She was tall – taller than the average man, and in her early thirties, but with the knock-knees and turned-in toes of a girl half her age. There wasn’t much of a chest to speak of, and even less behind. The nose was maybe a bit too broad, the lips a shade too thick, and the cornflower-blue eyes rather too close together; and with the possible exception of her temper, there was certainly nothing delicate about her. But there was no doubting her long-limbed beauty which had something in common with the fastest of fillies out at the Hoppegarten. Probably she was just as difficult to hold on the rein; and if you ever managed to climb into the saddle, you could have done no more than hope that you got the trip as far as the winning-post.

‘Can’t you see that I’m scared?’ she said, stamping her foot on the polished wood floor. ‘I don’t want to be on my own now.’

‘Where is your son Paul?’

‘He’s gone back to his boarding-school. Anyway, he’s only ten, so I can’t see him coming to my assistance, can you?’ She dropped on to the sofa beside me.

‘Well I don’t mind sleeping in his room for a few nights,’ I said, ‘if you really are scared.’

‘Would you?’ she said happily.

‘Sure,’ I said, and privately congratulated myself. ‘It would be my pleasure.’

‘I don’t want it to be your pleasure,’ she said, with just a trace of a smile, ‘I want it to be your duty.’

For a moment I almost forgot why I was there. I might even have thought that she had forgotten. It was only when I saw the tear in the corner of her eye that I realized she really was afraid.

18

Wednesday, 26 October

‘I don’t get it,’ said Korsch. ‘What about Streicher and his bunch? Are we still investigating them or not?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But until the Gestapo surveillance throws up something of interest to us, there’s not a lot we can do in that direction.’

‘So what do you want us to do while you’re looking after the widow?’ said Becker, who was on the edge of allowing himself a smile I might have found irritating. ‘That is, apart from checking the Gestapo reports.’

I decided not to be too sensitive about the matter. That would have been suspicious in itself.

‘Korsch,’ I said, ‘I want you to keep your eye on the Gestapo inquiry. Incidentally, how’s your man getting on with Vogelmann?’

He shook his head. ‘There’s not a lot to report, sir. This Vogelmann hardly ever leaves his office. Not much of a detective if you ask me.’

‘It certainly doesn’t look like it,’ I said. ‘Becker, I want you to find me a girl.’ He grinned and looked down at the toe of his shoe. ‘That shouldn’t be too difficult for you.’