‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

Korsch nodded deliberately. ‘I’m afraid I am. And here’s another thing. Deubel keeps a six-shot Little Tom in his jacket pocket. He says that it’s just in case he ever loses his Walther. A Little Tom fires the same size of round as killed the Czech.’

‘Does he?’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘Deubel was always convinced that even if Bautz had had nothing to do with our case, he still belonged in the cement.’

‘He tried to persuade Becker to have a word with some of his old friends in Vice. He wanted Becker to get them to red tab Bautz on some pretext and have him sent to a KZ. But Becker wasn’t having any of it. He said that they couldn’t do it, not even on the evidence of the snapper he tried to cut.’

‘I’m very glad to hear it. Why wasn’t I told about this before?’ Korsch shrugged. ‘Have you mentioned any of this to the team investigating Bautz’s death? I mean about Deubel’s cigarette punch and the gun?’

‘Not yet, sir.’

‘Then we’ll handle it ourselves.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘That all depends on whether or not he still has that gun. If you’d pierced Bautz’s ears, what would you do with it?’

‘Find the nearest pig-iron smelter.’

‘Precisely. So if he can’t show me that gun for examination then he’s off this investigation. That might not be enough for a court, but it will satisfy me. I’ve no use for murderers on my team.’

Korsch scratched his nose thoughtfully, narrowly avoiding the temptation to pick it.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve any idea where Inspector Deubel is, do you?’

‘Someone looking for me?’ Deubel sauntered through the open door. The beery stink that accompanied him was enough to explain where he had been. An unlit cigarette in the corner of his crooked mouth, he stared belligerently at Korsch and then, with unsteady distaste, at me. He was drunk.

‘Been in the Café Kerkau,’ he said, his mouth refusing to move quite as he would have normally expected. ‘It’s all right, you know. It’s all right, I’m off duty. Least for another hour, anyway. Be fine by then. Don’t you worry about me. I can take care of myself.’

‘What else have you been taking care of?’

He straightened like a puppet jerking back on its unsteady legs.

‘Been asking questions at the station where the Steininger girl went missing.’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘No? No? Well, what did you mean, Herr Kommissar?’

‘Someone murdered Gottfried Bautz.’

‘What, that Czech bastard?’ He uttered a laugh that was part belch and part spit.

‘His jaw was broken. There was a cigarette end in his mouth.’

‘So? What’s that to do with me?’