arriving home, smiley notices a movement in the drawing room. he rings his own door bell and is met by a tall, fair, handsome stranger. smiley skilfully avoids entering and notes all the number plates of the seven cars parked in the road. mendel traces one car to a car dealer, adam scarr. scarr tells mendel that he rents the car out twice a month to a stranger known as "blondie", whose description matches smiley's intruder. smiley is subsequently attacked and nearly killed while trying to track the car to "blondie", and scarr is later murdered. investigating further, mendel learns that elsa attends a local theatre twice a month with "blondie", and that the two exchange music cases at each performance. "blondie" is soon identified by fellow circus agent peter guillam as hans-dieter mundt, an east german agent under diplomatic cover working for dieter frey, a german spy of smiley's during the second world war who has since become an important east german agent. smiley believes that frey would use a courier like mundt to service only one highly placed resident agent. guillam reports that mundt has fled england.