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not?” The colonel shrugged. “I have to consider every possibility. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems to me that these were peculiarly German crimes. Who was that other fellow who murdered and sexually mutilated all those boys and girls? Haarmann, wasn’t it? He bit out their throats and cut off their genitals. And Kürten. Peter Kürten. The Vampire of Düsseldorf. Let’s not forget him, shall we?”
    “Haarmann and Kürten were executed, Colonel. As I’m sure you must remember. So it can hardly be them, now can it?”
    “Of course not. But there were other lust murders, too. As I’m sure you remember. Some of them involving mutilation and cannibalism.” The colonel leaned forward on his chair. “All right. Here’s where I’m going with this. Many Germans have come to live here in Buenos Aires. Before the war, and after the war. And not all of them are civilized people like you and me. Naturally I’ve been paying close attention to the trials of your so-called war criminals. And it’s quite clear to me that some of your countrymen have done some terrible things. Unimaginable things. So here’s my theory, if you can call it that. Not everyone who has come to Argentina in the last five years is an angel. Some might be devils. Just like in that old Berlin club. The Heaven and Hell. You will admit that much, surely?”
    “Freely. You heard what I said to the president.”
    “Yes, I did. It made me think that you might be a man I could use, Herr Gunther. An angel, if you like.”
    “I’ve never been called that before.”
    “Oh, I think you have, but I’ll get to that. Let me finish this particular train of thought. You will also admit, I hope, that many of your colleagues in the SS enjoyed killing, yes? I mean, it stands to reason, doesn’t it? That some of these men in the SS were psychopaths. Yes?”
    I nodded. “I can see where you’re going with this, I think.”
    “Exactly. Take the case of Rudolf Höss, the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He’d murdered before. In 1923. As had Martin Bormann. A man does not become a psychopath because he puts on a uniform. Therefore it must be the case that there were many psychopaths who found a congenial home in the SS and the Gestapo as licensed murderers and torturers.”
    “I always thought so,” I said. “You can imagine my pleasure when I was inducted into the SS, in 1940. It comes as quite a shock to spend your whole life investigating murder, then to be sent to Russia and expected to start committing it yourself.”
    “Oh, I wasn’t suggesting you were a psychopath, Herr Gunther. Look, let’s say that in 1932 this murderer is not caught. In 1933 the Nazis come to power and he joins the SS, where he finds a new, socially acceptable means of achieving his lust for cruelty. During the war he works in a death camp, killing as many as he wants, with total impunity.”
    “And then you invite him to come and live in Argentina.” I grinned. “I take your point. But I don’t see how I can help.”
    “I should have thought it was obvious. A chance to reopen an old case.”
    “I’m not the neat type, Colonel. And believe me, there were plenty of other unsolved cases on our books. None of them costs me any sleep.”
    The colonel was nodding but I could see that he still had cards to play.
    “Another girl has gone missing,” he said. “Here in B.A.”
    “Girls go missing all the time. Darwin called it natural selection. A girl selects a young man and naturally her father doesn’t like him very much. So she runs off with him.”
    “So I can’t appeal to your social conscience?”
    “I hardly know my way around this city. I barely speak the language. I’m a fish out of water.”
    “Not exactly. The girl who is missing is of German-Argentine origin. Like Grete Wohlauf. I was thinking you might confine your inquiries to our German community. Didn’t I just explain that I have a hunch we’re looking for a German? You don’t