‘Cologne Criminal Police,’ he said. ‘I want to speak to Herr Ankowitsch, the manager.’

A tall, slim man appeared at reception. ‘Can I help you?’ he asked Scholz. Then, seeing Fabel: ‘Oh, hello again, Herr Fabel … I didn’t expect to see you twice in one day. Is this about the same matter?’

‘No … not related at all …’ Fabel said. He ignored Scholz’s frown.

‘We’re here about an incident on January twentieth,’ said Scholz, turning back to Ankowitsch. ‘You called the police about a disturbance.’

‘Oh, that … that was all dealt with at the time. Something and nothing. A woman was heard to scream from one of the rooms and came running out. But she didn’t want to press charges.’

‘Yes, I know all that. What I want to know about is what she said had happened to her. According to the police report, she claimed someone had bitten her in the arse. Bitten her badly.’

Ankowitsch grinned. ‘Yes, she did, as a matter of fact.’

‘This isn’t a laughing matter. We’re here in case this event is connected to a couple of murders we’re investigating. Now, no bullshit – was she a hooker?’

Ankowitsch leaned over the counter and craned his neck to check there were no guests on the stairs. ‘Yes. Yes, she was. I’ve seen her before. We don’t encourage it but we do turn a bit of a blind eye. There are a lot of ships passing every night of the year here. So long as there is no trouble, and that it is contained and discreet, we don’t delve too deeply into whether the relationships between our guests are personal or professional.’

‘Who was with her?’ asked Fabel.

‘A man, about thirty-five … Well-dressed. Good-looking. I got the impression that they’d been somewhere, well, swankier than here beforehand. She was smartly dressed too.’ Ankowitsch gave a small laugh. ‘Although I must say I thought her choice of costume was a bit ill-advised.’

‘In what way?’ asked Scholz.

‘Well, she was wearing this figure-hugging skirt. Like a nineteen-fifties pencil skirt. It looked expensive, but it was really inappropriate for her.’

Scholz made an impatient face.

‘She had this enormous backside. Huge. She was a really attractive girl otherwise. But it was almost as if she was trying to attract attention to it. That’s why we thought it was so funny … you know, when she came running out later screaming that the guy had bitten it.’

‘Was she badly bitten?’

‘Oh yes … there was quite a lot of blood and one of our Polish girls here, Marta, had to help her. Marta said the bitten girl was Ukrainian, but she understood everything that Marta said to her in Polish. They can understand each other, apparently. Anyway, Marta said it was a really bad bite and told the girl that she would have to go to hospital, but she didn’t want to.’