‘Well sir, it’s this. It has crossed my mind that someone might be trying to sew the Jews into a very nasty body-bag.’

Now the general raised an eyebrow.

‘Do you really care what happens to the Jews?’

‘Sir, I care what happens to fifteen-year-old girls on their way home from school tonight.’ I handed the general a sheet of typewritten paper. ‘These are the dates on which the five girls disappeared. I hoped that you might be able to tell me if Streicher or any of his associates were in Berlin on any of these occasions.’

Martin glanced down the page. ‘I suppose that I can find out,’ he said. ‘But I can tell you now that he is virtually persona non grata there. Hitler keeps him down here, out of harm’s way, so that the only people he can annoy are the ones of no account, like myself. Of course, that’s not to say that Streicher doesn’t visit Berlin in secret sometimes. He does. The Führer enjoys Streicher’s after-dinner conversation, though I cannot imagine why, since he also apparently enjoys my own.’

He turned to the trolley of telephones that stood by his desk and called up his adjudant, telling him to establish Streicher’s whereabouts on the dates I had provided.

‘I was given to understand that you also had certain information regarding Streicher’s criminal behaviour,’ I said.

Martin got up and went over to his filing cabinet. Laughing quietly he took out a file that was as thick as a shoe box, and brought it back to the desk.

‘There’s virtually nothing I don’t know about that bastard,’ he snarled. ‘His SS guards are my men. His telephone is tapped, and I have listening devices in all of his homes. I even have photographers on constant vigil in a shop opposite a room where he sees a prostitute from time to time.’

Korsch breathed a curse that was both admiration and surprise.

‘So, where do you want to start? I could occupy one whole department with what that bastard gets up to in this town. Rape charges, paternity suits, assaults on young boys with that whip he carries, bribery of public officials, misappropriation of Party funds, fraud, theft, forgery, arson, extortion — we are talking about a gangster, gentlemen. A monster, terrorizing the people of this town, never paying his bills, driving businesses into bankruptcy, wrecking the careers of honourable men who had the courage to cross him.’

‘We had a chance to see him for ourselves,’ I said. ‘Last night, at the Deutscher Hof. He was boozing it up with a couple of ladies.’