He could see that Shahla wanted to leave, but Gerlinde blocked her way with the wheelchair.

‘Just one final question and then we will go. Have you ever searched the internet for plans of the lower decks in the bowels of a cruise ship?’

‘No.’

‘There’s no point. Because you won’t find any. Everything below deck 3 is secret. There aren’t any publicly available drawings.’

Gerlinde turned to the chambermaid. ‘Shahla, tell him what the captain said to you about the girl.’

The young woman responded to the old lady like a schoolgirl might to her teacher at the start of the twentieth century.

‘He said thought she was ghost,’ she replied.

‘But why?’

‘Because suddenly there. In front of him. But no door anywhere. Then she runs away.’

‘You see!’ Gerlinde gave Martin a meaningful look. ‘All of a sudden Anouk appears from nowhere, standing in the middle of an empty corridor – apart from me – without there being any door nearby.’

‘And she was holding a torch,’ he said sarcastically.

‘A torch with weak batteries, correct. Because she’d spent so long looking for the secret exit.’

Martin tapped his head and then grabbed the grips of her wheelchair. ‘So you’re saying the cruise line would rather hand over a psychopathic serial killer to the authorities and somewhere a cabin is being prepared, which they’ll later present as a dungeon, rather than run the risk of this Bermuda Deck being discovered during a search of the ship?’

‘You’ve understood!’ Gerlinde praised him, as Martin pushed her wheelchair through the room. ‘Anouk should never have re-emerged. She’s putting the entire multi-million-dollar business model in danger. That’s the only reason the authorities haven’t been informed.’

‘With respect, that’s a complete load of nonsense.’

‘Really?’ She twisted her head back while at the same time keeping her eyes on the door. ‘So how do you explain…’

She stopped mid-sentence and her mouth stayed open.

‘What?’ Martin asked, turning around. Shahla was standing two steps behind him with her head cocked to one side, as if she were listening closely.

‘What’s up with the two of you all of a sudden?’ he asked, but now he noticed too.

The ship. The noises.

The ever-present sonorous vibrating of the generators had gone quiet.

The Sultan wasn’t moving any more.

41

Too late.

From a distance Tiago could see the opened cabin door, through which bright light shone into the corridor like car headlamps. He knew he hadn’t arrived in time to be able to avert the catastrophe.

If only I’d opened the envelope earlier!