‘Exocannibalism is when you eat a stranger, endocannibalism is when you eat someone from your own tribe or culture.’

‘So endocannibalism is having granny for dinner …’ said Scholz. ‘But all this is very rare, isn’t it?’

‘Not as rare as you’d think. We’ve all done it, every culture, at some point in our history. Ritual mortuary endocannibalism was a European thing in the Stone Age.’

‘And what’s that in plain German?’

‘When a relative died, for example, there would be a sort of funeral feast, except it was the dear departed, specifically their brain, that was the main course. Archaeologically it was a significant discovery. It shows that as early as the Stone Age we had the idea that the mind, or the spirit, was seated in the brain. Close family members would eat parts of the brain to absorb something of the spirit of their ancestor. It makes sense, I suppose, in a sort of pre-scientific way. And if, in plain German, you want evidence of people eating people, you only need to go a hundred or so kilometres from where we’re sitting. The caves near Balve on the Hönne River. Archaeologists found evidence of it there.’

‘So what motivates our guy to cut out such a precise amount?’

Fabel was about to answer when the food arrived. ‘This looks good,’ he said. The lamb ragout with its fig-and-vegetable dressing had been arranged on the plate like a work of art. He took a mouthful. ‘Mmmm … tastes good too. Good choice, Benni.’ The lamb melted on his tongue. After a moment, Fabel continued. ‘Anyway, to answer your question … the Karneval Killer takes a precise amount of flesh because that’s the portion he wants. Just as we go into a butcher shop and order a kilo of mince. The other thing is that our killer doesn’t have an abstract connection with food.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Take this meal,’ explained Fabel. ‘You and I are sitting here eating lamb ragout … but the word “lamb” in this context conjures up only the idea of a type of food. We don’t think about a young sheep, or particularly about it being killed, skinned and gutted. Even in a butcher’s shop, we see a cut of meat and don’t really visualise it as an animal’s body part. Similarly, when you see a cow or a lamb in a field, or a duck in a pond, you don’t start salivating and thinking, oh, I’ll have some of that.’

‘I’m sorry, said Scholz, his mouth full. ‘I don’t see your point.’