‘We aren’t Germans,’ the older man said as the four of them sat around the kitchen table. ‘You should understand that we are on the same side as you. I will tell you what we know and then you will tell us what you know.’

He opened a packet of cigarettes and placed it in front of him. Hanne reckoned he was in his fifties, his eyes red with exhaustion.

‘We know you’re on the trail of a Nazi escape line – the Kestrel Line – which is connected to Villach. We know the Kestrel Line is organised by an Austrian Nazi called Wolfgang Steiner and that his son Friedrich is one of the fugitives on it. We know too that there is a possibility that Martin Bormann is also on it. We’re aware that you’re working for the British. We’ve been watching you since you arrived here and we believe you may have a lead – we suspect you think the house you were watching in the woods may be connected to the Kestrel Line. This is all correct?’

Hanne said nothing. A younger woman had come into the room and sat down. All four now watched Hanne closely. ‘Can I ask who you are?’ she said eventually.

‘I’ll tell you who we are and you will answer our questions.’ It was the woman who’d just come into the room. Although she was the youngest of the four, she had an air of authority about her. ‘My name is Marija, this is Branka.’ She pointed at the other woman and then towards the two men: ‘Edvard and Jožef. Your name is Hanne, isn’t it?’

Hanne nodded.

‘Are you on your own in Villach?’

‘Not quite.’

‘With your husband?’

She shook her head.

‘We’re Slovenian partisans – members of Osvobodilna Fronta Slovenskega Naroda, the Liberation Front of Slovenia, which is part of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army. You may have heard of our leader, Tito: the Yugoslav partisans were the most successful resistance organisation in Nazi-occupied Europe.’

The others nodded and Marija paused as she lit a cigarette. ‘The Nazis divided Slovenia into three zones – one controlled by the Germans, one by Italy and the other by Hungary. It was a brutal occupation, especially in the German area. The centre of that was Maribor, which is the second largest city in Slovenia and is where we’re from. Maribor traditionally had a large German-speaking minority and the Germans wanted to turn the area into a German one. The oppression of the Slovenes was dreadful.

‘The Gestapo in Maribor was based at Kersnikova, and I don’t think I need to tell you how cruel they were. Many civilians were murdered. In the summer of 1944, a new Gestapo officer by the name of König arrived at Kersnikova. There is no question he was the worst of the lot.’

‘The man was a psychopath.’ It was the first time the younger man, Jožef, had spoken.

‘Every Gestapo and SS officer who served in Maribor was a war criminal, and those who were still alive at the end of the war are now in our custody.’