It’s stuffy in the bag and my legs are stiff. We considered various ways of getting me off the boat – in a case for a musical instrument, maybe – or whether I should stay on the ship, hiding in a lifeboat with enough supplies to last me until Rick could help me move down to the crew deck once we were sure it was deserted. In the end, being smuggled off in a simple holdall felt like the least risky option. That way Rick could keep me by his side all the time. no one else had to be involved, and I wouldn’t die of thirst or starvation if there was a change of schedule.

The only flaw in this plan was the risk of being cooped up in some hotel room with Rick for longer than I would like. Fortunately, the turnaround between the passengers and crew being offloaded and the skeleton crew getting back on board and heading off to the lay-up mooring point would be very short; it was all to happen in a single day. It’s expensive to keep a ship in port so they wouldn’t want it to be there any longer than necessary. Within twenty-four hours we would be back out at sea with a skeleton crew, only to return once a month or so for bunkering.

Even so, there was no way I was staying in that bag all day, so I got Rick to book a cheap hotel room where we could hide out, telling him I have my period to avoid him trying anything on – he’s old-fashioned and squeamish like that.

I simply can’t face him pawing at me today. I peer out of the anonymous hotel room at the port below – we’re on the fifteenth floor so there’s no chance of me being seen from below and obviously we won’t call room service.

As crew, we were the last to get off the ship, so it’s much less busy down there than it was when we first docked. I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I’m sure there are more police around than there would usually be.

I will have officially been reported missing by now. My key card and phone went overboard in an old handbag with the dummy, and I’m hoping the card, phone or even the whole bag might be found to give more weight to the theory I went in the water. It’s a long shot, but maybe it will wash up somewhere. Even if not, they will see from my key card records that I didn’t open any doors on board after New Year’s Eve or officially get off the ship, and obviously the phone will be unreachable. Nobody has seen me since well before Anna went in the water. So there really is only one logical conclusion. Everything is in place.