The result was clear to see – and Müller found herself having to swallow back bile. Grey matter – presumably his brain turned to jelly – was splattered together with blood over an area of about three metres diameter. Pretty much the whole internal part of the police tent. His legs and arms were still identifiable as such, but broken at unnatural angles.

‘Do we know anything about him?’ asked Tilsner, as Schmidt busied himself doubling up on the police photographer’s work with his own camera.

‘Yes. He was carrying ID. His name is Heinz Schenk. It appears he was a school director.’

Tilsner snorted. ‘That figures. Trying to keep schoolkids on the straight and narrow is a thankless task. I know from my own.’

Müller frowned. ‘Hardly enough to make you suicidal. How did he get out of the restaurant window? Aren’t they locked to guard against that sort of thing?’

‘He didn’t, and they are,’ replied Schriver. ‘It looks like he had it planned. They clean the windows once a week, and he obviously watched the window cleaners climb out of the service door. They’re supposed to lock the door after themselves while they’re on the outside, but you know how it is, they get lazy and don’t bother.’

‘But no one actually saw him jump?’ asked Müller.

‘No,’ admitted Schriver.

‘Was he from round these parts?’ asked Tilsner.

‘We’re checking on that. It looks like he might have had relatives around here and may have been brought up in Dresden. But he wasn’t working around here. He was in Bezirk Suhl – Thuringia.’

‘Where exactly?’ asked Müller, beginning to feel a sense of unease.

Using his gloved hands, Schriver handed over a plastic evidence bag containing the man’s identity card.

As she read his details, Müller immediately realised why she felt so apprehensive. She’d seen the man before, met him briefly, although now he was entirely unrecognisable. But the ID card spelled it out clearly. He had – indeed – been a school director. Not just any school, however. One of the elite ones in the Republic.

The Kinder and Jugendsportschule Rosa-Luxemburg.

In Müller’s home town of Oberhof. The St Moritz of East Germany, so beloved of Erich Honecker’s predecessor, Walter Ulbricht.

Where Jannika and Johannes were now amongst the youngest pupils.

Chapter 23

23

LOTTI

Dresden

Night of 13–14 February 1945