‘Mmm …’ said Fabel, but he looked back in Ansgar’s direction and noticed that Tansu was doing the same.

In the car Scholz didn’t start the ignition.

‘Well, that was on the bizarre side of weird,’ he said. ‘She looks like some kind of bad drag act. What the hell is all that about?’

‘What she went through would be enough to knock anyone off kilter,’ said Tansu. ‘My guess is she’s rejecting her own femininity. No matter what she says, I think she blames herself for what happened to her.’

‘No,’ said Fabel. ‘She blames Vera Reinartz for what happened. As though Vera was a different person. Did you notice how often she referred to her past self in the third person?’

‘It’s the name these letters were signed with that interests me,’ said Scholz. ‘Peter Stumpf. I’m now convinced that whoever attacked Andrea is our killer. You were right all along, Jan.’

‘Actually, it was Tansu who came up with it first.’

‘This is a nice lyrical touch,’ said Scholz, ignoring Fabel’s correction. ‘A local reference. Out to the west of Cologne there’s a town called Bedburg. Peter Stumpf was Bedburg’s most famous resident. Or infamous. He lived there in the sixteenth century. The Beast of Bedburg – one of the first serial killers recorded in Germany. He also had the most horrific execution ever recorded.’

‘So Andrea’s rapist and tormentor is referencing this Peter Stumpf. Why does that make you believe he’s our Karneval Cannibal?’

‘Because that’s exactly what Peter Stumpf was. A cannibal. He was supposed to have eaten dozens of victims. He also claimed he was a shape-shifter who had sold his soul to Satan for the ability to turn into a wolf. Stumpf said he preferred to remain in human form to rape his victims before turning into a wolf to eat them. Maybe our killer believes he has transformed a rapist to a cannibal.’

‘I think that’s stretching it, but I agree – he may be trying to say he undergoes some kind of transformation. Maybe it’s the clown disguise. What’s more important is that it means we have his DNA from the attack on Vera … or Andrea. You said Stumpf had the worst execution on record. Is that significant?’