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the cause of death may be strangulation. I'll
know–"

"– more when you get him back to your lair,"
Hofmann said. Yes, he thought. The beating meant
passion. Hatred. And he hoped that made it a

zwölf (twelve).

Unlike other police forces that used code
numbers to relate incidents the Hamburg police
force communicated clearly. However, ever since a
woman had killed her husband, stabbing him with
a carving knife, because he hadn't cleaned the

bath after taking a shower, the number zwölf had

become synonymous with a domestic. During her
confession she admitted that the trigger for her
rage that led to the killing had been counting
twelve of her husband's hairs in the bath.

The likelihood of this double being a zwölf

raised Hofmann's hopes of clearing it. It would be
nice to retire on a closed case. "What I–"

"Sir," said a technician behind them. Whether he
was addressing Brauer, the chief technician who
stood nearby or Hofmann was unclear. "You might
want to see this."

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