‘I don’t know why we’re having this fight …’ Fabel sat down again. His voice was tired. ‘I keep telling you, I’m finished with the Murder Commission. With the Polizei Hamburg.’

‘We’re having this fight because you won’t commit to anything.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘You know what it means, Jan. It was your idea for us to move in together, but we’ve been looking at apartments for months. It doesn’t matter what part of town, what type of apartment, you just walk away shrugging your shoulders. You can’t commit to changing jobs and you can’t commit to me. Why don’t you just admit it?’

‘How many times have I got to say this, Susanne? I turned them down. Flat. And my resignation is final. In five weeks’ time I cease to be a policeman.’ Fabel stood up and placed his hands on Susanne’s shoulders. ‘And I can’t help it if we haven’t seen an apartment that I like. That doesn’t mean I’m not committed to you. You know I am.’

‘Are you?’ She pushed his hands away. ‘Then why have you been so distant? For the last couple of months. I don’t know what it is I’ve said or done, but you’ve been strange with me. Cold.’

‘That’s nonsense …’ said Fabel.

‘Is it?’ Susanne gestured to the case material on the coffee table. ‘And what about this? Is it nonsense that you’re taking on a new case when you’re supposed to be finishing up?’

‘Yes, it is. I told you. I’ve been asked to offer an opinion. That’s all.’

‘And of course you couldn’t say no.’

‘No, I couldn’t. Whether you like it or not, Susanne, I’m a policeman for the next five weeks.’

Susanne turned and went back to bed and Fabel stood silently for a moment, looking at the closed bedroom door. Then he sat down and turned his mind again to a distant city and the deaths of two young women in it.

Fabel suddenly became aware that daylight was beginning to fill his flat and a leaden tiredness his body. He had been reading, comparing, taking notes for over three hours. It remained the assumption of the investigating officer, Scholz, that the two victims had been chosen entirely at random. But Fabel had noticed something as he had examined the morgue photographs of the victims: despite the difference in their heights, both women had slightly pear-shaped figures, with a fleshiness around their bottoms, lower belly and thighs.

Fabel read Scholz’s notes:

There is no evidence of pre-mortem disfigurement. The comparative lack of blood loss from the site suggests that the victims were first strangled with a ligature, and fibres found embedded in the abraded skin on the necks confirm that the ties left at the scenes were the murder weapons. Inconsistent fibres were found on the tie used in the first murder. These fibres were unusual in colour and composition: blue felt. Once the victims were dead, the perpetrator partially stripped them, turned them face down in the pose in which they were found, and then, post-mortem, excised a quantity of flesh from the buttock or upper thigh of the victims. There is clearly a significance in this disfigurement. The perpetrator removes the flesh symbolically. A point of interest is the quantity of flesh removed. It is possible by exact measurement of the excised area to calculate accurately the weight of flesh removed. In the first case, 0.47 kilos were taken, and 0.4 kilos were cut from the second victim. The similarity in weight seems too close to be coincidental and would suggest that the killer has some expertise in measuring quantities. There is also no deviation from or correction of his incisions. These two facts would suggest that he may be someone used to working with quantities of meat and could be involved in butchery or meat rendering as a career. Similarly, he may be a surgeon or otherwise medically qualified.