‘Anything?’ Fabel asked the trooper at the top of the stairwell.

He shook his head. ‘All quiet. I reckon we’ve got a multiple. No crying, no movement.’

‘Okay.’ Fabel edged along the landing while Breidenbach trained his weapon on the closed apartment door.

‘Herr Aichinger …’ Fabel called towards the apartment. ‘Herr Aichinger, this is Principal Chief Commissar Fabel of the Polizei Hamburg.’

Silence.

‘Herr Aichinger, can you hear me?’ Fabel waited a moment for a reply that did not come. ‘Herr Aichinger, is there anyone hurt in there? Does anyone need help?’

Again silence, but a faint shadow moved across the frosted glass of the small square window set into the apartment door. Breidenbach adjusted his aim and Fabel held up a cautionary hand to the young MEK man.

‘Herr Aichinger, we – I – want to help you. You’ve got yourself into a situation and I know that right now you can’t see your way out of it. I understand that. But there’s always a way out. I can help you.’

Again there was no reply, but Fabel heard the sound of the latch being taken off the door. It opened a few centimetres. All three MEK troopers moved forward, keeping their aim locked onto the open door.

Fabel frowned a warning at the three MEK men.

‘Do you want me to come in, Herr Aichinger? Do you want to talk to me?’

‘No!’ hissed Breidenbach. ‘You can’t go in there.’

Fabel dismissed him with an annoyed shake of the head.

Breidenbach inched closer to him. ‘I can’t let you make a present of yourself as a hostage. I think you should go back outside, Chief Commissar.’

‘I’ve got a gun!’ The voice from inside the apartment was tight with fear.

‘We’re very much aware of that, Herr Aichinger,’ Fabel talked to the crack in the door. ‘And as long as you keep hold of that gun, you are placing yourself in danger. Please, slide it out of the door and we can talk.’

‘No. No, I won’t. But you can come in. Slowly. If you want to talk, you come in here.’

Breidenbach shook his head vigorously.

‘Listen, Herr Aichinger,’ said Fabel, ‘I’m not pretending it isn’t a very complicated problem we have here. But we can solve it without anyone getting hurt. And we can do that in easy stages. I have to tell you that I have armed officers out here. If they think I am under threat they will fire. And I’m sure that if you think you are in danger you will do the same. What we need to do is move back from that situation. But we have to do that one step at a time. Agreed?’

There was a pause. Then: ‘I don’t want a solution. I want to die.’

‘That’s silly, Herr Aichinger. Nothing … no problem … is so hopeless that it’s better to die.’ Fabel looked around at the MEK men. In his mind he could see only too clearly that there would be three dead children and a dead wife lying in the apartment. And if Aichinger was determined to die, then this could end with ‘suicide by cop’. All he had to do was run out onto the landing waving his rifle around and Breidenbach and his colleagues would gladly oblige him.