‘That’s not to say that men of action do not have a place in Sipo. But after all is said and done, it is the men of thought who must make the decisions. Why do you suppose that the Germania Life Assurance Company did not see fit to inform us of the existence of this necklace?’ The way he moved imperceptibly on to his question almost took me unawares.

‘Perhaps nobody asked them,’ I said hopefully. There was a long silence.

‘But the place was gutted,’ said Dietz in an anxious sort of way. ‘Normally the insurance company would have informed us.’

‘Why should they?’ I said. ‘There hadn’t been a claim. But just to be neat they retained me, in case there should be.’

‘Are you telling us that they knew that there was a valuable necklace in that safe,’ said Jost, ‘and yet were prepared not to pay out on it; that they were prepared to withhold valuable evidence?’

‘But did you think to ask them?’ I repeated again. ‘Come now, gentlemen, these are businessmen we’re talking about, not the Winter Relief. Why should they be in such a hurry to get rid of their money that they press someone to make a claim and take several hundred thousand Reichsmarks off their hands? And who should they pay out to?’

‘The next of kin, surely,’ said Jost.

‘Without knowing who had title, and to what? Hardly,’ I said. ‘After all, there were other items of value in that safe which had nothing to do with the Six family, is that not so?’ Jost looked blank. ‘No, Kommissar, I think your men were too busy worrying about the papers belonging to Herr Von Greis to bother with finding out what else might have been in Herr Pfarr’s safe.’

Dietz didn’t like that one bit. ‘Don’t get smart with us, mulemouth,’ he said. ‘You’re in no position to charge us with incompetence. We’ve got enough to kick you all the way to the nearest KZ.’

Jost pointed the stem of his pipe at me. ‘In that at least he is right, Gunther,’ he said. ‘Whatever our shortcomings were, you are the man with his neck on the block.’ He sucked on his pipe, but it was empty. He started to fill it again.

‘We’ll check your story,’ he said, and ordered Dietz to telephone the Lufthansa desk at Tempelhof to see if there was a reservation for the evening flight to London in the name of Teichmüller. When Dietz said there was, Jost lit his pipe; between puffs he said: ‘Well then, Gunther, you’re free to leave.’