He nodded. “And Prince George’s motorcar. That’s interesting, but as it happens I’ve already had a little talk with him. He was visibly upset when he heard of Bobo’s death. His first words were ‘So it finally got her, did it?’ And when I asked what he meant he said, ‘The cocaine, of course. I knew it would only be a matter of time.’”

“Did he know about the baby?” I asked.

“I gather he did, but he claimed he had only had a casual friendship with her and ended it ages ago because of her drug use.”

“So not his child,” I said. I must have spoken a little too loudly, as two matrons looked across at us with raised eyebrows. I stifled an urge to giggle.

“Apparently not.”

“Then finding the true father of the child seems the most important step to take, doesn’t it?” I kept my voice low this time and noticed that one of the matrons was leaning toward us in an attempt to overhear. “If he’s a prominent man he would be the one with most to lose if the news went public.”

Sir Jeremy nodded. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy, especially given the cloak of secrecy under which we must operate. We’ve been looking into her life and her friends and it’s devilishly hard to find out anything about her. It is as if she dropped from another planet. No past history. No birth certificate. Nothing.”

“And what about the baby?” I asked. “Did you find out where she gave birth?”

“Apparently not in or around London,” he said. “Of course she would have entered any nursing home under an assumed name, but none of the private clinics admits to her being a patient. So she went somewhere. And if we only knew where she came from, we might find that out.”

“Perhaps Prince George knows something of her background,” I said. “One inadvertently lets quite a lot of details slip when one is in a close relationship.”

“Ah yes,” he said. And from the way he looked at me I knew he was thinking about Darcy. “I can certainly talk with him again, but I found him testy about it before—obviously scared the news will leak to Marina and his parents. He wants nothing more than to distance himself from anything to do with Bobo.”

“I went to her flat today,” I said, deciding it was better to come clean with him. “I just wanted to get a feel of her surroundings for myself.”

“And someone let you in?” He looked at me in surprise. “That really is most irregular.”

“Only for a second. I pretended I had left some valuable earrings with Bobo and wanted to retrieve them. The doorman hovered over me every second.”

“And did you find anything?”