Martin took the call by pressing the touch screen of his smartphone and the picture of Stalin vanished from the screen.
‘Diesel?’ he asked.
‘Call me Edward Snowden if you like.’
Martin’s finger was already hovering over the icon to disconnect the conversation.
‘Listen, I can’t talk now. All hell has been let loose here and…’
‘I’ve hacked Lisa’s Facebook profile,’ Diesel interrupted him impassively.
Martin didn’t waste time asking how he’d done that. He knew that the editor-in-chief could count not just tattoo artists and pyromaniacs amongst his friends, but numerous technology freaks as well, who provided him with the newest versions of cracked computer games.
‘And?’
‘Well, I stumbled on an interesting exchange with a chap called Tom Schiwy.’
‘Who’s that?’ Martin asked. He’d put it on loudspeaker so Elena could hear.
‘Her liaison teacher. She obviously had a relationship with him.’
The doctor frowned, but the disfigured half of her face remained unmoved.
‘Isn’t this Lisa still only fifteen?’ Martin asked.
‘Precisely. But there’s more! This teacher had something going with the mother too.’
Martin and Elena exchanged glances of amazement.
‘With Julia Stiller?’ Martin asked.
‘How many other mothers has she got?’ Diesel must have been chewing gum because his words were accompanied by disagreeable lip-smacking noises. ‘And now, here’s the hammer blow. Are you belted up?’
‘What?’
‘The video you wanted me to search for on isharerumours.com…’
‘Is it genuine?’ Martin stared at the phone, as if he could press the answer out of him just with his eyes.
‘Yes, looks like it. And I’ll give you three guesses who the bloke is.’
Martin paused. He hardly dared voice his suspicions. ‘This Schiwy guy?’
Diesel did an impression of a trumpet fanfare and dropped another bomb straight away. ‘Bingo! Lisa’s hopelessly in love with that arsehole. In her eyes her mother is a cheap whore who’s nicked her Prince Charming. To win back that shit she offered to behave like a strumpet too, if that’s what he wanted. And the cunt went for it at once. Acted out a perverse role play with the girl in which she had to play the child prostitute strolling down Frobenstrasse and jump into his car.’
‘But how did the video get onto the internet?’ Martin asked.
‘Hold onto yourself, this is where it gets extraordinary: Lisa uploaded it herself. Yes, no joke. I found that from her email traffic too. When Tom refused to get back with her, despite the child prostitute game, her knee-jerk reaction was to upload it and threaten to blow his cover. But that cut no ice with the arsehole, because he wasn’t identifiable on the video. When the nasty comments appeared, Lisa changed her strategy and tried to blackmail the bastard with her suicide. Just before they got on board she sent Tom a final email in which she threatened to leap into the sea if he didn’t come back to her. This apparently put the wind up Schiwy. He sent an email to Julia, forwarding the video, probably to warn her. He didn’t want to be responsible for her death. But, if you ask me, that doesn’t make it any better.’
Diesel lowered his voice as if he weren’t alone in his office and said shiftily, ‘If you know someone who doesn’t have a problem with touching male genitalia, perhaps you should send them round to Schiwy’s with an electric screwdriver. Just saying.’
Martin watched Elena pull the mobile closer to her on the table.
‘And you’re one hundred per cent certain?’ she asked.
‘Who’s there with you?’ Diesel asked. ‘Sounds like a dragon whose voice is breaking.’
‘I’m Elena Beck, the doctor treating Anouk Lamar.’ Elena spoke as clearly as she could. ‘Listen, it’s absolutely vital that you answer my question. How reliable is all this stuff about Lisa’s teacher?’
‘As reliable as using a rubber johnny and the pill together, darling.’
The doctor leaped up from the table. All exhaustion seemed to be blown away.
‘We’ve got to go,’ she said frantically, waving her hand. Martin stood too.
‘Where?’
‘To see Julia Stiller. We have to find her.’
He shook his head. ‘What’s the point? To tell her that Lisa isn’t just dead, she was also forced to have sex with her teacher before she died?’
Elena looked at him as if he were dim. ‘Think about it, Martin. A daughter is abused before she goes missing. What does that remind you of?’
Shahla!
And that she’d always gone for the mothers.
Julia!
Martin ended the call without saying goodbye to Diesel. As he hurried behind Elena he tried to reach Bonhoeffer again.