‘Many of the sites are run by lawyers. No surprise there. The cruise industry is booming; it’s a billion-dollar business. At this very moment there are three hundred and sixty liners sailing the oceans. This year alone, thirteen more will enter service. It’s only natural that big US legal firms have specialised in taking out compensation suits against the owners ad nauseam. After the airline industry and tobacco industry, cruise companies are the next in the lawyers’ firing line.’

‘So it’s all about money?’ Julia asked.

‘Of course. It’s always about money. As soon as the police hear about Anouk, the Sultan will be seized and searched. All passengers will have to get off the ship and will demand their money back plus compensation. Every day we don’t move costs us millions, and we’re talking about weeks here! But that’s peanuts compared to the group action we’ll be served with later.’

Julia saw a bead of sweat drip from the end of his hair and run down the side of his head.

‘I see,’ she said, looking Daniel seriously in the eye. ‘All these years your business has managed to pass off even the most bizarre missing-person cases as suicide. Which only works if none of them turns up again.’

Daniel nodded. ‘Hundreds of cases. Each one will be reviewed. We won’t survive. The entire industry will go down the pan.’

‘And so now this girl’s going to be sacrificed for profit?’ Julia said, standing up.

‘No, of course not.’ Daniel sounded desperate. ‘I’ll do everything to prevent the worst.’

‘The worst? What if you don’t manage to find out what happened to Anouk before we reach New York?’

The captain looked up. He was stony-faced.

‘Then they’ll let the girl vanish again. But this time forever.’

13

Martin was standing outside the entrance to the ship’s infirmary on deck 3. When he saw the name on the door he couldn’t help thinking of another Elena who also had the title of doctor. The other Elena wasn’t a medic on a ship, but a psychologist in Berlin Mitte, a marriage counsellor in Friedrichstrasse with whom Nadja had once booked an appointment, though they never turned up to it. Partly out of cowardice, and partly from the conviction that they’d get through without outside help.

How naïve.

Crises had often loomed in their relationship. No surprise there. Martin’s job as an undercover investigator meant he’d spend weeks, sometimes even months, away from home at a time, and five years ago the big bust-up had occurred, which had made Martin realise that things couldn’t continue as they were.