‘What are you looking for?’

Hicks got to her feet. ‘I’m sorry about the intrusion. We’re just looking for anything that can help us.’

‘You’re behind with a lot of payments, aren’t you?’ That from Nabi, who continued to sit, and spoken without even a look around. His abrupt tone, so alien to what she’d encountered thus far, stayed her tongue for a few seconds. And made her nervous.

‘A holiday we had,’ she finally managed. ‘We’ll get back on track. It’s nothing.’

Still giving her the back of his head, Nabi held up a sheet of paper. She recognised it as an old printout of a house for sale in Baltimore, USA. ‘There’s another connection to America here. We planning a move out there?’

Again she had the urge to quickly explain. ‘No. That’s from years ago. Nick had this silly idea about buying one of those stupidly cheap houses the government had. To sell on. I talked him out of it.’

‘But this shows an interest in making quick money, right?’

His tone was unmistakable: suspicion. Did they suspect her of hiding something? But what, possibly? Something about money? Strangely, the notion didn’t further unsettle her – it angered her. ‘Are you accusing me of something?’

Hicks told her colleague to give Anna room to think. He apologised, although he still gave her his back, and that offered a chance to slow her breathing. But then Hicks, too, held up a sheet of paper. Anna recognised this, also. Hicks read from it.

‘“Notice is hereby given that by a Deed Poll dated 17th October 2011 and enrolled in the Supreme Court of England and Wales on 20th December 2011, ANNA SENIOR… abandoned the forename of Janice and the surname of Middleton and assumed the forename of Anna and the surname of Senior…”

‘I just wondered why you changed your name? I thought you became a Carter after Middleton through marriage.’

Now Nabi turned his head, so they were both watching her. For a reaction.

‘I wasn’t married at that point. Do you know who I used to work for when I lived in London? Marc Eastman, the MP.’

‘Were you his girlfriend, too? One of the Witches of Eastman?’ Nabi said. And it was a serious question.

‘No. I was his caseworker.’

‘I thought that was his wife.’

‘His wife is his political aide. I was his caseworker, so I dealt with the public.’

Anna explained that Marc Eastman had employed her in 2010–2011, when he was just a backbencher in the newly elected Liberal-Conservative government. In July of 2011, he got backlash for a remark made about a government document concerning the Bovine TB problem. He got death threats from anonymous members of the public.