‘Mainly. But not exclusively. Tell me, will he be released pending trial?’

‘Not if we can help it,’ said Fabel.

‘Don’t worry, Andrea,’ said Tansu. ‘We’ll keep him away from you.’

‘I’m not worried,’ said Andrea, again with the hard, male stare. ‘Like I said, it’s he who should worry if we were ever to come across each other again.’

On the way back to Tansu’s car, Fabel looked back at Andrea’s apartment building as if he could read an answer from it.

‘What’s up?’ asked Tansu.

‘Did you see the way Andrea was dressed?’

‘She looked like she was going out on a date. To be honest, without the muscle behind it I would have called that outfit almost tarty. What about it?’

‘That’s it,’ said Fabel. ‘She looked as if she was dressed for a date but she kept on talking about an appointment. Like it was business. I have the weirdest idea … Don’t laugh, but I think our musclewoman moonlights. As a hooker.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Women’s Karneval Night. 23 February.

1.

The world had gone mad by the time Fabel walked into the Cologne Police Presidium. Today was Women’s Karneval Day and even the security officers were wearing fancy dress. In the Murder Commission, Benni Scholz was sitting behind his desk wearing full uniform – except, Fabel noticed, it was a female officer’s uniform.

‘Now, Principal Chief Commissar Fabel,’ said Scholz in warning. ‘Don’t start getting ideas …’

Tansu Bakrac came in wearing an all-in-one catsuit, complete with fluffy ears and painted-on whiskers. Fabel found himself noticing her curves. Kris Feilke was dressed as a Wild West sheriff. The rest of the officers were similarly attired, including – rather inappropriately, thought Fabel – several dressed as clowns.

‘I must say, Jan,’ said Tansu in mock reproach, ‘you could have made an effort.’

The truth was that Fabel did feel rather out of place without a fancy-dress outfit. Instead, he was dressed in his usual Jaeger sports jacket, black roll-neck and chinos. At least he’d remembered not to wear a tie.

The team assembled in Scholz’s office.

‘Okay,’ Scholz said, summoning as much seriousness as his outfit would allow. ‘All of you are on duty until midnight, after which we’re all going to the pub where we’re going to show our Hamburg colleague here what a real party is like. Until then, however, I want you to stick to the routes you’ve been allocated and keep your eyes peeled. The Karneval Cannibal has always struck before midnight on Women’s Karneval Night. Of course, we have our number one suspect banged up and if we make it until midnight without incident, then it proves we’ve got the right man.’

Scholz spent a further ten minutes confirming which teams were covering which routes and repeating his order that no one was to touch a drop until they got the all-clear from him.