‘Well, for pity’s sake, don’t let the Führer see you or he’ll think you’re a homosexual and have you shot. Charlie, you know I am beginning to think a few months in Dachau would do you the world of good after all. Toughen you up.’

Jung tried to smile, but it was becoming difficult to maintain his cool demeanour.

‘Your message has got through to me, Martin.’

‘Herr Reichsleiter. You call me Herr Reichsleiter.’

‘Forgive me, Herr Reichsleiter, I promise I will do my very best on your behalf. For you are right, I owe you my whole world.’

‘Then here it is. Klara Rieger is ten years old. When you have done with her you will dispose of her corpse in a way that ensures it will never be found. By fire, in the depths of the sea or acid – I don’t care – so long as the body is gone for ever. And you will kill anyone associated with her.’

Charlie Jung nodded. He was feeling a little sick.

‘She lives at a house named Der Steinhof in the village of Kossertheim, north of Berlin to the west of the Schorfheide. Her adoptive father Matthias was a schoolmaster and is now dead, as is the mother. But Klara Rieger vanished and is still missing. Kalt and his man Brunner found a car nearby, the engine warm. They burnt it out but gave me the number. It belonged to Generalmajor Werner Somerfeld of the Luftwaffe. You have heard of him?’

‘Of course, but he is dead, isn’t he? I thought his plane blew up a few months ago. It made the wireless broadcasts and newspapers.’

‘Which means the car belonged to his wife. Somerfeld was never trusted by the Party, nor was his wife. They are of that class . . . well, you know the sort. They think themselves Junkers, a cut above us, Charlie. But they will all get their deserts when the war is over and they’re no longer needed.’

‘So you think Frau Somerfeld is somehow involved in this girl’s disappearance?’

‘I think it’s clear-cut, don’t you.’

‘So find the woman and I find the girl.’

‘There’s something else. Kalt found out the whereabouts of the girl from a midwife named Romy Dietrich. She is of no importance and will have been despatched by now, but there was something curious about her movements in the days before Kalt got to her. It seems she entered the American embassy and there met one of the senior men, James Vanderberg.’

‘Is he involved?’