At the same time Gerlinde looked at herself in the lift mirror with disappointment and decided to give up her search for the Bermuda Deck for good. Today she’d even kept going till sunrise, longer than usual. And what had she achieved?

Nothing but a goddamned headache.

She decided to spend her final days on the Sultan doing nothing but relaxing.

‘Bloody Bermuda Deck. I got carried away,’ she admitted to herself, then grumbled a while longer until the lift doors opened again. As she wheeled herself out she was surprised by the unexpected change.

It took Gerlinde a while to understand that it was the colour of the carpet which was confusing her. On her deck, deck 12, it was quite a bit darker. And thicker.

I’m on the wrong floor, was her first thought. Then she realised what had happened. The lift must be broken. At any rate it hadn’t gone anywhere. She was still on the same level where she’d entered the lift.

‘Nothing’s working today,’ she groused, wheeling herself out of the lift to try the next-door one.

While she waited she looked at herself again, this time in the brass panelling that had been polished to a mirror finish. Its reflection made everything look a little friendlier. Her eyes didn’t appear so tired; she looked slimmer, her hair not so flat. Everything was nicer, prettier, softer and more harmonious.

Apart from the door.

The door behind her and slightly to the side, which opened in the wall as if by magic. Just as Gerlinde turned around to take a look, a head-high laundry container was being wheeled out from it…

About the author

SEBASTIAN FITZEK is one of Europe’s most successful authors of psychological thrillers. His books have sold 12 million copies, been translated into more than thirty-six languages and are the basis for international cinema and theatre adaptations. Sebastian Fitzek was the first German author to be awarded the European Prize for Criminal Literature. He lives with his family in Berlin.

About the translator

JAMIE BULLOCH is the translator of almost forty works from German, including novels by Timur Vermes, Martin Suter and Robert Menasse. His translation of Birgit Vanderbecke’s The Mussel Feast won the 2014 Schlegel-Tieck Prize. He is also the author of Karl Renner: Austria.

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