‘I’ll be right back, sweetheart, okay?’ She stroked Anouk’s cheek softly then followed him out of the cabin.

‘It’s irresponsible,’ Martin said once they’d closed the door behind them. He spoke in a hushed tone, even though he didn’t think Anouk would be able to hear them out here in the anteroom. ‘She’s got serious injuries—’

‘For which she’s being given painkillers and ointments.’

‘—and needs to get to a hospital as quickly as possible.’

‘She is in a hospital,’ Elena insisted. ‘The Sultan is better equipped than many city hospitals.’

‘Only without the appropriately trained personnel.’

The doctor voiced her protest. ‘I lived in the Dominican Republic for three years and in the city hospital there treated more refugee children from Haiti who’d been raped than the head of the Hamburg women’s clinic will see in a lifetime. And from what I’ve just witnessed, Doctor Schwartz, you seem to be very familiar with post-traumatic stress disorders. Listen, I’m not trying to defend what’s happening here. But do you really think that round-the-clock treatment by the two of us is so bad for the child?’

‘Yes, it is,’ was on the tip of Martin’s tongue, but he didn’t manage to get the words out because all of a sudden Elena’s mobile rang.

‘Anouk,’ she said, surprised.

The girl had pressed the worry button.

20

‘There’s no need to be afraid, we just want to ask you one little question,’ said the man who’d knocked the chambermaid to the ground in Lisa’s cabin. He spoke English with a harsh accent.

The young woman, whose bonnet was no longer perched on her black hair, blinked in fear after she’d picked herself up again. She was terribly thin; her arms, which she crossed protectively against her chest, were no thicker than a broom handle. From his vantage point, hidden behind the bed, Tiago could only see her profile and back in the mirror on the wall. She was stooped, her bony shoulders tensed. Her vertebrae poked through her top like pearls on a necklace.

Tiago didn’t know the cleaning lady, or at least he hadn’t noticed her before, but that wasn’t a surprise given the army of people working aboard this ship.

Nor did he have any idea who the two men threatening her were.

Judging by the golden stripes on his uniform the guy doing the talking was the classic type of low-ranking officer you found on ships – a navigator or engineer – while the taller and more muscular of the two was wearing green trousers and a short-sleeved, grey polo shirt. He didn’t have shoulder pads or stripes, which marked him out as a member of the crew, probably a workman who wouldn’t attract attention if he came up to the passenger area for a while to carry out repairs.