COLQUHOUN: Then these stories started appearing in the papers, saying Joseph might be a Nazi, a war criminal. And suddenly he was on my back again.

HOGAN: He phoned you at your office?

COLQUHOUN: Yes.

HOGAN: You lied to us about that?

COLQUHOUN: I’m sorry. I panicked.

HOGAN: What was there to panic about?

COLQUHOUN: Just ... I don’t know.

HOGAN: So you met him? To straighten things out?

COLQUHOUN: We had lunch together. He seemed ... lucid. Only what he was saying, it was the stuff of madness. He had a whole history mapped out, only it wasn’t mine. I kept saying to him, ‘Joseph, when the war ended I wasn’t out of my teens.’

Besides, I was born and raised here. It’s all on record.

HOGAN: What did he say to that?

COLQUHOUN: He said records could be faked.

HOGAN: Faked records ... one way Josef Linzstek could have gone undetected.

COLQUHOUN: I know.

HOGAN: You think Joseph Lintz was Josef Linzstek?

COLQUHOUN: I don’t know. Maybe the stories got to him ... he started to believe ... I don’t know.

HOGAN: Yes, but these accusations, they began before the media circus - decades before.

COLQUHOUN: That’s true.

HOGAN: So he was hounding you. Did he say he would go to the media with his version of events?

COLQUHOUN: He may have ... I can’t remember.

HOGAN: Mmm.

COLQUHOUN: You’re looking for a motive, aren’t you? You’re looking for reasons why I’d want him dead.

HOGAN: Did you kill him, Dr Colquhoun?

COLQUHOUN: Emphatically not.

HOGAN: Any idea who did?

COLQUHOUN: No.

HOGAN: Why didn’t you tell us? Why tell lies?

COLQUHOUN: Because I knew this would happen. These suspicions. Stupidly, I thought I could circumvent them.

HOGAN: Circumvent?

COLQUHOUN: Yes.

HOGAN: A young woman was seen dining with Lintz, same restaurant he took you to. Any idea who she might be?

COLQUHOUN: None.

HOGAN: You knew Professor Lintz a long time ... what did you think were his sexual proclivities?

COLQUHOUN: Never thought about it.

HOGAN: NO?

COLQUHOUN: NO.

HOGAN: What about yourself, sir?

COLQUHOUN: I don’t see what that ... well, for the record, Inspector, I’m monogamous and heterosexual.

HOGAN: Thank you, sir. I appreciate your frankness.

Rebus switched off the tape. ‘I’ll bet you did.’

‘What do you think?’

Bobby Hogan asked. ‘I think you mistimed the did you-do-it. Otherwise, not bad.’

Rebus tapped the tape machine. ‘Is there much more?’

‘Not a lot.’

Rebus switched it back on.

HOGAN: When you met in the restaurant, it was the same routine as before?

COLQUHOUN: Oh, yes. Names, dates ... countries I was taken through on my way into Britain from the continent.

HOGAN: He told you how this was achieved?

COLQUHOUN: He called it the Rat Line. Said it was operated by the Vatican, if you can believe that. And all the western governments were in cahoots to get the top Nazis - the scientists and intellectuals - away from the Russians. I mean, really ... it’s Ian Fleming meets John Le Carre, isn’t it?