The FBI director glanced at the papers, which he handled like a stick of dynamite. “It took us a while to break it open but the pay off was worth it. The documents it contained were highly disturbing and, evidently, Franklin intended they would only ever be for his eyes. It turns out, among other things, Hitler’s son was a serial womaniser. For many years he maintained relationships with a string of women who lived in a number of luxury apartments, situated across different districts in San Francisco. He kept in-depth files on all of these women – their entire life stories are chronicled in these documents. They were all carefully vetted by private detectives before ever meeting Franklin, and, what’s more, they all shared something in common. In every case they had no surviving close family to speak of and few close associates in their lives.”

Hembury couldn’t resist butting in. “How many women are we talking about here?”

“A great many, lieutenant. The paperwork covers the last forty years, and they reveal the identities of twenty-five women. However, the fact that Franklin was something of a Lothario is not really of interest to us but the files also revealed other information that is deeply concerning. In four instances, it appears a child was conceived, three boys and a girl. In every case, shortly after the birth, the woman concerned simply disappeared without trace, leaving the baby parentless. We know from our interrogation with Aaron Wicks, the hitman who tried to take you out, that he was employed by Franklin to murder one of his girlfriends two years ago. On that basis we have to assume a similar fate befell the mothers of his children.”

Vargas just beat Hembury to the obvious question. “So what happened to the children?”

“Chief inspector, it appears that in all four cases a highly respected private agency specialising in inter-country adoption placed the babies with who, at first glance, appear to be suitable and respectable families. The boys were sent to New York, London and Sydney and the girl to Buenos Aires. However, after further investigation, we discovered the male partner in each household was a senior employee of the Franklin Corporation. Also, it transpires that Richard Franklin was on the board of the adoption agency and held a controlling financial interest in the holding company running it. Once again, he was pulling the strings behind the scenes.”

Hembury nodded grimly at the FBI director. “So what you’re saying is, even though we believe John Franklin may be dead, Hitler has four surviving grandchildren, living on different continents. Probably being brought up by Nazi sympathisers.”