‘1911 – don’t you remember? You sent me off on a boat so I could get thrashed and buggered at prep school. Don’t you remember that, Daddy?’

‘Damned pup! I won’t have that sort of language. Get out.’

‘I was rather hoping for some money, actually. Think of it as an advance on my inheritance. I’m a bit strapped for cash at the moment. Came over from Germany at a moment’s notice, you see. Didn’t have time to go to the bank.’

His mother was shaking. ‘Give him some money, Henry. Anything. Please.’

‘Thank you, Mummy. I’m so glad one of you still loves her little creature. You must have missed your creature all these years.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m the creature, am I not? Isn’t that what you called me?’

‘Ten pounds,’ Henry Young said, his red face turning puce. ‘I can give you ten pounds, but I want you out of this house – and I never wish to see you again.’

Jung stood up and walked to the fireplace. He drew his forearm along the mantelpiece, knocking a lifetime’s collection of ornaments down onto the hearthstone, sending shards of glass and porcelain spraying onto the carpet. He walked over to his mother, who was struggling to get out of her chair, and slapped her cheek hard.

‘Please don’t get up, Mummy,’ he hissed, baring his teeth.

His father was hobbling to her assistance. ‘What do you think you’re doing!’

In answer he grabbed his father by the balls and squeezed hard.

‘Let’s say five hundred, shall we? And then we’ll call it quits. What do you say to that, Daddy? You don’t want me to cause a scene, do you? Think of the laundry bills . . .’

*

Wilde was dismayed. He had been played for a fool.

‘What do you hope to gain from this, Cashbone?’

‘Peace, Wilde. That’s what we all want, isn’t it – peace for the children of the world. Peace for your own little boy.’

‘What’s that got to do with Klara?’

‘Think it through. We now have the means to reveal the truth about Geli Raubal and her affair with Hitler, the truth about the birth of Klara and Geli’s murder. None of this could have been done inside Germany with the Nazis in control of the press and wireless. But we can provide detailed evidence, with photographs and scientific comparisons of features, dates and locations of conception and birth. It’ll be all over the world’s newspapers and airwaves. There will be leaflet drops over Germany and the occupied territories. The German people will know the truth soon enough.’

‘And then what?’