As they left the airport behind, Petra said, ‘I managed to get you an apartment in Carol’s building. You’re a couple of floors below her, but it’s easy to come and go without anyone seeing you.’

‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I understand you two are meeting in a women’s health club to do your debriefs?’

‘That’s right. I’m afraid you won’t be able to join us there,’ Petra said with a grin.

‘No, but I can see Carol in the apartment block, and I can presumably meet you at your office? I’m going to need access to all the case materials that you can get for me, so that would probably be the best place.’

Petra pulled a face. ‘That might be a bit of a problem, Tony. You see, officially I’m not supposed to have anything to do with the serial killer cases yet. So if you show up at the office, my boss is going to ask some very difficult questions. How would you feel about working in my apartment? It’s quite civilized, really. All the materials I have are there anyway.’

‘That’s fine by me, as long as you don’t mind having me under your feet. I tend to work quite long hours. And I’m eager to get moving on this profile right away.’

‘I have the case information from Heidelberg and Leiden. And I’ve sent Bremen a request for their investigation reports, so we should have some material from them soon. I told them I believed their case might connect to one of our on-going investigations. I think they were quite relieved at the idea of sharing the load. They’re a small force, they don’t have much experience with anything out of the ordinary.’

‘Good. I need as much information as I can get.’

‘I’m glad we tempted you out of retirement.’ He gave her a quick sideways glance. If she was sufficiently driven by her ambition to be operating outside the rules, he didn’t think she would mind that he too was bringing his own agenda to this case. ‘It was more than that. I knew Margarethe Schilling.’

‘Shit,’ Petra said. ‘I’m sorry. Carol didn’t tell me.’

‘Carol doesn’t know. Did you get the chance to tell her I’m on my way?’ he added, wanting to move away from the painful subject of Margarethe’s death.

‘I hope you don’t mind, but I didn’t tell her yet. She has her first encounter with Radecki this evening, and it’s important she stays focused on that.’

‘You’re right. Hopefully we can link up tomorrow morning.’

‘She’ll be pleased to see you. She speaks very highly of you.’

‘I’ll be pleased to see her, too.’