‘What did you have in mind? Does it involve a cello or a violin?’

‘Ha-ha, very funny.’

‘Just my way of getting back at you for what you said about the cognac the other day.’

‘All right, so now we’re even-stevens.’

Now there’s silence again.

‘Cook,’ Caroline says after a while, ‘we could cook something together, the way we used to when we shared an apartment in Mittenwald. We haven’t done that in ages, and it was always so much fun.’

She smiles at Daniel, with the exact same smile that caught my eye back in the animal shelter. Distinctive, and so beautiful. In an instant, it’s much warmer on our bench. Fabulous! I cuddle up to Caroline and savour the moment.

This time I see Daniel’s hand in the nick of time, before it can land on my nose, and I duck away. Has he gone crazy? Though I have to say it’s obvious that I’m not on his radar at all – only Caroline is; in fact, he’s now reaching across my back for her hand and pulling her towards him. Caroline looks astonished, but she’s not pulling her hand back. What does that mean? When does a man hold a woman’s hand? Too bad Beck isn’t here; I’ll bet he knows the answer. I decide that this can only be a good sign, since humans are usually so sparing with physical contact. I wonder what’ll happen next.

‘Hey, you!’ a loud, surly voice booms out just then.

Caroline and Daniel flinch, and he lets go of her hand.

‘Yeah, you!’ the voice roars.

Now the man with the unfriendly voice comes into view, and he stands right in front of our bench. I give a quick bark – doesn’t this guy notice that he is very much in the way? But he stays rooted to the spot and stares at Caroline and Daniel. Or is he staring at me? I sense that this can’t be good.

‘Excuse me for coming up to you like this. My name is Holger Diekamp. But the dog you have on your lap behaved quite strangely here yesterday, and I’m afraid he has some kind of dread disease. Frankly, I think it may even be rabies, although the police didn’t think so yesterday.’

‘The police?’ Caroline and Daniel echo in chorus.

‘Yes, of course I alerted the police right away. But before they could get here, the dog had disappeared, along with the fat cat that was there the whole time. But I was alarmed, and I took it upon myself to be on the lookout for the dog. After all, rabies is a deadly disease. I know that might sound somewhat excessive on my part, but the dog went into convulsions and was foaming at the mouth. He also struck me as clingy in the extreme – all the classic signs. Any chance that you took him to North Africa recently?’