If Geronimo had paid some terrible personal price for what had been done in the name of science sixty years before, it didn’t surprise Tony that he would be consumed by rage and bitterness. All those victims, and not a single person called to account. He was a rational man, and it enraged him. How much worse would it feel to be a second or third generation victim of such viciousness?

Geronimo was going for the wrong targets, it was true. He might deplore its end result, but Tony couldn’t find it in his heart to condemn unequivocally the desire for vengeance that fuelled him.

…P: you’re right, the case notes are very chilling. are there any forensic traces on the file?

M: Too early to say. It’s with the document examiner now. And I had an idea myself this afternoon. So many of our major traffic intersections are covered by CCTV now, I’ve asked for all the tapes from the day of de Groot’s murder and I’m going to get my team to go through them all to see if they can spot a dark-coloured VW Golf with German plates.

P: great idea.

M: Maybe. It will really only be any use if we can cross-match it with one of the other lists. It’s going to take ages to get anything comprehensive about the boats.

P: tony’s been pursuing the idea of victims of psychological torture. today he picked up lists of child victims of the nazis. he’s spending this evening scanning in all the names on to a master list, so he’ll be able to let you have that as well. another possible list for cross-matching of names.

M: It’s hard to feel that we’re moving forward, all the same.

P: the stories in the papers this morning haven’t helped either.

M: At least they don’t seem to have picked up on the connection to our case, so we’re being left in peace. Has it provoked more co-operation among the German forces?

P: i don’t really know. i’m too far out of the loop. you’ll probably hear before i will. but the tv news this evening ran a piece about university lecturers living in fear of a serial killer. i’m afraid he’s going to go to ground.

M: Either that or take more risks. If he can’t rely on his usual method of setting up his victims, he’ll find some other way. It’s all very depressing. Cheer me up. How are things with your other undercover operation?

P: it looks like we’ve located marlene krebs’ daughter. what we’re going to do is simultaneously raid the place where the daughter is being kept AND put marlene in protective custody out of radecki’s reach. once we have him behind bars, we’ll get everything else we need. clever, no?