Romy smiled. ‘No one who knew Geli could ever imagine her taking her own life. She was sunlight. It was him – Bormann. The phone was off the hook, you see. I heard it all – his demands, her cries and pleas, his vicious insults. He said “Die, bitch” and then I heard it – the shot.

‘For a few minutes I heard the sound of him moving around the room, perhaps arranging things. I heard his pig-like breathing. Then finally the phone went dead.’

‘Then you are a witness,’ Wilde said.

‘A witness without evidence. Anyway, what use are witnesses and evidence in Nazi Germany? If you are a Nazi you are innocent – if not, then you are guilty. But I think Geli’s mother also knew the truth about Geli’s death. Someone told me that she left Obersalzberg to get away from Eva Braun. But I think she was getting away from Bormann.

‘After that I watched his rise with increasing alarm, because I knew that Geli and her baby would always haunt him. And I knew that one day he would come after us. But what I don’t understand is how he found Father Huber when he did. That was the day everything fell apart.’

‘The day Huber called you and you went to Jim Vanderberg?’

She nodded. ‘But how? How did Bormann find Huber? Who told him about Braundorf?’

Wilde grimaced. ‘I think I may have an answer to that question for you. Bormann was tipped off by someone in the Göring camp.’

Romy looked confused. ‘What has Fat Hermann got to do with this?’

‘He chanced upon Geli’s mother in Dresden and invited her to Carinhall a few weeks ago.’

‘Don’t tell me. They plied her with drink and she gave up Geli’s secret.’

‘And Bormann’s part in her death.’

‘Ah, that woman! Two glasses of Schnapps and half a litre of beer – that’s all it takes to loosen her stupid tongue. Geli used to laugh about her, but she is a danger to all around her, like a Panzer without brakes or a steering wheel. But what is the link between Göring and Bormann, apart from the fact that they are both big Nazis?’

‘They are engaged in a bitter power struggle. Göring wanted to let Hitler know what Bormann had done to his beloved Geli – for that would most certainly have done for Bormann.’

‘Yes, of course – I see it.’

Romy fished in the cigarette box, but it was empty. She looked beseechingly at Lydia, who shook her head; she had no cigarettes either.

‘And then,’ Wilde continued, ‘Bormann was tipped off – and the race was on. Bormann had to kill Klara, Göring needed her out of the country so she could be used as Allied propaganda. Poor Klara was caught between two warring factions, neither of whom had her interests at heart.’