Poppy and Daniel sat in The Globe’s Model T Ford outside an address in Battersea. It was Friday, three days since the drama at Kensington Palace had unfolded.
After Felix had arranged their release, in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, they had all returned to Adam’s apartment – the closest address – to crash. Fuelled by a few hours’ sleep and a hearty breakfast, Poppy and Daniel had gone into the office, leaving Adam and Delilah still asleep in bed.
Andrei Nogovski had set up a meeting with Marjorie Reynolds and DCI Jasper Martin on Wednesday afternoon, and saw them under the protection of the British Secret Service. What went on at that meeting Poppy had no idea, but the net result was the release of Oscar, the temporary closure of the Russian embassy and the arrest of Vasili Safin as he tried to flee the country.
It was also agreed – after discussions with Felix Yusopov and Yasmin Reece-Lansdale – that no charge of theft was to be laid against Adam Lane, because he had returned the egg to its rightful owner. The foreign charges, which Interpol was investigating, were being dealt with by Yasmin, who now represented Adam, as well as the Yusopovs, Oscar and Rollo in their various predicaments. Poppy doubted the solicitor would be on DCI Martin’s Christmas card list this year.
After Poppy and Daniel had filled Rollo in on everything that had happened, Rollo told them what he had found out from Ivan. It seems that he was indeed Vasili Safin’s mole at The Globe, but Ivan claimed he had only done it because the Russian ambassador had said he had information about his family that he would trade for inside tips. And yes, Ivan had sent the chocolates to Selena, but he swore he knew nothing about the poison. However, he thought Safin probably did, because the ambassador had been the one to suggest the switch in the first place. Poppy had asked Marjorie to arrange for the fingerprints of the “unknown person” to be checked against Safin’s. And, unsurprisingly, they matched.
After Rollo had taken down Poppy’s story, agreeing for now to be vague about Adam’s involvement and also the exact nature of the empress’s role, he asked whether there would be a kill fee in the offing from the Romanovs. She said she had no idea, but hoped he would simply do the right thing. “I gave them my word,” said Poppy.
Rollo looked at her with a twinkle in his eye and said: “Well, that was rather silly, wasn’t it? I’ll get Yasmin to thrash out the details with them later. I refuse to sit on all of this, Miz Denby; it’s far too good a story.”
Poppy couldn’t deny that at all. However, the best part of it was what Nogovski had told her on the way back from the palace on Wednesday morning: Sergei Andreiovich’s daughter and her nanny, Ruth Broadwood, were alive and well, and living at an address south of the river. Nogovski had smuggled them out of Yekaterinburg eighteen months earlier and had been keeping them, under house arrest, in London, until the Fabergé egg containing the map had been found. Now that it had there was no reason not to let them go.
And so here they were on Friday morning. Nogovski and Ivan knocked on the door while Poppy and Daniel waited for them in the motor.
“Do you think she’ll recognize her father?” asked Poppy. “It’s been what, six years since she saw him?”
“I don’t know. But he’ll recognize her. A father will never forget his child,” said Daniel. He put his arm around Poppy and they waited for the door to be answered. It didn’t take long. A man first, whom Nogovski spoke to briefly, then a woman. Poppy sucked in her breath: it was Ruth Broadwood. The elderly woman looked healthy, and happy to see her visitors. She went back into the house and a few moments later returned with a young girl and, at her heels, a little brown dog. The child looked up at the two men inquisitively. Then Ivan reached down and swept his daughter into his arms.
“I think it’s time you met my two,” said Daniel, and pulled Poppy closer to him.
“Perhaps it is,” said Poppy, wiping away a tear.