I grinned at him. ‘Oh, can’t I?’ I took a long pull at my smoke, and blew it in his face. I said: ‘On your last little visit to Tillessen’s joint you kindly left your pay-slip behind. I found it in the incinerator, next to the murder weapon. That’s how I managed to track you down here. Of course it’s not there now, but I could easily put it back. The police haven’t yet found the body, but that’s only because I haven’t had time to tell them. That pay-slip puts you in an awkward situation. Next to the murder weapon, it’s more than enough to send you to the block.’

‘What do you want?’

I sat down opposite him. ‘Answers,’ I said. ‘Look, friend, if I ask you to name the capital of Mongolia you’d better give me an answer or I’ll have your fucking head for it. Do you understand?’ He shrugged. ‘But we’ll start with Kurt Mutschmann, and what the two of you did when you came out of Tegel.’

Bock sighed heavily and then nodded. ‘I got out first. I decided to try and go straight. This isn’t much of a job, but it’s a job. I didn’t want to go back in the cement. I used to go back to Berlin for the odd weekend, see? Stay at Tillessen’s bang. He’s a pimp, or was. Sometimes he fixed me up with a bit of plum.’ He tucked the cigarette into the corner of his mouth and rubbed the top of his head. ‘Anyway, a couple of months after I got out, Kurt finished his cement and went to stay with Tillessen. I went to see him, and he told me that the ring were going to fix him up with his first bit of thieving.

‘Well, the same night I saw him, Red Dieter and a couple of his boys turn up. He more or less runs the ring, you understand. They’ve got this older fellow with them, and start working him over in the dining room. I stayed out of the way in my room. After a while Red comes in and tells Kurt that he wants him to do a safe, and that he wants me to drive. Well, neither of us was too happy about it. Me, because I’d had enough of all that sort of thing. And Kurt because he’s a professional. He doesn’t like violence, mess, you know. He likes to take his time, too. Not just go straight ahead and do a job without any real planning.’

‘This safe: did Red Dieter find out about it from the man in the dining room, the man being beaten up?’ Bock nodded. ‘What happened then?’