‘Do you think Hitler would have his own daughter killed?’

‘Good God no. But Bormann would kill her. He has to cover his tracks. He knows his days would be numbered if Hitler ever discovered the truth about Geli’s pregnancy and death. Bormann will be desperate to keep everything under wraps – silence anyone who might know too much.’

‘Including the midwife?’

‘Particularly the midwife, Romy Dietrich. She feared that her phone might already be tapped – and that prevented her getting a warning through to Klara’s adoptive parents. She wanted to use our phones, but I had to tell her that they, too, are compromised. Romy was the only link between Braundorf and little Klara’s new family, you see, so she’s an obvious target. Romy came to me because she had nowhere else to go. Pointless going to the police in a police state. She hoped we might be able to do something to protect the child.’

‘You keep mentioning this guy Bormann, but I’ve got to be honest, Jim, I’ve never heard of the fellow.’

‘Nor have most people in Germany. If they had, they’d be making jokes about him instead of Goebbels. But he’s real enough. I heard about him – and about Eva Braun – through diplomatic gossip. Our endless cocktail parties do serve some purpose, you know. He’s as oily as a snake in slime. Goebbels, who loathes him, hit the nail on the head when he described him to a friend as “a glorified butler”. A butler, maybe – but no butler ever exercised more power. He has made himself very rich, has numerous mistresses, and he’ll do anything – including murder – to please his master. I believed the midwife’s story about him straight away. How would she have made up such a thing?’

‘And how did she find out about his role?’

‘Through Geli herself. Romy wasn’t just the midwife, she was the girl’s friend and confidante. She was also close to Geli’s mother, Hitler’s half-sister. Romy Dietrich says Frau Raubal had her suspicions about Bormann as soon as Geli was killed. She had felt uneasy ever since she foolishly dripped word of the baby into his ear. Apparently it never made sense to Frau Raubal that her daughter had shot herself. She guessed straight away that it was Bormann – but she couldn’t say a word to her brother.’

‘Hitler, you mean?’

Vanderberg nodded. ‘She’s terrified of him.’

‘Where is Geli’s mother now?’

‘Well, she was a widow back in 1931, but five years ago she remarried – a professor – and went to live with him in Dresden.’

‘And Romy, where is she now?’

Vanderberg turned and gave his friend a look of such pain that Wilde shuddered.

‘You don’t think Bormann’s found her?’

‘I have my fears. God, I wish I could have done more for her. But there was no way of getting her out of the country. I didn’t know what to say to the poor woman. All I could do was tell her to keep in touch and that I would see if there was any way of helping her. She told me she had moved out from her home in Kreuzberg and wouldn’t be going back to work, and gave me her new, temporary address. After I saw you in the Adlon air raid cellar and knew you were safely arrived, I went to see Romy first thing this morning – but a cop car was there. And a neighbour said there had been a murder. A woman had had her neck snapped. He thought it was probably the landlady, but I rather think it was probably poor Romy.’