‘Even then that would only tie him directly in with the attack on her,’ said Fabel. ‘All we’ve got to link him to the murders is the similarity of m.o: the necktie around the victims’ necks and the biting. Circumstantial. Listen, Benni, we may never nail him for the killings, but if we get him for the Reinartz rape and assault, we can at least be content that we’ve taken him off the street for Women’s Karneval Night. We get a conviction and it’ll be a few Karnevals before he sees the light of day again. Only, of course, if we get a DNA match.’

The thought was interrupted by the pale schoolboy face of Kris Feilke appearing around the door.

‘We’ve got the bastard, Benni!’ Kris beamed. ‘We’ve got a perfect match. Oliver Lüdeke is the man who raped Vera Reinartz.’

6.

Andrea opened the door of her apartment to Tansu and Fabel. She was dressed in a short skirt and loose black blouse. There was also a cluster of heavy costume jewellery at each wrist and her face was even more made up than the last time Fabel had seen her. She could not have presented herself more femininely, yet the sheer stockings only served to accentuate the heavy musculature of her thighs, the blouse the breadth of her shoulders and the make-up the masculine angularity of her features. What was it about Andrea Sandow, thought Fabel, that provoked such hostility within him?

‘I was just about to go out,’ she explained.

‘This won’t take long,’ said Fabel and made to enter the apartment. Andrea did not move.

‘I have an appointment. I can’t be late.’

‘We’ve got him, Andrea,’ said Tansu. ‘The man who attacked you eight years ago.’

‘You sure it’s him?’ Whatever Andrea was thinking, it didn’t penetrate the mask.

‘Positive,’ said Fabel. ‘We’ve got a perfect DNA match. It’s a man called Oliver Lüdeke.’

The mask shattered. Andrea gazed at Fabel in disbelief. ‘Oliver Lüdeke?’

‘You know him?’

Andrea stood to one side. ‘You’d better come in. I have to make a call – see if I can put back my appointment …’

7.

Again, Maria found herself anchorless in time. She had no idea how long she had been asleep or unconscious. It could have been a few minutes or a few days. Her first awareness on awakening was pain: in her ribs, in her face, and a hot, sharp tingling on her rasped skin. Maria grabbed onto the pain. It was the lesson that Vitrenko had taught her: that pain meant life.