‘There’s this lady,’ I said. ‘Her husband hired me to do a job for him. She thought that I’d been hired to look through her keyhole. So last night she has me round to her place, asks me to lay off and accuses me of lying when I tell her that I’m not concerned who she’s sleeping with. Then she throws me out. Next thing I know there’s this pear-head standing in my doorway with a lighter poked in my gut, accusing me of raping the lady. We dance around the room a while, and in the process the gun goes off. My guess is that the kid was in a swarm about her, and that she knew it.’

‘And so she put him up to it, right?’

‘That’s the way I see it. But try and make it stick and see how far you’d get.’

‘I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me the name of this lady, or her husband, are you?’ I shook my head. ‘No, I thought not.’

The film was starting: called The Higher Order, it was one of those patriotic little entertainments that the boys in the Ministry of Propaganda had dreamed up on a bad day. Stahlecker groaned.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go and get a drink. I don’t think I can stand watching this shit.’

We went to the Wild West Bar on the first floor, where a band of cowboys were playing Home on the Range. Painted prairies covered the walls, complete with buffalo and Indians. Leaning up against the bar, we ordered a couple of beers.

‘I don’t suppose any of this would have something to do with the Pfarr case, would it, Bernie?’

‘I’ve been retained to investigate the fire,’ I explained. ‘By the insurance company.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll tell you this just the once, and then you can tell me to go to hell. Drop it. It’s a hot one, if you’ll pardon the expression.’

‘Bruno,’ I said, ‘go to hell. I’m on a percentage.’

‘Just don’t say I didn’t warn you when they throw you into a KZ.’

‘I promise. Now unpack it.’

‘Bernie, you’ve got more promises than a debtor has for the bailiff.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘Well, here’s what there is.’