CHAPTER 19
Julia sat hunched forward in the passenger seat of the squad car, demanding that they use the siren to get to Wimbledon as fast as possible. As Anna and Julia traveled across London, Cunningham continued to question Fagan about the two men he had hired for Julia's protection, while Phil ran checks on the company, but they still only could come up with box numbers and dead telephone lines. Next, they tried to trace the Chinese au pair's references from the papers removed from Julia's property. They were all false: the families she had supposedly worked for had never heard of her.Anna received confirmation of this just as the car drew up outside the house. Julia ran from the car almost before it had stopped, Anna following, as she fumbled with her keys and rang the doorbell, shouting out for Mai Ling to open the door. Anna took the keys and opened the door. Julia pushed her aside, racing into the house. She ran first into the kitchen and then up the stairs, screaming out for Emily and Kathy. The house was ominously quiet.To calm Julia, Anna said that perhaps they were at nursery, but when she followed her into their bedroom, it was obvious they were not. Julia was opening drawers and the children's wardrobe, to find rows of empty hangers. Her face was chalk white.Anna sat back on her heels in front of the distressed woman. "Julia, look at me. Look at me.'"The tears streamed down Julia's cheeks, and all the fight in her evaporated, but she wouldn't look at Anna."We have found out that both the bodyguards and your au pair may not be who they say they are.""He's taken them. "The woman's voice was leaden."Who, Julia? For God's sake, start to help me find out what is going on. Who do you think has taken your children?"Julia flopped back onto one of the beds and lay there, as Anna got to her feet."Listen to me. If you think someone has taken the girls, if they could be in danger, then for heaven's sake, talk to me.""He won't hurt them. It's me, it's all my fault."Anna could have shaken her. She repeated their concerns about the au pair and about the bodyguards, in the hope that it would jolt Julia into explaining what had happened.To her surprise, Julia straightened out, getting up from the bed and heading out of the room. "I need a drink."She never ceased to amaze Anna; from hysteria over the possibility that her children had been taken, she now appeared resigned to the fact. She went into the drawing room, opened a bottle of brandy, poured a heavy measure into a tumbler, and drank it like water. Anna tried to stop her, but the woman shrugged her arm away. "You want me to talk, then fucking let me have a drink, all right?" She didn't drink it all, but went and sat on the sofa, kicking off her shoes. "When I found out he was using me, using the kids—that he had lied to me about everything—I decided that I'd pay him back.""Anthony Collingwood?" Anna asked."Who the fuck else do you think I am talking about? You tell me it wasn't his name, but that's the only name I knew him by: Anthony fucking Collingwood, the bastard." She sipped the brandy and then leaned forward, holding the glass loosely in her hands. "He used me. I was foolish enough to go along with it, or maybe greedy. You can say whatever you like about me, but the trappings were all part of it. I'd never had such a life and I truly believed he loved me. If you knew him, you'd understand why I stood by him for so long."Anna remained silent, not wanting to stop Julia talking."I was always afraid of him, you know. I'd have done anything he asked, until I found out; it sort of both happened together, his affair with my bloody sister, and then the phone call." She sipped some more brandy. "He said that he was in trouble financially, and would be coming to England as he needed money. Something in the U.S. had gone wrong, and this bank in Germany ... I never really knew exactly what he was talking about, but I decided that he wasn't going to use me anymore. So I took the children and moved out of the house, and kept on moving so he couldn't track me down until I had done it. I switched every account so he couldn't touch it, couldn't access a single cent! I had used this driver—not Frank, as I didn't know him then—to chauffeur me and the kids around. I was scared, you know, really frightened that Anthony would find me, so I asked him about anyone he knew who would be a good bodyguard."Anna leaned forward. "What was the name of the driver?"Julia shrugged. "Can't remember."Anna passed over a mug shot taken of Donny Petrozzo. "This man?"Julia peered at the photograph. "You know, it's weird, but sitting in the back with him in front, you only really see the back of their head.""But this one you recognize?"She sighed. "Yes.""Sure you don't recall his name?""No, sorry.""Does Donny Petrozzo sound familiar?"Julia nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like it.""And this man, Donny Petrozzo: you asked him if he knew anyone who would be a good bodyguard/driver?""I'd put an advert in the local paper and this awful little man applied, so I was asking around ..." Julia at least had the temerity to look a trifle ashamed."Frank Brandon," Anna said quietly."Yes, poor Frank. Even though I had covered my tracks, I was still scared Anthony would find me; it was then I talked to Frank about marrying me. I'd have another name, he would live in the house; then, when Rushton had finished working on all the accounts, I planned to leave the country—you know, go somewhere he'd never find me. It was stupid, I was stupid, I