It was a remarkable sight, Tony thought as he walked inside. Everything gleamed. The woodwork was polished to mirror smoothness and the brass gleamed as softly as if it were lit from within. A rack held neatly folded charts, and there wasn’t so much as a coffee stain on the chart table. The room smelled of polish and the sharp chemical fragrance of air freshener. Mann leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. He looked young and defensive. Tony had a momentary flash of the troubled boy inside the man and felt the familiar wash of empathy. Who knew what he’d been through to bring him to this point? Tony could guess, and it didn’t make for comfort. One thing was for sure. Even if aping the verbal savagery of the grandfather was the most likely way to break Mann, he wasn’t going to go down that route. There had to be another way to end these killings, and it was up to him to find it.

‘What do you know about my grandfather?’ Mann demanded.

‘I know what they did to him at Schloss Hochenstein.’

Mann’s eyes widened and his arms tightened around him. ‘What do you mean?’

‘He was snatched away from his family and treated like an animal. I know about the experiments. I even know about the water torture. These were appalling, terrible things to do to a child in the name of science. It must have had a terrible effect on him.’ Tony could see his words hit home. With every sentence, Mann seemed to shrink into himself. But what he needed to do was to make him open up. ‘You must have paid a heavy price for what was done to him.’

‘What does that have to do with you?’ Mann’s voice was hostile and defiant, the attitude of someone who is determined to tough out the situation.

Tony made an instant assessment. However much he sympathized with Mann’s pain, this wasn’t a situation where the gentle therapeutic approach was going to work. It would take far too long to bring him to the point where he would be relieved to share his nightmares. It was time to storm the citadel. ‘I think it’s the reason why you have been killing my friends.’

Mann’s eyes narrowed and his head seemed to shrink into his shoulders like a watchful bird. Tony could smell perspiration cutting through the artificial scents of the confined space. ‘Your German is not as good as you think it is. What you are saying doesn’t make sense,’ he said in a pitiful parody of arrogance. ‘Who are you, anyway?’

‘My name is Tony Hill. Dr Tony Hill. I’m a psychologist.’ He smiled. Walking out on the high wire without a net. And not caring. ‘That’s right, Willi. I’m the enemy.’

‘I think you’re crazy. And I want you to leave my boat now.’