They sat down by the window in the canteen. Fabel had ordered a coffee and split roll with ham. He found it difficult to eat. His hangover combined with an aversion to meat that had grown over the course of this case. He sat at the window that looked out over the alien life of this strange city. His longing to go home was still there, but he knew that he would come back to Cologne. He would have to. It was a city that got under your skin.

‘Listen, Benni,’ he said at last, ‘I’ve kept my side of the bargain. I’ve helped you nail your cannibal. Now it’s your turn. I’m worried about Maria Klee. I need your help to find her. And forget the need to be discreet. I’m going to talk to the Federal Crime Bureau as well. If we don’t find her soon she’s going to end up revealing herself to Vitrenko and get herself killed.’

‘I’m already on it.’ Scholz smiled. ‘You see? I do keep my promises. I’ve sent out uniformed teams to check all the hotels. I’ve had copies made of the photograph you gave me and told the uniforms that she may have dyed her hair black.’

‘Thanks, Benni. I need to get out there too.’

‘I’m going to need you here. At least for the next couple of days, to help me question Andrea Sandow. But that won’t take up all our time, mainly because I don’t think we’re going to get a word out of her. In between we can coordinate the search for Maria.’

After lunch they headed down to the interview room. Andrea Sandow was brought in, washed clean of make-up and with her hair scraped back severely. Her face naked of cosmetics looked even more masculine. Scholz led the questioning, but Andrea never broke her silence and kept her fixed, hard gaze focused on Fabel. After twenty fruitless minutes they gave up.

‘We’ll see what the shrink has to say later today,’ said Scholz. ‘But I have to say that Andrea seems to have something going on with you. It was as if I wasn’t there.’

‘Yeah,’ said Fabel. ‘But I got the idea that my presence was making things worse.’

‘Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off? You look pretty washed out after last night.’

‘Maria …’

‘By the time you get back I’ll have chased up the uniforms and we’ll see if we’ve got any leads on her whereabouts,’ said Scholz. ‘In the meantime, why don’t you chill out? After all, you’ve just completed your last murder case.’

Fabel smiled wearily. ‘Maybe you’re right. I could do with a rest.’

Fabel accepted a lift in a patrol car back to his hotel.