He stuck fingers into both his ears and the sound didn’t get any quieter.

Great. This is what it must feel like when you begin the day as an alcoholic.

Pounding skull, phantom noises, gaps in the memory and a bladder as full as a train after a local derby.

He grabbed the telephone, stood up and shuffled to the bathroom. It felt like it took him ten minutes to get there, and indeed he had to sit down on the bed once for a rest, otherwise he’d have collapsed halfway.

He left the bathroom light off as he wanted to spare himself the sight of his face in the mirror. He also found the loo in the dark.

He lifted the lid, pulled down his boxer shorts (who undressed me?), and dialled Diesel’s mobile number as he sat down. It took an age for him to answer.

‘Hello?’

‘It’s me.’

‘Do I know you? I mean, you could easily be Martin Schwartz if you didn’t sound so fucking awful.’

‘What’s the time?’

‘You’re calling me because you want to know the time? Jesus, you must be bored.’ Diesel laughed and said, ‘At the next stroke it will be two-oh-eight p.m. precisely.’ Then he burped.

Two p.m.! Taking into account the time difference it was now noon on the Atlantic. He’d slept for at least ten hours.

‘But I’m glad you’ve rung. Have you checked your emails?’

‘No.’

‘You ought to. I’ve been through the staff and passenger lists your buddy Bonhoeffer gave you.’

Martin started to relieve himself while Diesel went on talking.

‘We’ve got almost six hundred matches for guests and employees who were on board both the day that Nadja and Timmy vanished, as well as five years later when Anouk and her mother were officially declared missing.’

‘How many of those are potential rapists?’

‘For a start, 338 employees. From the carpenter and the cook to the captain, all of them are on there. That’s assuming the list is complete. And here we have the biggest problem.’

‘Are you saying that Bonhoeffer didn’t give me the complete documents?’ he asked.

‘I’m saying he can’t have given you any complete documents. To save money most cruise lines engage foreign low-wage firms as subcontractors. And for tax reasons these subcontractors sometimes invent names or omit them, or even put down too many to get extra money. It’s a hopeless mess.’

Martin thought hard. This meant the staff and passenger lists were a dead end. ‘What about passengers?’ he asked all the same. ‘Do we have any repeat guests?’