“We’ll talk about that, Karl. That’s important.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Everything will be taken care of, Karl. There are procedures.”

Felix watched Gebhart get Karl Himmelfarb started on his walk back. He waited then, and when Himmelfarb turned after a few metres, Gebi had some words for him. There was a lot of head nodding and a bunch of soothing gestures with his hands.

“I’m lucky, am I?” said Felix when Gebhart made his way back up.

“Are you okay? Do you need to, well, you know?”

“Nothing left. Empty.”

“Ah you poor kid. No, I don’t mean lucky like horseshoes in your arsch. I mean experience. You’ll learn a lot from this.”

“Whether I like it or not.”

“Naturlich. It’s the way of the world. They don’t teach that at the Uni?”

Felix too began to look around at the trees and hills.

“What do we do now?” he asked after a while.

“Damned if I know. Never did a murder before.”

“There must be something.”

Gebhart turned back and gave him a quizzical, almost pitying look.

“We just secure the site. The Kripo can do the rest.”

“Like CSI?”

“You watch that crap too?”

“Only when it’s on.”

Gebhart eked out a thin smile.

“See? You’re beginning to get it. You’ll make it. Maybe you’ll bring me luck. I should blow my beer money on the Lotto soon as I get back to town.”

“That’s the kind of luck I prefer.”

Gebhart sighed.

“You have a boy like Hansi?”

Gebhart nodded.

“You know Himmelfarb from that place?”

“It’s more that he knows me. Like a dummy I went there in uniform once after work. Well, straightaway I was a movie star.

There’s something about a uniform.”

“That’s why he phoned?”

“He didn’t know who to phone.”

“Social work, they call that, don’t they?”