‘Thanks anyway,’ Heck said. ‘But I’m really not interested.’

Wilde was interested, though – interested in the way the woman had changed her tune, from downright hostilty to feigned friendliness.

‘Is free gift.’

‘Well, if you want to give me something, how about that?’ Heck pointed at the box camera.

‘This?’ She picked it up, then pushed it towards him. ‘Of course. Take it, sir. Take it with my gratitude for all you do for us.’

‘Got any film for it?’

‘No, sir, I’m sorry, sir. Maybe in Munich you get some, or from your PX.’

Heck took the camera and grinned. ‘A nice little present for my very good friend Jerzy from Krakow,’ he said to Wilde.

Frau Zimmer reached beneath her table and pulled out an ornate plate with gold edging and a rustic scene in the middle, and offered it to Wilde. ‘Here, sir, Meissen. Very expensive. You sell for many dollars in America, or nice present for your wife.’

Wilde shook his head and turned to Heck. ‘Let’s go.’

*

‘You know Frau Zimmer just gave you a bribe, Lieutenant Heck?’

‘Now why would she have done that? Do you think she’s guilty of something?’

‘Maybe. Or perhaps she’s just scared. We’re occupying her country. We’re the rulers now. We can do what we want – even shoot people, Lieutenant Heck – and the Germans can’t do a damn thing about it.’

Chapter 11

Heck drove slower so they could talk. ‘Do you have a plan, Professor? Where do we go from here?’

Yes, Wilde had a plan. First he wanted to talk to August Jaeger, the alpine guide and cousin of Himmler’s right-hand man Walter Schellenberg. It was a long shot, but in the absence of any other leads he had to be worth a try.

‘Do you know a place called Almrosen?’

‘No.’

Wilde looked at his watch. They had already missed their meeting with Colonel Appache, but what the hell. ‘It’s up in the mountains, not too far from here, maybe twenty miles, across the border in the Tyrol. It’s in the French zone, but I have been led to believe that won’t be a problem.’

‘Never underestimate the talent of the French to make things difficult, Professor.’

‘There’s a man we should talk to there, a mountain guide. It’s probable that Himmler’s department consulted him when they were in the initial phase of planning an Alpine redoubt.’

‘And how does that help?’

Wilde gave him a mystified look. Was it not obvious how that might help? He let the thought go. ‘Well, it may not, but do you have any other ideas, Lieutenant Heck?’

‘We go back to the beginning. We talk to everyone who was close to Hitler. Someone will know where he is.’

‘Yes, I had that in mind, too. But the mountain man first.’

‘You’re the chief.’

They drove without talking for a while as the roads took them into higher territory and the mountains crowded steep and dark, stealing the late afternoon light. Wilde broke the silence. ‘Do you feel certain he is alive?’