I said I did, and let silence consume the room for several seconds.

‘But you decided to run me anyway.’

He stepped away and laughed a joyless laugh. ‘Believe me, this wasn’t my idea. I pushed for them to recall you, but Farraday told me to make the best of the situation and come out as your control.’

‘Farraday is a fucking fool,’ I said.

He sighed. ‘He’s also our fucking Chief at present, and unless you’re tendering your resignation we are going to do precisely what he fucking says.’

‘What if I refuse?’

‘Apart from getting the sack, you mean?’ He smiled. ‘I’ll blow your cover to the Nigerians and you’ll be locked up and being buggered by the natives before you know it.’

He took off his jacket and placed it over the back of a nearby chair. Then he rolled up his shirtsleeves, revealing pale but muscular forearms. It was a clear signal: beneath the funeral director’s garb was a man it would be wise not to mess with. But I already knew that.

‘Now before you give me a thorough explanation for the complete shambles you seem to have created since arriving here,’ he said, ‘I’d like you to tell me what really happened in Germany in ’45. You can start with Larry.’

He’d thrown it out fast, but I’d been expecting it. ‘I wish I knew,’ I said, and ignored his open look of disbelief. ‘He disappeared looking for Meier,’ I went on. ‘Remember him?’ Pritchard nodded slowly. I took out my pack of Players, lit one, and sucked in the rich welcoming glow. ‘We’d found all the others, but Meier had been much harder. We just hadn’t seemed to be able to pick up his trail. Then, in September, Father announced he had traced him to somewhere near Hamburg. He left in the jeep that afternoon - and never came back. Obviously, something happened with this nurse, and I mean to find out exactly what.’

He pondered this for a moment, then sprung: ‘Why did he leave alone? Why didn’t you go with him?’

‘You remember what happened with Shashkevich,’ I said, and did my best to look ashamed.

‘I see. But why didn’t you mention at the Round Table that you were in Germany at the end of the war?’

I took another drag of my cigarette, and said I could well ask him the same question.

He ran a finger along the mantelpiece, then inspected the dust that had gathered on it. ‘So you were just waiting for me, is that it?’

‘You heard William: there were hundreds of people working in intelligence in Germany at that time.’ I let a note of righteousness creep into my tone. ‘Anyway, we were discussing a traitor in our midst. Your theory was that he might even have been in the room, so it hardly seemed like the best moment to reveal it.’