‘Um, right away, Herr Six.’ Again he looked at me, and I couldn’t work out whether my being there was a source of vexation to him or not, so I made a mental note to speak to him when I got the chance.

‘There is one more thing,’ said Six, turning round on the sofa. ‘Please remind me to go through the funeral arrangements with you first thing tomorrow. I want you to look after things while I’m away.’

‘Very well, Herr Six,’ and with that he wished us good night and left.

‘Now then, Herr Gunther,’ said Six after the door had closed. He spoke with the Black Wisdom stuck in the corner of his mouth, so that he looked like a fairground barker and sounded like a child with a piece of candy. ‘I must apologize for bringing you here at this unearthly hour; however, I’m a busy man. Most important of all, you must understand that I am also a very private one.’

‘All the same, Herr Six,’ I said, ‘I must have heard of you.’

‘That is very probable. In my position I have to be the patron of many causes and the sponsor of many charities – you know the sort of thing I’m talking about. Wealth does have its obligations.’

So does an outside toilet, I thought. Anticipating what was coming, I yawned inside myself. But I said: ‘I can certainly believe it,’ with such an affectation of understanding that it caused him to hesitate for a short moment before continuing with the well-worn phrases I had heard so many times before. ‘Need for discretion’; and ‘no wish to involve the authorities in my affairs’; and ‘complete respect for confidentiality’, etc., etc. That’s the thing about my job. People are always telling you how to conduct their case, almost as if they didn’t quite trust you, almost as if you were going to have to improve your standards in order to work for them.

‘If I could make a better living as a not-so-private investigator, I’d have tried it a long time ago,’ I told him.