‘Where was the man while all this was happening?’ asked Fabel.

‘As soon as the commotion started he must have grabbed his stuff and made a run for it. Down the stairs – he didn’t use the lift. I went straight up to the room with a porter but the guy was gone when we got there.’

‘And the room. Did he pay for it or did she?’

‘He did. Cash. He said he had left his credit-card wallet at home. We usually ask for a credit card so that we can charge anything taken from the mini-bar, but he gave us a hundred-Euro deposit instead.’

‘Let me guess: he didn’t pick up the deposit,’ said Fabel.

Ankowitsch reddened. ‘No.’ Fabel guessed that the deposit would have gone into the manager’s pocket.

‘We need to find this girl,’ said Scholz. ‘You say you have seen her before?’

Ankowitsch looked uneasy. ‘Yes. She’s been here once before. Maybe twice.’

‘And the man?’

‘No. I can’t say I ever saw him before that night.’

‘Do you have any idea where we could find this girl?’ asked Fabel.

Ankowitsch’s unease seemed to intensify. He got the phone directory from under the counter, flicked through it and noted down some details on a pad. He tore the sheet out and held it out to Fabel.

Scholz took it from his hand. ‘Thank you for your cooperation,’ he said.

‘I suspect Herr Ankowitsch has a liking for big bums himself,’ Scholz said to Fabel on the way back to the car. ‘He seemed to be pretty sure which escort agency she worked for.’

Fabel sat back in the passenger seat of Scholz’s VW and suddenly felt very tired. It had been a long day and he had probably had more Kölsch beer than he should have had earlier. He found himself grateful that Scholz was uncharacteristically taciturn as he drove through the city. Fabel watched Cologne go by as they drove, glittering in the blue-black night. Fabel began to realise that it was taking them longer to get back to his hotel and that he didn’t recognise the area they were in. All of a sudden they were down by the Rhine. There was a lot of building going on by the river and the superstructure of two vast buildings, shaped like oversized shipyard cranes, loomed above them. Scholz braked hard as he parked his VW on a concrete slipway and got out, slamming the door and walking to the water’s edge where he stood illuminated in the car headlights.

Fabel got out and stood beside Scholz. There was a moment’s silence as the two men watched a long barge drift by, a flag at the stern flapping in the dark.