Frau Ilse took the girl by the collar and dragged her towards the van. The driver got out. Heck recognised him instantly. This was almost certainly the slender man who followed him in Berlin, the one working with the sniper outside the Kabaret Lola. Now he was helping Frau Ilse Boden push Ingrid Zinke into the passenger seat of the van. The man then nodded as the mistress of the house gave him instructions. Finally, she picked up a small valise from the doorstep and handed it to the driver.

He got back into the van and drove off out of the village onto the road past the lake, then back down into the valley.

Heck stubbed out his cigarette and removed the radio transmitter from his backpack.

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

‘As Hitler’s secretary, you must have been extremely close to him, Frau Schroeder.’

‘Of course, Professor Wilde. I was at his beck and call day and night.’

‘So you would have known all his secrets?’

‘Well, no, not all of them. But, yes, I was privy to his thoughts, and I was required to type up battle orders on his behalf. Not that I understood everything. These were matters for men, not women.’

‘You were in the bunker until the very end, I believe?’

‘The end? No, he ordered me to leave on April twentieth, ten days before his death. I was instructed to go with others to the Obersalzberg in Bavaria.’

Wilde smiled at Christa Schroeder. She was a plain, unprepossessing woman who was probably very efficient as a shorthand typist, but narrow and unimaginative. He doubted whether she would have much insight – either into those around her, or herself. They were in an interview office at Garmisch and she was sitting very primly, very upright, with her hands crossed in her lap.

‘Are you being looked after well?’

‘I am being held captive at an internment camp, though I have no idea why. I am a secretary, not a prisoner of war. And certainly not a criminal.’

‘Indeed, but you knew a lot of criminals, so perhaps your incarceration is understandable. You must have known things.’

‘I merely took a shorthand note and typed. Beyond that, nothing.’

Wilde nodded, as though he was in full agreement with her. And perhaps she was telling the truth – perhaps she really did have no idea about the multitude of crimes committed by Hitler and his infernal machine. Was that feasible? ‘Tell me about the Führer – how were you chosen to work for him? You had an important job in the Third Reich.’