Müller was considering going for a coffee in the restaurant on the off chance that Lotti was meeting another ‘handler’, given that it seemed unlikely it would be Bahlow, when the call came through on the radio.

‘Target sighted location two,’ barked Schmidt, for once limiting his verbiage to the precise alert the three of them had agreed on.

The chase, such as it was, was on.

Chapter 27

27

Schmidt had – as agreed – stayed at the observation point on the northern bank of the Elbe, rather than follow the woman he’d identified as Lotti over on the ferry to the southern side.

Müller chewed over the wisdom of that in her head as they waited for the ferry to come back with its return passengers.

‘I saw her get off and head downstream, Comrade Hauptmann, along the river bank,’ said Schmidt. ‘She was carrying a shopping bag and also had a rucksack on her back.’

‘What is there that way?’ asked Tilsner.

‘Nothing much,’ said Müller. ‘If she was heading back to civilisation then by going straight on or turning left she’d have ended up in Laubegast. The other way it’s the water meadows – for about a kilometre or so. Then you reach a few apartment blocks, opposite the cemetery.’

‘Cemetery?’ echoed Tilsner. ‘That might be somewhere of interest.’

‘For what?’ asked Müller.

‘For hiding out.’

‘But she doesn’t seem to be hiding out, does she? She was in plain sight on the ferry.’

‘Well, not quite,’ said Schmidt. ‘She seemed to have changed her appearance from the photographs you gave us to recognise her by. She’s dyed her hair dark, and was wearing glasses.’

‘So how did you recognise her? Are you even sure it was her?’ asked Tilsner.

‘The disfigurement to her face. She’d tried to disguise that too, with make-up. But I could tell it was the result of serious burns.’

‘The question is,’ said Müller, ‘do we wait for the ferry to come back, or do we take the car round to the other side?’

‘Might as well wait,’ said Tilsner. ‘It’ll be quicker and we might be able to pick up some info from the staff. Look, here it comes now.’

*

The two members of staff operating the ferry seemed particularly unobservant. Either that, or they were in no mood to help the police. Whichever it was, they failed to even recognise or remember Lotti – despite the fact that, according to Bahlow, this was one of her regular routes.

‘We just mind our own business,’ said the older of the two. ‘It’s no concern of ours who goes where or when, as long as they’ve got a ticket.’

‘This is a murder inquiry,’ countered Müller.