“It’s too late to sound like a proper detective now,” he said. “The damage is already done.” He used two matches to get his smoke going and then threw the box back. “Evidence? Oh, I don’t know. The way she looks at you. The girl’s a proper Rembrandt where you’re concerned, old boy. Her eyes follow you all the way around the room. The way she touches her hair all the time when she’s speaking to you. The way she bites her lip when you leave the room, as if she was already missing you. Take it from me, Bernie. I know the signs. There are two things in life that I have a feel for. Rubber tires and romance. Believe it or not, I used to be quite a ladies’ man. I may be in a wheelchair, but I haven’t lost my understanding of women.” He puffed his pipe and grinned at me. “Yes, she’s a little in love with you. Astounding, isn’t it? Matter of fact, I’m a little surprised myself. Surprised and a little jealous, I don’t mind confessing. Still, it’s a common enough mistake, I suppose, to assume that just because a girl is very good-looking she also has good taste in her choice of men.”

I laughed. “She might have fallen for you if you didn’t have all that wire wool on your face,” I said.

He touched his beard self-consciously. “You think I should get rid of it?”

“If I were you I’d drop it in a sack with a couple of heavy stones and then look for a nice deep river. You would only be putting the poor creature out of its misery.”

“But I like this beard,” he said. “It took a long time to grow.”

“So does a prize pumpkin. But you wouldn’t want to take one to bed with you.”

“I expect you’re right,” he said, good-humored as always. “Although I can think of better reasons than a beard for her not being interested in me. It wasn’t just the use of my legs I lost in the war, you know.”

“How did it happen?”

“Really, there’s not much to tell. You might just as well explain how an armor-piercing round works. A solid manganese round encased in a strong steel shell. There’s no explosive charge. The manganese round depends on kinetic energy to penetrate the tank armor, and then just bounces around inside the tank like a rubber ball, killing and maiming everything it hits until it runs out of steam. Simple but very effective. I was the only one inside my tank to survive. Although not so as you would have noticed at the time. It was Heinrich who saved my life. If he hadn’t been a doctor, then I wouldn’t be here now.”

“How did you two meet?”