“Should I give him a massage maybe?”

“That’s good, Professor. Now: you’ve had your fun.”

“But what’s he got for us?”

The distaste had returned to Gebhart’s voice now.

“Are you listening to me at all? Don’t they teach listening at Gendarmerieschule anymore?”

“Gebi, you’re not telling me things. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“What do you think police work is? You ask, they answer, everybody goes home?”

Felix’s reply was interrupted by the car’s lurch deeper into a puddle. The Opel’s shocks bottomed out on it, and the car rolled back a little.

“Jesus and Mary,” said Gebhart, and quickly put it into first.

Felix heard the water move under the car. He looked down to see if any had come in.

A Mitsubishi four-wheeler was parked near a tractor. Gebi parked near what looked like a storehouse and yanked up the handbrake. The woman had already called the dog and was holding its collar as she led it away.

“Put on your hat,” said Gebhart. “And spare me the look, will you? Remember. Number one: your job is to listen. Number two: everything goes slow up here. Slow and polite and serious. People like this don’t call the Gendarmerie just for the heck of it.”

The woman pulled the door of a shed behind her, and tied it up with a loop of rope. Felix still saw the snout in a gap at the bottom. She folded her arms, and returned Gebhart’s quiet greeting.

“Gruss Gott.”

Felix noted the high-pitched accent. He did not want to stare at her lined face. She waited for Felix to come around from his side of the Opel. There was stiff leathery feel to her hand.

“You are close to heaven here, Frau Himmelfarb” said Gebhart. “Thank God.”

She nodded, but did not smile. Felix wondered if she even got the lousy pun: Himmelfarb the colour of heaven. She was probably shy more than slow-witted, he decided. Who wouldn’t be, living up here. Except for the four-wheel pickup, this was a place out of time. He adjusted his beret and took in a narrow piece of a view that had not been visible from the laneway in. To the side of a barn, there was a prospect clear over the hills toward Carinthia.