‘Is that what you believe?’ she asked Fabel.

‘No, not necessarily. Not really. I just think it’s an option we should keep open …’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Dr Eckhardt, ‘I just don’t understand: why are you even considering this person as a potential suspect? I don’t see the connection between a dead terrorist and these serial killings …’

‘I admit it’s highly unlikely. And I do accept what Herr Kriminaldirektor Van Heiden says – it probably was Svensson who died in the explosion. But it was the reference to “Son of Sven” that first started me wondering … and the continuous reference to eagles. Svensson’s codename was “Eagle”. Added to that is the weird relationship he had with women.’

‘In what way weird?’

‘He seemed to need to totally dominate them. He was supposedly physically intimate with all of his group. The press dubbed them “Svensson’s Harem”.’

‘And what’s the connection with you?’

‘In 1983 they tried to hold up the main Commerzbank in Paul-Nevermann-Platz. There were three women, members of Svensson’s splinter group. They were on the way out when they stumbled into two uniformed Schutzpolizei on foot patrol. There was an exchange of fire … two of the terrorists and one SchuPo were killed and the other badly wounded. I arrived on the scene as the surviving terrorist made a run for it. I chased her to the waterfront, called for her to drop her gun, but she turned and fired. She hit me in the side and I fired back: two shots in the face and head. She died instantly. Her name was Gisela Frohm. She was seventeen years old. A child.’

‘I see.’ Dr Eckhardt removed her glasses and seemed to appraise Fabel for a moment. ‘I understand you making the link, but I have to say I think that even if this Svensson had survived, he would not be a natural suspect for these killings.’

‘Why not?’

‘He just doesn’t fit the profile – in age, psychology, anything …’ Dr Eckhardt pushed back a lock of thick raven hair that had fallen over her broad brow. She donned the spectacles again before reading from her file. ‘We’ve got two indicators from which to build a profile of our killer: the physical evidence from the murder scenes and the content of the e-mails. The broad profile we have at the moment is: male, anywhere between twenty and forty, but likely to be under thirty. He is clearly intelligent, but perhaps not as intelligent as he thinks he is. Educated to at least Abitur level, he may be a graduate working in a reasonably responsible job which he nevertheless feels is beneath him. Or he may, for some reason, have been diverted from fulfilling what he sees as his full academic potential and is in a lower-grade technical position. If he is a graduate, this would, of course, nudge the lower end of our age range up to about twenty-six.

‘As Frau Klee has already pointed out, he seems to be highly computer literate. He is likely – although not certain – to live alone. The description in the e-mail of social isolation and marginalisation is consistent with the typical profile. He is a loner: someone with a low sense of self-esteem. He feels that his intelligence is undervalued and his potential underdeveloped by the world around him … a world that he has now declared war upon. There may also have been an event – or a sequence of events – in his childhood or youth where a woman has humiliated or dominated him. Alternatively, there may have been an event where he blames his mother for failing to protect him from a domineering or abusive father. Whatever the event, it may have coincided with puberty when masturbatory fantasies may have revolved around violent revenge against women. In which case his loathing and fear of women has become indissolubly linked to sexual arousal. He may be sexually dysfunctional and impotent except when arousal and orgasm is precipitated by extreme violence against women.’