze out of our contacts, Vitrenko set up such a unit in Afghanistan and revived it in Chechnya. But instead of eleven it had thirteen men. We think that’s how many he has with him here.’

‘That fits with our information,’ said Maria.

Volker placed his hands behind his head. ‘Our operation with Klugmann and Tina Kramer was intended to gather intelligence on Vitrenko. I never misled you on that count, Fabel. I do admit that our ultimate objective was to offer him some kind of deal – immunity from prosecution for his organised-crime activity on the condition that he cooperate with the Amis and, of course, that he give up all illegal activities. But it is difficult to make immunity from prosecution sound very inviting when there seems to be almost no chance of you ever being found, far less arrested and enough evidence scraped together to prosecute you. And, of course, if Vitrenko really is behind these killings, then all bets are off.’ He lowered his arms and leaned forward in the chair. ‘You do believe that, don’t you, Fabel?’