‘It may not quite go the way I’m planning. Don’t forget that this Weisthor character is Himmler’s friend. I doubt that the Reichsführer will take too kindly to my revelations. Worse still, he may dismiss them altogether, in which case it would be better if there was only me to take the heat. After all, he can hardly kick me off the force, since I’m only on it for as long as this case lasts and then I’m back to my own business.

‘But you two have careers ahead of you. Not very promising careers, it’s true.’ I grinned. ‘All the same, it would be a shame for you both to earn Himmler’s displeasure when I can just as easily do that on my own.’

Korsch exchanged a short look with Becker, and then replied: ‘Come on, sir, don’t give us that cold cabbage. It’s dangerous, what you’re planning. We know it, and you know it too.’

‘Not only that,’ Becker said, ‘but how will you get there with a prisoner? Who’ll drive the car?’

‘That’s right, sir. It’s over three hundred kilometres to Wewelsburg.’

‘I’ll take a staff car.’

‘Suppose Lange tries something on the way?’

‘He’ll be handcuffed, so I doubt I’ll have any trouble from him.’ I shook my head and collected my hat and coat from the rack. ‘I’m sorry, boys, but that’s the way it’s got to be.’ I walked to the door.

‘Sir?’ said Korsch. He held out his hand. I shook it. Then I shook Becker’s. Then I went to collect my prisoner.

Kindermann’s clinic looked just as neat and well-behaved as it had the first time I’d been there, in late August. If anything, it seemed quieter, with no rooks in the trees and no boat on the lake to disturb them. There was just the sound of the wind and the dead leaves it blew across the path like so many flying locusts.

I placed my hand in the small of Lange’s back and pushed him firmly towards the front door.

‘This is most embarrassing,’ he said. ‘Coming here in handcuffs, like a common criminal. I’m well known here, you know.’

‘A common criminal is what you are, Lange. Want me to put a towel over your ugly head?’ I pushed him again. ‘Listen, it’s only my good nature that stops me from marching you in there with your prick hanging out of your trousers.’

‘What about my civil rights?’

‘Shit, where have you been for the last five years? This is Nazi Germany, not ancient Athens. Now shut your fucking mouth.’

A nurse met us in the hallway. She started to say hallo to Lange and then saw the handcuffs. I flapped my ID in front of her startled features.