The woman lowered her voice. ‘No. Of course not. I’m not a medical expert. But you should see the number of people here who get ill, especially the miners themselves. It can’t just be coincidence, can it? Anyway, Lotti was determined she wanted to do something about it. She started writing official petitions, that sort of thing. And even asked other people to sign them. I did, with one of them, and that got me into a whole heap of trouble, so I told her never again. But she was firing them off left right and centre, even to Honecker. Word obviously got back to the directorate of the mine, and soon after that, Lotti was “let go”.’

Müller frowned. ‘And have you seen her since then? Since she left the mine?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Ursula. ‘But she’d become involved with some old boyfriend or something. Someone who was helping her with her campaign.’

Müller’s ears pricked up. ‘Do you have a name?’

Ursula frowned, and rubbed her brow with her hand. ‘Oh, what was it. I can’t remember. But I can tell you a bit about him.’

‘Go on,’ said Tilsner.

‘Well, he wasn’t from the Republic for a start. He was British. Worked at the university. Quite an important man, I think. Well, Lotti certainly thought so. Oh!’ The woman’s face suddenly brightened. ‘I’ve remembered his name. Arnie! Arnie somebody. Now what was his surname?’

‘Southwick,’ said Müller. ‘Arnie – or Arnold – Southwick.’

Chapter 31

31

Bahlow agreed to meet but said it needed to be somewhere well away from Bautzner Straße – preferably somewhere where none of them would be recognised. Müller almost laughed out loud when he suggested the Pioneer Railway in Dresden’s famous Großer Garten. It was the sort of venue Jäger would suggest – indeed she and Jäger had met on Halle-Neustadt’s miniature railway. But that was in the summer. In winter, she doubted it would be running, and expressed that doubt to him.

‘No, it won’t be. You’re right, but in the middle of the park, just by the railway, there’s the open-air theatre. That’s as good a place as any. I’ll see you there in . . . what, forty-five minutes, would that work?’

*

Müller decided to meet him on her own. She still wasn’t entirely sure how Tilsner had miraculously produced the Ministry of State Security authority which had bought them some measure of co-operation from the uranium mine management. If he and Bahlow were somehow working together on something, and keeping her out of the loop, then she wanted to tackle the Stasi major about it face to face.