She shook her head. ‘No, of course not. What we do have is individual lists for each of the institutions involved in this programme. There were six main centres where the euthanasia was carried out, but for each of those there were several feeder institutions. We hold records for all of these.’ She saw his look of dismay and smiled. ‘Please don’t despair. The good news is that all our data has been computerized, and so it is relatively easy to access. Normally, I would insist that you carried out any study here on the premises, but I can see that these are special circumstances. Perhaps you would like to contact Ms Becker and ask her to fax me a warrant that would allow me to provide you with hard copies of our data under a confidentiality agreement?’

Tony couldn’t believe his luck. For once, he’d found a bureaucrat who didn’t want to put obstacles in his way. ‘That would be extraordinarily helpful,’ he said. ‘Is there a phone I can use?’

Dr Wertheimer pointed to her desk. ‘Be my guest.’ He followed her across the room and waited while she scribbled down the fax number. ‘I expect it will take a little time for her to obtain the necessary warrant, but we may as well make a start. I’ll go and ask one of my colleagues to print out the appropriate data. I’ll be back shortly.’

She bustled out of the room, leaving Tony to call Petra. When she answered her mobile, he explained what he needed. ‘Shit, that’s not going to be easy,’ she muttered.

‘What’s the problem?’

‘I’m not supposed to be working on this, remember? I can hardly make a formal request for a warrant for a case that’s nothing to do with me. Have you seen the papers?’

‘I’ve seen Die Welt.’

‘Believe me, that’s the least of our worries. But now that everybody knows there’s a serial killer out there, of course, they also know it’s really nothing to do with me.’

‘Ah,’ Tony said. He’d wondered when the woman who got things done would finally hit a brick wall. It was just a pity that it had happened now.

‘Let me think …’ Petra said slowly. ‘There’s a guy in KriPo who really wants to work in intelligence. I know he’s got the right people in his pocket. Maybe I could persuade him that it would help him get a move on to my team if he pulled some strings for me on this.’

‘Is there anything that’s beyond you, Petra?’