The woman paused to light a cigarette. Müller wasn’t sure that was the correct image for the potential new leader of an elite winter sports school to project, and declined the offer of one herself. Tilsner, predictably, accepted. The woman lit her own with a match, then passed the lit cigarette across the table to Tilsner so that he could light his. Once they were both contentedly puffing away, polluting the room as far as Müller was concerned, the woman deigned to answer the question.

‘I’m not aware of any.’ The long pause. The fidgeting when she’d responded. Avoiding eye contact. As far as Müller was concerned, the woman was lying.

‘What about men?’ asked Tilsner. Müller found herself having to stifle a sigh. Subtlety was not her deputy’s strong point.

The woman looked genuinely shocked, as though she’d never even considered the possibility. ‘Of course not,’ she said, with a note of disgust. ‘How can you even suggest such a thing?’

Müller was inclined to believe her. The only evidence for the suggestion – and it wasn’t even really evidence – were the claims of Jäger.

‘We just need to explore all options,’ said Müller. ‘As part of that, we need free access to investigate any part of the school we wish to.’

‘Well, I may need to refer upwards to the Education Ministry about that,’ said the woman.

‘You could,’ said Tilsner. ‘But then we could say you’d been obstructing our inquiries. Would you like to be arrested?’

‘N-n-no,’ stuttered the woman, looking round nervously, as though someone might be listening in. ‘I mean, I’m sure you must do your jobs as you see fit.’

‘Exactly,’ said Müller. ‘You’re welcome to accompany us, but I’m sure you’ve better things to be getting on with. We won’t get in anyone’s way. We just want to talk to a few staff members to find out a little more about Herr Schenk.’

‘I’m sure you won’t hear a bad word said against him,’ said the woman, nervously wringing her hands.

‘I’m sure we won’t,’ agreed Müller. ‘We just need to get to the bottom of what happened.’ She started to get to her feet. ‘Oh, one more thing while I remember. I’ve come all this way, so I want to take my children out for a meal in Oberhof this evening, and then have them stay with me at my mother’s house. That won’t be a problem, will it?’

The woman frowned. ‘Well, normally of course it’s against the rules. Pupils on weekly boarding arrangements such as Jannika and Johannes should really only leave the school at the weekend. Otherwise it disrupts their routine and that of other pupils.’