‘I don’t see how I can avoid it. It’ll make a change from the crossword, I suppose. Anyway, thanks for the red light, Arthur, I appreciate it.’ I wiped my dry mouth nervously. ‘You got any more of that lemonade? I could use a drink now. It’s not every day you get such good news.’

Nebe handed me his flask and I went for it like a baby after its mother’s tit. Less attractive, but damn near as comforting.

‘In your love letter you mentioned you had some information about an old case. Or was that your equivalent of the child-molester’s puppy?’

‘There was a woman you were looking for a while back. A journalist.’

‘That’s quite a while back. Nearly two years. I never found her. One of my all too frequent failures. Perhaps you ought to let Heydrich know that. It might persuade him to let me off the hook.’

‘Do you want this or not?’

‘Well, don’t make me straighten my tie for it, Arthur.’

‘There’s not much, but here it is. A couple of months ago, the landlord of the place where your client used to live decided to redecorate some of the apartments, including hers.’

‘Big-hearted of him.’

‘In her toilet, behind some kind of false panel, he found a doper’s kit. No drugs, but everything you’d need to service a habit — needles, syringes, the works. Now, the tenant who took over the place from your client when she disappeared was a priest, so it didn’t seem likely that these needles were his, right? And if the lady was using dope, then that might explain a lot, wouldn’t you say? I mean, you never can predict what a doper will do.’

I shook my head. ‘She wasn’t the type. I’d have noticed something, wouldn’t I?’

‘Not always. Not if she was trying to wean herself off the stuff. Not if she were a strong sort of character. Well then, it was reported and I thought you’d like to know. So now you can close that file. With that sort of secret there’s no telling what else she might have kept from you.’

‘No, it’s all right. I got a good look at her nipples.’

Nebe smiled nervously, not quite sure if I was telling him a dirty joke or not.

‘Good were they — her nipples?’

‘Just the two of them, Arthur. But they were beautiful.’

2

Monday, 29 August