He snatched at the telephone at the first warning burble.
‘Send her straight up, will you.’
‘Ah. Do come in, Miss Wentworth. Sit yourself down. Glad you could spare me the time. Sunday. Your day off, of course. Lots to fit in, I expect. Father and mother both well, I trust?’ The tone was understanding, the smile devastating.
Lily showed no sign that she was deceived by this show of affability. She looked at the clock in consternation. ‘Oh, I see. Gosh, I am late! Oh, sir, I hope you weren’t worried …’
‘Worried? I shot myself in a mood of black despair an hour ago,’ he said drily.
‘Terrible aim, sir! Glad you missed.’
He felt himself responding to her shy grin with a surge of good humour. He controlled it and cleared his throat. Straight to business.
‘Now — I’ll bring you up to date. Here, back at base, we’ve been very busy. The Branch have been gathering everything they had on these Russian women who seem to be blighting our lives at the moment.’ He pointed to a thick file on his desk. ‘This has just come up. It’s all the Branch could scrape together on Miss Peterson. Bacchus and his chaps went round with cat-like tread and cutlass between teeth to the address we’d had under surveillance since the early hours. They mounted a raid on the premises. With no result, I’m afraid. No one at home.’
‘No one, sir?’ She was looking at him in astonishment. ‘Not even a little family having breakfast?’
‘What? As a matter of fact, if I must dot the i’s and cross the t’s, yes, there was a family in residence. A perfectly innocent family — man, wife and five children apparently in various stages of readiness for the day, taking an early breakfast. No lodgers kept. The father’s a porter at Smithfield meat market. Husky sort of bloke. He made objection to Bacchus’s invasion and ranted on about Englishmen, homes and castles. Sent Bacchus off, tail between his legs.’ Joe couldn’t hide his satisfaction. ‘The men made further inquiries in the street and hung about observing for an hour then gave it up as a bad job and came back to HQ. Another false trail, I’m afraid.’