‘But there’s another side to Anna. I sense her people are genuinely fond of her and would go to some lengths to protect her. Even to the extent of sending the forces of law and order on a fruitless chase around London while she goes into hiding. And the children — the street kids in Hogsmire Lane … I know she bribed them with lollipops but there was something more. Kids aren’t easy to deceive. And these ones really truly liked her and were concerned for her welfare. If they’d known I was a policewoman on her trail, I do believe they’d have turned their father on me!’
‘So what are you saying?’
‘That we’re looking for a girl of good character who’s been diverted — cut loose from her moorings like a ton of bronze cannon to crash about the decks — by some apparently overwhelmingly strong force that’s turned her mad. She now has a mind to murder and nothing’s going to stop her trying. Again and again.’
Joe’s nod said that he had already reached this point. ‘Let’s see if we can identify the force that turned her loose on us, shall we, Wentworth?’
Chapter Thirty
‘Born 1897. Which makes her twenty-five these days. High class family. Mother a lady-in-waiting to the Tsarina. I expect the little Anna was considered a suitable companion for the royal children. They had few enough of those. English is her first language, with French, German and Russian, of course.’
‘Who compiled these notes, sir?’
‘None of this is from the lady herself, you understand. It’s a résumé of snippets of information from various Russian sources put together by the Branch, with additions from other interested parties. She’s known to have arrived in London and signed her entry papers under her real name of Anna Petrovna with the joint sponsorship of the Princess Ratziatinsky and the captain of an English naval cruiser who seems to have been ready to vouch for her.’ He paused for a moment, deep in thought. ‘All too ready, perhaps. He was the naval gent who welcomed her aboard his vessel in Murmansk and brought her over here to England. The girl was in a poor state — reduced to skin and bone apparently — when the British consul enlisted Captain Swinburne’s help. He dropped her off with her friends, then she promptly went to ground in the capital. She had no intention of becoming better known to the authorities, it seems.’
Joe gave Lily time to absorb the brief notes on the first page before turning over.
‘This is interesting, sir, wouldn’t you say? It’s only an aside scribbled between the lines but it may be significant.’