‘Wow…’
Salina pivoted around and gently whispered her admiration, likely so as not to wake her baby just now dozing again in her arms. It was also possible that seeing it all really had taken her breath away.
Mats had briefly been worried that a crew member might block their way since he wasn’t allowed to take other passengers upstairs with him, but they hadn’t encountered anyone on their short trip up.
‘This is unbelievable!’
Mats looked around the Sky Suite with her. All this luxury was simply obscene to him, especially considering the fact that he’d transformed this flying hotel suite into the command centre for his nightmare of planning psychological warfare against Kaja and all the passengers. Unsuspecting people like Salina Piehl, on the other hand, couldn’t help getting completely blown away by the sight of the swivelling leather chairs, its own bathroom with shower, and a bedroom with king bed.
‘Now I get why you let me have 7A. I’d rather be flying up here too,’ she whispered in amazement and immediately shook her head. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound presumptuous. I’m just happy that you were so generous.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Mats said to appease her. ‘I’m the one who should be thanking you.’
He rolled the still-unused serving cart aside and moved one of the two chairs into its 180-degree flat position. Salina understood the gesture and lay her baby down there along with its blankie. The aircraft was gliding along through the night yet she still chose to strap in her sleeping baby by gently stretching the belt across its chest before stepping over to Mats, who was just turning the monitor on.
‘What’s this about?’
‘An emergency, if I may say so,’ Mats began and reiterated the story that he’d cooked up on the way to the upper level and could now feed her.
‘I’m a psychiatrist and on the way to Berlin for a highly complicated case. I’ve received the patient’s treatment video but I’m not able to review it up here as precisely as I’d like.’
‘I see,’ Salina said but didn’t look like she did.
‘It’s complicated, and I can’t show you the video because of doctor–patient confidentiality of course.’ At this point Mats made things purposely vague, blurry. ‘It’s of utmost importance that I get a better look at a certain portion of the video. A patient’s micro-expression.’
‘Like in slow motion?’ Salina asked.
‘Exactly. The software here on board doesn’t allow that, unfortunately. But with the help of your camera…’
Salina nodded. ‘You want to film the screen and then watch the result in slow motion?’
‘Better yet, frame by frame.’
‘Okay, no problem.’
Mats looked her firmly in the eyes and noticed that more of Salina’s freckles were showing on her pale skin than a little while ago. It wasn’t only because she’d stopped applying much make-up – she was agitated. He had jolted her from sleep, practically abducted her up to this luxury wonderland of a flying two-room residence, and asked for unusual assistance with the therapy of a disturbing patient. It was a miracle she was even going to tell him how her camera worked and not simply how nuts he was.
The device she removed from her the flight case along with a tripod was not difficult to understand, but Mats wrote down the most important instructions step by step. Once he was sure he understood, he asked her to leave the living room.
‘You’re joking.’
‘I’m sorry. I have to insist. Doctor–patient confidentiality.’
Salina nervously rubbed her hands together as if cold. She obviously didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone with her camera.
‘It’s safe and secure on the tripod,’ Mats promised. ‘I will not move it from this spot.’
‘Very well,’ Salina said after more hesitation, though not looking at all happy about moving into the bedroom with the baby.
He waited until she shut the door, then immediately fast-forwarded channel 13/10 to the ninth minute. To the moment right before Kaja returned to kiss the shooter.
He let the video run from 552 seconds on and started the digital camera, which was pointed at the wall monitor. Seeing it this second time, he was even more certain of how explosive his discovery was.
He first stopped playback, then the recording, and let his newly taped footage replay on the camera’s folding beermat-sized display. He waited about thirty seconds before pressing pause. From there he skipped forwards second by second, and soon he reached the part he wanted to see.
He didn’t even need to switch to single-frame mode. The still image on the display was perfect.
And tragic.
This can’t be.
Mats felt a thumping inside his chest, as if he had no heart there but a wild troll desperately wanting to escape from his body instead.
Salina had shown him how to connect her digital camera to the monitor using the HDMI cable from her case. That worked easily, which meant the fifty-five-inch monitor was now exhibiting the disturbing image and in surprisingly good resolution.
His hands wet with sweat, he pulled out his phone and clicked a photo of the still image on the monitor.
The feet.
On the blurred tile.
On which the cameraman had stood while filming Kaja’s rape, down to the bitter end.
And who was not named Johannes Faber and wasn’t even a male. It was a female, with green camo-patterned nail polish on her toes.
Just like all three friends in her special gang had worn that day, as their very own sign.
Of all people.
‘Can I come back out now?’ he heard Salina say from behind the bedroom door.
Mats swallowed hard, but the bitter taste in his mouth only got stronger. All the truths, all that he thought he’d known about Kaja and her therapy, was turned on its head with this one image.
Even worse: the photo he now had on his phone, this one single image, was possibly the most lethal weapon on board this aeroplane.
‘Yes, of course,’ he told Salina, deleting the video from her camera, and turning off the monitor at the very moment he felt a gentle waft of air behind him.
Mats turned around and only saw the door to the Sky Suite closing with a soft click.
He froze a moment in a state of shock, and far too long, because once he’d pulled himself back together, once he’d run to the exit and thrown the door open and peered down the hall to the Sky Bar to see who’d been watching him, to see who’d been looking over his shoulder – they were long gone.