She nodded. ‘I use it as infrequently as possible, and I try to keep moving it around the area, or I’ll be discovered rather quickly. I think a little message to Herr Bormann might be in order. Just to say you’re here.’

‘Of course.’

‘But first I want to help you. I have heard this name Wilde before. Cambridge professor of history, yes? There was a story in the Cambridge News two years ago, just after the start of the war. He was named in it, I remember that much, as was one of his undergraduates, a young man who had gone off to the Spanish War. There were some strange elements to the story and I got a feeling it wasn’t fully reported, that something was being covered up by the intelligence services.’

‘What happened?’

‘All I can tell you is that there were two – no, three – murders, which is a very unusual thing in this part of the world. A house burned down and there was a court case. What I’ll do is look through the address book with great care – it’s quite possible that a name will ring a bell.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I want to help you in any way I can. I may have a little arthritis nowadays, but I’m quite robust, you know.’

‘I’m sure you are.’

‘But just wait until you see what I have for you. Have you heard of a Sten gun? It’s a British weapon. I’m told it’s very reliable. It’s in the garden shed.’

When they had finished their tea, they strolled down to the end of the garden. In a box on the floor of her preternaturally tidy shed was the gun, wrapped in oily rags, along with several boxes of ammunition.

‘How did you acquire this, Mrs V?’

‘The same way I got the transmitter. Our masters in Berlin make sure we’re properly equipped. You don’t need to know more.’

He weighed the weapon in his arms. It had a nice feel to it.

‘There’s a disused quarry a few hundred yards beyond my garden. Why don’t you go and fire off a few rounds there? Get a feel for it. No one will hear you.’

She reminded him of his great aunt, Mab as she had been known. Mab was the one relative he had had time for out of the crew of reluctant aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents and casual acquaintances who had taken him in during school holidays. Of the whole unpleasant bunch, Mab was the only one who had seemed at all pleased to see him when he turned up with his trunk and tuck box.

One day he overheard Mab talking to a friend.

‘She never could stand him, you know. Loathed the sight of him from the day he was born. She never even used his name when talking about him. Called him The Creature.’