She nodded. ‘I want to thank you, Herr Weisthor. Thank you so much for helping us.’ She sniffed loudly and found her handkerchief.

‘Karl, you were excellent tonight,’ said Himmler. ‘Quite remarkable.’ There was a murmur of assent from the rest of the table, myself included. Himmler was still shaking his head in wonder. ‘Quite, quite remarkable,’ he repeated. ‘You may all rest assured that I shall contact the proper authorities myself, and order that a squad of police be sent immediately to search the Schultheiss Brewery for the unfortunate child’s body.’ Himmler was staring at me now, and I nodded dumbly in response to what he was saying.

‘But I don’t doubt for a minute that they will find her there. I have every confidence that what we have just heard was the child speaking to Karl in order that both your minds may now be put at rest. I think that the best thing for you to do now would be to go home and wait to hear from the police.’

‘Yes, of course,’ I said and, walking round the table, I took Hildegard by the hand and led her away from the Reichsfuhrer’s embrace. Then we shook hands with the assembled company, accepted their condolences and allowed Rahn to escort us to the door.

‘What can one say?’ he said with great gravitas. ‘Naturally I am very sorry that Emmeline has passed on to the other side, but as the Reichsfuhrer himself said, it’s a blessing that now you can know for sure.’

‘Yes,’ Hildegard sniffed. ‘It’s best to know, I think.’

Rahn narrowed his eyes and looked slightly pained as he grasped me by the forearm.

‘I think it’s also best if for obvious reasons you were to say nothing of this evening’s events to the police if they should come to say that they have indeed found her. I’m afraid that they might make things very awkward for you if you seemed to know that she had been found before they did themselves. As I’m sure you will appreciate, the police aren’t very enlightened when it comes to understanding this sort of thing, and might ask you all sorts of difficult questions.’ He shrugged. ‘I mean, we all have questions concerning what comes to us from the other side. It is indeed an enigma to everyone, and one to which we have very few answers at this stage.’

‘Yes, I can see how the police might prove to be awkward,’ I said. ‘You may depend on me to say nothing of what transpired this evening. My wife as well.’

‘Herr Steininger, I knew you would understand.’ He opened the front door. ‘Please don’t hesitate to contact us again if at some stage you would wish to contact your daughter. But I should leave it for a while. It doesn’t do to summon spirit too regularly.’