Vargas took his usual seat at the table, opposite Sophia’s younger sister, Nadia. Her parents, Rebeca and Gabriel, took the other two seats and his father-in-law recited a short Hebrew prayer before they set about tackling the chopped liver. Gabriel was a second-generation immigrant whose parents had escaped from Germany in 1937, four years after Hitler’s election as chancellor. At that time, Jews were not yet stigmatised as enemies of the state, but the writing was clearly on the wall as the Nazi Party tightened its grip on power and began to seed its poison among the German people through relentless propaganda.

Vargas winced slightly as Gabriel leant across and filled his wine glass, then braced himself and took a sip. Gabriel smiled knowingly, shook his head, and downed his in one.

“Nic, seems like you are working on the hottest crime in history. The papers are full of it. Two gangs killing each other to get their hands on the contents of those stolen boxes. They say the haul could be worth over a hundred million.”

Vargas wasn’t sure if the last comment was a statement or a question but knew he had to keep to the official story. “Well, one thing’s for sure. It’s a bloody mess and at the moment we have more questions than answers. It’s still early days in the investigation but we’ll get there in the end.”

Gabriel didn’t seem happy with the bland reply but before he could follow up, Vargas switched the subject with a massive gear change. “I’ve never really asked you about your parents before, of their lives in Germany. I know they left in the nineteen thirties. Did they lose family members?”

Gabriel was clearly stunned by the question, and there was a gaping silence before Rebeca spoke. “What a strange question. You’ve never brought this up before. Why now?”

Vargas could sense the tension he’d unwittingly created and leaned forward towards his father-in-law. “Gabriel, the last thing I want to do is upset you, but I’m really interested in your family history and it’s a strange thing that we’ve never discussed it. But if it’s not the right moment—”

“They escaped just in time. My father’s three brothers and two sisters were arrested a few months later and sent to Treblinka, a death camp in Poland. They were all married and between them had nine children, my cousins. None of them survived the camp. The Nazis butchered all of them.”

Gabriel’s voice began to break, and his eyes welled up as he slumped back in his chair. Vargas was stunned by Gabriel’s story and amazed he’d never heard it before. But, then again, it had always seemed a taboo subject and, selfishly, he’d never really thought about it, as the events seemed to have happened so long ago.