‘We haven’t the faintest idea where Anouk was,’ Daniel said, answering the question Julia had just put to him. ‘The little one’s not saying a word. She’s completely silent.’
‘That’s unbelievable!’ she said.
So unbelievable that she wondered why she hadn’t heard anything of this sensational case in the news. She’d leafed through all the papers on the flight from Berlin to London. Not a single one had reported about this Jesus girl who’d come back from the dead on a cruise ship.
‘The sea was rough that night and at the end of my shift I was on my way to the infirmary to check that everything was okay, when the girl ran into me. At first I thought she’d got lost in the dark, but she looked strangely familiar. What was also odd was that she wasn’t wearing the bracelet that all children have around their wrists here on board – a rose-coloured plastic band with a tiny microchip. This allows them access to the area reserved for children and they can use it to buy soft drinks, sweets and ice creams at the bars.’
‘And personal data is stored on the chip?’ Julia asked, without averting her gaze from the picture of Anouk that Daniel had handed her. It had been taken in a room flooded with artificial light; in the background she saw a white cupboard with a red cross.
‘Precisely. But once we’d got to the infirmary we were soon able to establish her identity, even without the bracelet. When I took her to Dr Beck her first thought was that it could be Anouk Lamar, and then we got confirmation by comparing her to a passenger photo taken two months ago.’
‘Unbelievable.’ Julia rounded her lips as she breathed out. ‘What about the mother?’ she asked.
‘She’s still missing.’
‘And the girl’s father?’
‘Died of cancer three years ago. There’s just a grandfather left near Washington.’
‘How did he react to the news that his granddaughter’s still alive?’
‘The granddad? He didn’t. We haven’t told him.’
Julia frowned in disbelief. ‘Why ever not?’
‘For the same reason we haven’t spoken to the authorities yet.’
‘What, you mean the police haven’t been informed?’
‘No. Not in Germany, nor in the UK or the US. If we’d done that, we wouldn’t be on our way to New York now.’
‘Hang on,’ Julia said, stretching out the ‘a’ for an unbelievably long time. ‘A young girl, first declared missing some weeks ago, then dead, suddenly turns up again as if from nowhere – and it’s all swept under the carpet? Just like that?’
That’s why there weren’t any reports in the newspapers.
‘Not just like that,’ Daniel objected. ‘It’s very complicated. You don’t understand.’ Tears welled in the captain’s eyes. ‘Shit, you don’t even understand why I’m telling you all of this.’
That was true. She’d come to see him to discuss her concerns about Lisa and now the conversation had turned into a confession by her godfather.
‘Enlighten me then,’ Julia said softly.
If they’d been standing closer Julia would have reached for his hand.
‘I’m sorry, I’m at my wits’ end. I’m being blackmailed and I don’t know what to do.’
‘Blackmailed? How? And by whom?’
‘By my boss, Yegor Kalinin. I’m supposed to find out where Anouk was and what happened to her. I’ve got six days. Until we get to New York.’
‘On your own?’
‘At least without the authorities, without official help.’
‘But why, for goodness’ sake?’
‘Because we can’t afford any publicity in this matter. It would be the end of us.’
Daniel stood up and went over to the desk with its polished mahogany top and two cabinets beneath, in which files or other documents could be stored behind lockable doors. In the right-hand cabinet was a hotel safe, bigger inside than it looked at first glance, for Daniel took from it a black lever arch file once he’d tapped in the code to open it.
‘Do you remember me saying that in most cases the cause of a Passenger 23 was suicide?’
‘Yes.’
‘That was a lie.’
Sitting back in the chair with armrests, he opened the file at random somewhere in the first third.
He tapped his finger on the page before him, which looked like the cover sheet for a police file. ‘This is just an example. 2011, the Princess Pride sailing down the Mexican Riviera. Marla Key, thirty-three, American. Vanishes on the night of 4 December. According to the crew, the young mother fell drunkenly over the railings. But why is her beaded purse damaged? And why was a cardboard box put over the one security camera that could have proved she fell?’
Daniel turned a few pages.
‘And here, a year later, again in December, this time on our sister ship, the Poseidon of the Seas. Cabin 5167. A twenty-five-year-old woman from Munich went to take a quick dip in the pool on the morning of her wedding anniversary. She was never seen again. After a rudimentary search the crew assumed it was suicide. Even though, just the day before, the woman had booked a hairdresser’s appointment for the day she vanished! Or just recently’ – Daniel had turned to the last page – ‘the case of the Italian Adriano Moretti, who disappeared near Malta from the Ultra Line 2, after telling his friend in the disco he was popping to the loo.’ Daniel crashed the file shut.
‘I could go on like this for hours. There are entire websites dedicated to the phenomenon of missing passengers: internationalcruisevictims.org, cruisejunkie.com or cruisebruise.com, just to mention the three best-known ones. And these aren’t conspiracy sites set up by nutters; they’re serious contact points for relatives and cruise victims, as those people who believe themselves to be victims of a crime at sea call themselves.’
Julia noticed a thin film of sweat on Daniel’s brow.
‘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.’