13 Hochhauser'spast: he was born locally and worked for the town since 1951. During the war he was a non-commissioned clerk in the Luftwaffe He then worked for the Control Commission for three years. Neighbours say he was diligent and rather aloof, especially since his wife's death.

14 Both papers printed the driving licence photograph of Mrs Howard/Sailer, so there must be a possibility that somebody will come forward with a new identification.

15 There was no mention of the car.

And that was about it. He signed the second page Harry, folded them up and put them in his hip pocket. Then he went through to the tiny kitchen and took out another lager and tried to get interested in the idea of making dinner.

The matter of the bullets still worried him.

"Quite likely Blagg missed, " George said. "With a pistol – an unfamiliar one – from about thirty yardsand at night… he'd be lucky to hit the Gradierwerk. The thorn wall. " Trust George to know the right name for it.

"He missed with some," Maxim said, "but he said he stopped shooting because he knew he'd made a head shot. And we know Hochhauserwasshotmthe head."

"She was still a lot closer and shooting as well. Perhaps he didn't shoot at all, got cold feet."

"He says he fired. I believe him."

"Harry," George said gently, "I am doing my humble best to make your little chum outnot to be a murderer. Why does this charitable task incur your displeasure'"

"He believes he killed, at least helped kill, Hochhauser,"Maxim said doggedly. "If somebody else starts believing it, we could have a problem "

For a time, George said nothing, just went on taking deliberate steps as if pacing out the length of Numberid's lawn. It was a morning of bright nursery colours, the blue-and-white sky, the vivid green grass, the simple reds and yellows of the flowerbeds. All rather childish, and childishly secret behind the high wall that shut out all but a faint buzz of noise from the city beyond. Although there were more than fifty windows in the back of Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, they were all shut, evenmthat weather, politely unseeing and unhearmg With the garden just to George and himself, Maxim felt both cosy and superior, a part of that higher world behind the windows that knew but never, never told. Then he wondered if that was just how George wanted him to feel, and began to feel wary instead.

"Do you think the police are using this as a holdback?" George asked at last. It was normal to keep one piece of evidence, something only the murderer would know, secret from the newspapers. It helped weed out crank confessions, it could lull the real killer into thinking the police had missed it.

"I don't know…" Maxim said slowly. "It seems a rather vital thing to sit on… Quite possibly they just haven't found all the spent bullets, or just haven't bothered with comparison tests. A.38 wouldn't normally staym abody unless it hits bone. And you can have the best pathologist in the world, but he isn't the one who gets down on his hands and knees among the sweetie papers and dogshit, that's done by the local copper. In the end, your lab reports are only as good as what he turns up."

George was realising just how many Army officers must have become familiar with the dreary rituals of murder since the Northern Ireland troubles began.

"Yes," he said, "and from their point of view, they have a pair of corpses who have indisputably been shooting eachother, giving them a murder – two murders – that happened and were solved in the same moment. It sounds like a detective's dream. If they had suspicions of a departed party of the third part, they'd be strongly tempted to keep quiet about him unless they looked like catching him. And as far as we know, there isn't anything to connect Blagg with Bad Schwarzendorn?"

"I can't think of anything His battalion's at Soltau and that's a hundred miles away Even if they were looking for a British soldier there's thousands far closer."

"Good." George beamed, bright as the morning again. They had reached a slatted bench placed so that you could sit and stare at the flowerbeds under the wire-topped wall. George rested a foot on the bench and used Maxim's report to swat dust off his shoe.

Sothat's how it is, Maxim thought sadly. He tried one more time. "We might be forgetting something: Mrs Howard. She had a fake identity. The police are bound to follow that up -"

"Some distance, only some. Forged papers aren't unheard of in Germany."

"Perhaps. But she wasn't hiding her face: she was incafésand so on, she got that car from somewhere, and now her picture's in the papers. If she's passing as a German she most likelyis a German, and somebody could easily recognise her."

George waved the report in a loose gesture. "She was obviously something of a professional. She must have known the risks involved. "

"She wasn't counting on ending up on a shelf in the deep freeze."

"How charmingly you put these things."

"And shewas working for Six -"

"She only said she was," George said quickly.

"She was carrying 3,750Deutschmarksof somebody's money. And she knew where to find Blagg, where his battalion was."

"You can read where battalions aremthe papers. Those things aren't secret. But Six uses a lot of part-timers, they have to. And what they do with the other part of their time… some of them are most certainly not the type one would want to take home for tea with mummy "

Maxim walked stiffly around the bench at slow-march tempo. "I grant you she didn't have to get Blagg's address from Six. And she lied about dealing through Captain Fair-brother-"

"Unless Blagg did. Invented that to justify himself "

Maxim halted, staring at his feet "Is there any way, anybody, you can ask? Or I can? Find out if she really.?"

George was all sympathy and understanding "Harry, you must bearinmind that – assuming for the moment that The Firm actually was involved – the whole thing represents a quite monumental cock-up. There would have been one mad rush to bury the file deeper than did ever plummet sound, and a general issue of blank stares and short memories. And as an organisation they are actually designed, in large part, to do just that sort of thing So then what could we offer?-that we heard the story from a deserter who claims also to be a murderer? We have quite enough trouble with the creepiest and crawliest of Her Majesty's servants already The Headmaster is vulnerable enough without me suggesting we go about believing comic-book stories – and that has nothing to do with whether or not the story happens to be true "

He remembered the report and offered it. "A very sound piece of work. Thank you. Will you burn it or shall PAnd any notes, of course."

"You do it. What do I tell Blagg'"

"You get word to him – don't tell him, get word to him -that the only course is for him to turn himself in And if he doesn't mention Bad Schwarzendorn, nobody else will "Two weeks AWOL is going to hurt. He'll lose his stripes and won't get them back for a year Or more."

"I'm honestly sorry about that, but the involvement of Number 10with a deserter is very much more a threat to our peace of mind than any happening in High Germany. If you recall, you came here because the Headmaster wanted somebody to help stave off security scandals. At present, the only connection with this one is through you "

Maxim took a slow breath and nodded.

"And tell-no, let Blagg know-that he can hang onto the rest of the money. No questions will be asked."

"Are you sure it'll be enough7" Maxim asked in a blank tone.

"To make up for the damage to his career' No, I'm sure it won't I'm also sure I'm putting the Headmaster's interests ahead of anybody else's That's why you and I are here.

Suddenly brisk, he bounded away up the steps onto the terrace and in through the french windows of the Cabinet Room, away from the sunlight.