‘This might be. Depends how sensitive this guy’s bullshit detector is. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Oh, and something very interesting came up in the Köln investigation. Marijke just e-mailed me about it. They found a colleague of Dr Calvet’s who remembered her saying something about a meeting with a journalist from a new e-zine, though she couldn’t swear to when they were supposed to get together.’

‘That confirms what Margarethe told her partner.’

‘More than that, Tony. It tells us we’re on the right track.’

He could hear a note of excitement in her voice. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The colleague remembered the alias the journalist was using.’ She paused expectantly.

‘And?’

‘Hochenstein.’

‘You’re kidding.’ He knew she wasn’t.

‘The colleague remembered it because it isn’t exactly a common name and, of course, Hochenstein has particular resonances for experimental psychologists in Germany.’

‘I bet it does. Well, at least that tells us I’m fishing in the right river.’

‘Happy hunting. I’ll talk to you later.’

He replaced the phone and walked over to the window. Dr Wertheimer had been right. This wasn’t a view for anyone who had depressive tendencies, he thought. He imagined the children cooped up behind these high walls, their lives narrowed to the prospect of death or torture. He supposed some of them were too profoundly handicapped to have been conscious either of their surroundings or their imminent fates. But for the others, those incarcerated because of their supposed anti-social behaviour or minor physical defects, the anguish must have been unbearable. To be wrested from their families and dumped here would have traumatized the best-adjusted of children. For those already damaged, it must have been disastrous.

His reverie was broken by the return of Dr Wertheimer. ‘The material you need is being printed out,’ she said. ‘We have lists of names and addresses, and in many cases there are also brief digests of some of the so-called treatments they endured.’

‘It’s amazing that the records survived,’ Tony said.

She shrugged. ‘Not really. They never thought for a moment they would ever be called to account. The idea that the Third Reich might collapse so spectacularly and thoroughly was unimaginable for those who were part of the establishment. By the time the truth dawned on them, it was too late to think of anything else except immediate personal survival. And it soon became clear that there were far too many guilty men and women for any but the most senior to face retribution. We began archiving records in the early 1980s and, after reunification, we were able to track down most of the old ones from the East too. I’m glad we have them. We should never forget what was once done in the name of the German Volk.’

‘And what exactly was done to these children?’ he asked.