I still think of you a lot even though you are never writing me. Perhaps you are writing but your letters are not delivered. I do not know. I wonder if this letter will ever reach you.

We get news of the war in the newspapers and the newsreels. We just saw one in the cinema in the centre of Dresden. Did I tell you I had moved to Dresden to be with my grandparents? My father has had to join the army and our little hotel in Bad Schandau has been commandeered for the war effort, so Mutti and I moved in with Oma and Opa (that is the German for Granny and Grandad – you see I am teaching you German too!). Many people think it is not as safe in the cities, but I’m sure Dresden will be safe. Even your Mr Churchill would not dare to bomb a city with so many architectural treasures. They call the city the Florence of the Elbe, and I can understand why. It really is beautiful.

So I suppose you have newsreels too. I do not know why your troops tried to invade us – it looked like you were badly defeated on the newsreel we watched (‘Die Deutsche Wochenschau’ – all that means in English is ‘The German Newsreel’). We are much stronger. We saw how your landing craft were sunk, and your glider crews captured. Even though you are the enemy, I don’t wish you ill, Arnold, but I hope your country will make peace with Germany and see Hitler for the great leader he really is.

Perhaps this botched invasion attempt will make your leaders finally see sense and then we will have peace and we will be able to visit each other again.

I still think of you a lot. You are much more interesting than all the German boys.

I hope you still think of me as your girlfriend, even though we cannot be together at the moment.

With much love and kisses.

Your Lotti XXX

Chapter 22

22

Dresden

February 1982

Rather than immediately return to the city centre and confront Jäger, Müller decided they needed to have a debrief and try to pull all the strands of the investigation together. The best place to do that – where they could be sure of some privacy and where, hopefully, there were no recording devices listening in – was in the Wartburg.

‘We’ve been lied to again and again,’ said Müller. ‘So let’s try to work out what we actually know and what is – or may be – simply disinformation.’

‘OK,’ said Tilsner. ‘All we know is that a middle-aged man has been killed – and we haven’t yet identified him. Because it certainly wasn’t that Bodo Achterberg character. Of that, we are now certain.’