Luckily, Marguerite understood the question. “My friend Salem here,” she said, “is a café owner by profession, but also a rather gifted amateur detective. We knew each other years ago, when he lived in Paris for a stretch. If I needed a good brain to pick, I picked his. So after he moved back here, over the years, if I’ve needed someone to keep an eye out in Istanbul…”

Salem chuckled. “Marguerite has had me keeping my eyes out so often, it’s a wonder I haven’t lost them. I’m a fool to play along. But I’ve got the time – as you can see, business is not exactly booming. And her cases are always so curious.”

“I had a feeling,” continued Sister Marguerite, “that we hadn’t heard the last of Rupert. There was no way that he was on our train by coincidence. So when he disappeared, I asked Salem to keep an ear to the ground, to see if he turned up here.”

“Outrageous behaviour,” said Rupert – but he was smiling, and pouring Sister Marguerite more tea, so Max didn’t think he meant it.

“So,” said Salem, taking up the story, “I checked at the hotels and hostels and so on – easy enough, if you’ve got friends in the right places. And sure enough, the man himself pitches up, only a couple of streets from this café.”

“On the first flight I could catch, when those fussing doctors would let me go,” said Rupert. “I kept telling them I was fine.” He rolled his eyes, then slightly ruined the effect by sneezing ten times in a row. Klaus helpfully yelled “Gesundheit!” after every sneeze. Max guessed that this was the German equivalent of “bless you”, which was nice of Klaus, but maybe he didn’t need to say it for every sneeze.

When the sneezing and gesundheit-ing was over, Max said, “But – what are you doing here? In Istanbul, I mean – but also, here, right now?”

Rupert nodded approvingly. “Our young sleuth asks all the right questions, as ever. Well, Max, I am in Istanbul because I have been planning for weeks to get my hands on that blasted diamond, and I continue to pray that I will, although I’m losing hope a bit, I must say. And I am here tonight because Mr Sadik seems to think that we should be working together.”

“I followed him a bit,” explained Salem. “It became pretty clear that he was snooping around Elodie Morel. When I heard Marguerite’s story, I figured that you were all looking for the same thing. So, I paid him a visit.”

Max stirred her tea thoughtfully. She remembered something Marguerite had told her, back in Budapest – that there were sure to be other criminals chasing after the Phantoms. She had forgotten all about it. “So Rupert – on the train – you were trying to steal the diamond from the Phantoms? You thought Suzanne had it?”