Daisy and Bernard (The Blind Sleuth Mysteries 3)

Chapter 6

"...shall I tell you about the very first time I became aware of your existence? It was in 1939. When Cedric came back from the summer hols, he told all his mates at school about this girl he'd met, this girl named Daisy Hayes, who was soo beautiful, soo sexy, and totally blind! Blind since birth. The worse kind of blindness, said he, who had suddenly become quite an expert. He even had a small photograph of the whole group of his cousins taken by Ralph's mother. A Brownie snapshot with a wavy white border. You were in it too, standing there in the middle, and Cedric would point you out to us. Your head was only a tiny smudge, really, but there were enough visual clues to make out the blond curls, the dark glasses, the loveliness...

"We were all fascinated by this story, of course. It struck me that Cedric was apparently quite smitten. Very unusual for him. He not only found you attractive, but seemed to respect you at a deeper level, he who otherwise would show respect for no one on earth. He told us how you had learned to ride a bicycle and shoot a pistol, and we all agreed that you must be a wonderful girl. Then the others got bored and started to mock Cedric for his infatuation with you. 'Yeah, yeah, the blind girl, we know! You keep banging on about her; well, come on: a blind girl?" But I kept asking for more details, for more stories, and Cedric was grateful to me for still showing an interest. He kept on talking about 'the gang' at Bottomleigh House and all the stuff you kids had been up to that summer. I particularly admired the play you had created: Death of a Corpse! I wished I could have been there and played in it...

"Anyway, that was the first time I became aware of your existence. We were all sixteen or seventeen years old at the time, very prone to falling in love, and I'm afraid I fell in love with the idea of you that I had built up in my mind. I had this idealised representation of you that stayed with me for many years after that."

By now Daisy was almost purring with pleasure. She enjoyed the caress of Bernard's voice immensely. It was very male but at the same time very soft and smooth, a crooning sound... yes, that was it: if he hadn't been a police investigator and a hideously ugly man in a wheelchair, Bernard could have been an old crooner, bringing middle-aged ladies to their knees at evening do's in derelict seaside resorts. Daisy smiled, and stroked Bernard's muscular chest with her hand.

"I suppose you weren't a paraplegic yet?"

"No, not at that moment, but I was to become one soon. The accident happened six months later, and while I suffered hell in a hospital bed as they tried desperately to patch me up, I was thinking of you all the time. It helped me to pull through."

"And to imagine that I was blissfully unaware of all that... So on V-E Day, when I spoke to you on the phone, you were actually hiding your feelings, even when you said 'Please call me Bernard'."

"That's right. Instead, I could have blurted out: 'I love you!' You see, in '43 Cedric had turned up out of the blue, at the Yard, and he told me how you had found out that your husband had been poisoned. I admired you greatly for that and fell in love all over again with the idea of your existence. Then, when you phoned me on V-E Day, I heard your voice for the first time. It was really you! I was thrilled!"

"And you were wheelchair-bound, then?"

"Of course! That was the only reason I was still doing a civilian job... Didn't you ever wonder why I was not under arms?"

"No, it never occurred to me."

"Women. Typical!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Only joking of course."

"Well... and now that we have made love for the first time, forty-four years on, did I live up to your expectations? I'm an old biddy now..."