‘Yes,’ he immediately said. ‘It was the other day we sorted it out. The manageress had noticed the stone was loose. It wasn’t a big job.’

‘Did you find any documents or papers there?’

The man’s thin-faced frown in the dim winter light of the hut looked almost diabolic. Then his face relaxed.

‘Aha, yes. Now you mention it. One of the men said they’d found something – an old plastic bag of rubbish behind the stone. I would think one of the original crew just—’

Müller interrupted him. ‘Where is it?’ she shouted. At the same time, her heart sank. If they thought it was simply rubbish, then it would have been thrown away by now, surely?

The man picked a torch off the table, and took it towards the corner of the hut.

‘You’re in luck. We haven’t emptied the bin yet.’ He presented a black bag to Müller. ‘It might be somewhere in there. The plastic bag was bright orange. You might manage to find it.’

Müller tipped the contents of the bag over the floor.

‘I hope you’re going to clear all that up again,’ said the foreman.

She started pawing through the contents while Tilsner held the torch to one side, pulling back and coughing as cement dust rose from the pile.

As she scraped the debris away, she suddenly spotted a corner of orange plastic.

Shielding the contents, she pulled out a transparent plastic folder, and held it up for her and Tilsner’s eyes only.

As they began to read, they realised Arnold Southwick’s dying words had led them to what he wanted them to find.

The bombing of Dresden on February 13 and 14 1945 and how it can be shown to be a War Crime, with reference to the personal responsibility of Sir Winston Churchill, Frederick Lindemann (1st Viscount Cherwell), and Sir Arthur Harris

By DR ARNOLD SOUTHWICK, Dresden University of Technology

February 1982

Müller continued to shield the document from everyone other than Tilsner, and then flicked through it. She didn’t understand all of the English – especially some of the technical and legalistic terms. But she understood enough to know that Bahlow’s earlier confession in the car had been the truth.

She also didn’t doubt his warnings that both the Republic and the British would go to any lengths to make sure this didn’t get into the public domain. But she had been entrusted with it by an innocent, dying man. The question was, what the hell could she or Tilsner do about it now?

Chapter 50

50

When the call from Jäger came through on Bahlow’s car radio set, Müller was inclined to ignore it. But Jäger seemed somehow to know she was there, and sounded desperate.