‘Yes, and the meal was delicious.’

‘Of course.’ His tone suggested this was the natural order of things. ‘Otherwise my staff would have heard my displeasure. Would you care to sit down?’

He indicated the chair facing the desk. It was a command, not a request, and she sat.

‘I know something about you from my daughter,’ he said, seating himself opposite her. ‘Your name is Holly, you are English and you come from Portsmouth.’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Didn’t you tell Liza that you lived in Portsmouth?’ he said sharply. ‘She thinks you did.’

‘That’s a mistake, and I’ll explain if you’ll let me finish.’ For all her resolution to tread carefully she couldn’t keep an annoyed edge out of her voice. She was damned if she’d let him cross-examine her as though they were in court.

He leaned back in his chair and made a gesture that meant, ‘Go on.’

‘I come from a little town in the English Midlands. Portsmouth is down on the south coast and I know it quite well because I’ve spent some holidays there. I tried to tell Liza that, but the place means a lot to her because of her mother. So I talked about it, as much as I could remember, and I think she seized on that, built on it and just blotted out the bit she didn’t need. She’s clinging on to something that can bring her a scrap of comfort. Children do it all the time.’

‘And not just children,’ he murmured.

There was a silence.

‘Please go on,’ he said at last.

‘I don’t know what else there is to say.’

He’d been half-turned away from her. Now he swung around and spoke in a hard voice.

‘We have a difficult situation. I’m a judge and you are on the run from the police.’

‘You don’t know that,’ she challenged. ‘They didn’t identify me in the compartment today.’

‘Very shrewd. Clearly they know little about the woman they are seeking, not even that she goes by the name of Holly-whatever her real name may be.’