‘Before her throat was cut?’ I asked. Illmann nodded. The room was silent for a moment. Illmann set about fixing another roll-up.

‘And now another girl has disappeared,’ I said. ‘Is that not correct, Inspector Deubel?’

Deubel shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was a big, blond fellow with grey, haunted eyes that looked as though they had seen too much late-night police-work of the kind that requires you to wear thick leather protective gloves.

‘Yes, sir,’ he said. ‘Her name is Irma Hanke.’

‘Well, since you are the investigating officer, perhaps you would care to tell us something about her.’

He shrugged. ‘She’s from a nice German family. Aged seventeen, lives in Schloss Strasse, Steglitz.’ He paused as his eye flicked down his notes. ‘Disappeared Wednesday, 24 August, having left the house to collect for the Reich Economy Programme, on behalf of the BdM.’ He paused again.

‘And what was she collecting?’ said the count.

‘Old toothpaste tubes, sir. I believe that the metal is — ’

‘Thank you, Inspector, I know what the scrap value of toothpaste tubes is.’

‘Yes, sir.’ He glanced at his notes again. ‘She was reported as having been seen on Feuerbachstrasse, Thorwaldsenstrasse, and Munster Damm. Munster Damm runs south beside a cemetery, and the sexton there says he saw a BdM girl answering Irma’s description walking there at about 8.30 p.m. He thought she was heading west, in the direction of Bismarck-strasse. She was probably returning home, having said to her parents that she would be back at around 8.45. She never arrived, of course.’

‘Any leads?’ I asked.

‘None, sir,’ he said firmly.

‘Thank you, Inspector.’ I lit a cigarette, and then held the match to Illmann’s roll-up. ‘Very well then,’ I puffed. ‘So what we have are five girls, all of them about the same age, and all of them conforming to the Aryan stereotype that we know and love so well. In other words, they all had blonde hair, naturally or otherwise.

‘Now, after our third Rhine maiden is murdered, Josef Kahn gets himself arrested for the attempted rape of a prostitute. In other words, he tried to leave without paying.’

‘Typical Jew,’ said Lobbes. There were a few laughs at that.

‘As it happened, Kahn was carrying a knife, quite a sharp one at that, and he even has a minor criminal record for small theft and indecent assault. Very convenient. So the arresting officer at Grolmanstrasse Police Station, namely one Inspector Willi Oehme, decides to turn a few cards and see if he can’t make twenty-one. He has a chat with young Josef, who’s a bit soft in the head, and what with his honey-tongue and his thick knuckles, Willi manages to persuade Josef to sign a confession.