Maria’s voice made him jump.

‘The unit we sent down to the harbour has reported in. MacSwain’s boat is gone.’

‘Shit!’ Fabel spat the English word into the small space of the box room.

‘But there’s good news too, Chef …’ said Maria, her pale blue eyes glinting. ‘I’ve had Kommissar Kassel of the WSP on the phone. He was the guy who helped us out when MacSwain took to the water the other night.’

Fabel nodded impatiently.

‘He’s trailing a boat at the moment. It’s heading west along the south coast of the Elbe. He’s sure it’s MacSwain …’

Fabel rushed forward and Maria had to step back swiftly to avoid being knocked over.

‘Paul, Werner, Maria – I want you to come with me.’ He turned to the other two Mordkommission officers ‘Landsmann, Schüler – you wait here in case he turns up.’

Fabel snapped open his cell phone. He spoke as he walked briskly out of MacSwain’s apartment, Werner, Paul and Maria in his wake. ‘Put me through to Kriminaldirektor Van Heiden,’ he said. ‘And do it right away.’

Van Heiden had arranged for the helicopter to be waiting to pick up Fabel and his team from the pad at Landespolizeischule, next to the Präsidium. Buchholz and Kolski were both in custody and, as Fabel had asked, Norbert Eitel’s lawyer had been informed that a police officer had been abducted by MacSwain. As Fabel had predicted, Eitel’s lawyer was very keen to allow his client to make a statement as soon as possible.

Fabel and the others crouched low as they ran towards the helicopter, the rotor blades of which were already slicing through air thick with the smell of aviation fuel and the roar of the helicopter’s engines. Once they were buckled up, the co-pilot handed Fabel a large-scale map of the river as well as a microphone and earpiece headset, gesturing for him to put it on. Fabel could now communicate with the flight crew.

‘You know where we’re headed?’

The pilot gave a sharp nod of his helmeted head.

‘Then let’s go. And patch me through to the WSP launch commander.’

Kassel’s current position was close to the south shore of the section of the Elbe known as the Mühlenberger Loch. They were coming up to Stade and would soon be entering the section of river where the Elbe widened its arms to embrace the North Sea. Kassel explained that they had lost visual contact with MacSwain’s boat – it was just too fast for them – but he was tracking it on radar, and he had scrambled two launches to assist from the WSP Polizeidirektion at Cuxhaven.

Fabel processed the information. They would soon be passing along the shore of the low, flat lands where the drugged girls had been dumped. The thought hit him like a steam hammer. He beckoned for Maria, Paul and Werner to lean in closer. Fabel pushed the microphone arm of his headset down from his mouth and shouted against the whine of the helicopter’s engines.