‘Did she give any names?’

‘No.’

‘And the man from Vienna?’

‘No name either; she just said he was a gentleman and very important.’

‘And where exactly is the house?’

‘All she said was that it was near Sattendorf, on the north side of the lake. I didn’t think much of it at the time, not least because Frau Egger is prone to exaggeration and likes to make herself appear important. But when you asked me if I’d come across anything suspicious, I recalled what she’d told me. What do you think?’

Hanne said nothing as she tried to work out what she thought. There was no question in her mind that this could be important, but she wondered how far she could trust Frau Winkler. The alternative, she decided, was to return to Hauptplatz and put it in the hands of Captain Hart and his men, but she wasn’t sure about that either.

‘You say Frau Egger goes to clean the house every day?’

Frau Winkler nodded. ‘Apart from Sundays.’

‘Of course. And how does she get there?’

‘By bus – I see her every morning around eight o’clock waiting at the stop by St Nicholas’s church.’

‘Which bus does she take?’

‘I can’t remember the number – they’ve all changed since the buses started again – but it’s the Bodensdorf service. It starts on Hauptplatz, crosses the river, then stops outside the church, as I say, before heading through the town and along the north side of the lake. It stops at Annenheim, Sattendorf and Deutschberg before Bodensdorf, if that helps you: Klaus and I used to enjoy that trip, it was a lovely outing…’

Hanne leaned forward and took the old woman’s hand. She said she hoped she’d understand if she asked her not to utter a word about this to anyone.

Frau Winkler nodded with the eagerness of a child let in on a secret.

‘Can you tell me how I can identify Frau Egger?’

Frau Winkler described someone of medium height who always wore a dark brown coat and a black beret. It could have been any woman in the town in their sixties.

‘Is there anywhere I could see her, perhaps?’

‘She returns from the house in the middle of the afternoon and goes straight to the bakery across the road from here. There’s usually quite a queue when they reopen at four o’clock, and she’s invariably in it, pushing her way to the front.’

Hanne asked if Frau Winkler could walk past the bakery later on in the afternoon and approach Frau Egger so Hanne could identify her. ‘Perhaps stop and speak with her – maybe put your hand on her shoulder?’

Frau Winkler said that would be no problem. In fact she’d buy some bread while she was at it. ‘You make yourself comfortable: you’ll have a good view from here.’

Hanne left Frau Winkler’s just after four thirty, after watching her hold what appeared to be a friendly conversation with Frau Egger in the queue, placing one hand on her shoulder as they parted. She held it there for slightly longer than Hanne would have liked, but it didn’t seem to bother Frau Egger, and when Frau Winkler glanced up at the window, Frau Egger didn’t notice.