After Shahla had battered the mother with the desk lamp and locked Timmy in the bathroom, Elena had helped her to wrap the corpse in a sheet and throw it overboard. The security cameras showed two victims. Unfortunately it was noticeable that the suitcase was smaller than the mother’s body. They ought to have disposed of the suitcase first and then the corpse. A massive error, but luckily the cruise line had played the role of silent accomplice and made the recordings disappear to hush the matter up.

Elena immediately started to look after the boy. Timmy, scared out of his wits and deeply troubled, didn’t have any idea how to get in touch with his father.

Her research found out that his father was in prison in Warsaw as a dangerous criminal with links to the mafia.

The perverted mother dead; the father a murderer. The relatives might not be any better. Under no circumstances were they going to send the traumatised boy back to such a wretched family. At this point Elena had no idea that Martin was working as an undercover investigator; she only found out years later when Daniel told her of the case that Schwartz had tried to bring against him. So at the time she decided to take Timmy into her care. She hid him for a while on the ship, took him to her house in Casa de Campo and put him in a boarding school there. Several times a year she visited him in the Dominican Republic, for as long and as often as she could.

Later, when she found out who Timmy’s father really was, it briefly occurred to her to bring the two of them together, but she abandoned the idea. Martin was a detective. One of the best. The danger was too great that he’d stick to her heels and hunt her down. Which he must be considering now. From today she was on the run; she’d done all she could to postpone this moment for as long as possible.

During the years that she’d kept Timmy hidden from his father, he’d grown into a fine young man who enjoyed life in the Caribbean and now played tennis so well that he’d got to the final of the Caribbean junior championship.

Two weeks ago Elena had told him who his father really was and that he was sure to come looking for him. So Timmy was forewarned. All the same, she didn’t want to imagine the shock he must be feeling now.

With a sigh Elena put the mobile back in her Louis Vuitton handbag, opened a compact mirror, applied another layer of lipstick and pulled the décolleté of her little black number a little lower. Then she got up from the lounge chair by the windows.