Standing next to the Vauxhall Bridge in London and looking at the large MI6 building on the River Thames, Annie trying to block the noise of traffic with one hand over her ear and listening prudently on her cell phone as she and Joan Campbell chatted. Annie wanted to buy herself a few more days in England - two reasons a good mystery and Eyal Lavin.

"A few more days Joan before I can wrap this up. The good people here at Bond's House (nickname for MI6) have more questions of me and ..."

"That is typical of them. So you think there are more documents hidden my McMillan?" Very suspicious minded as usual, Joan knew Annie was up to more but not sure of what.

"I am sure of it and a few more days to be positive and confident we have found them all would be worth the effort." Annie wanting Joan approval to stay longer in England even though she was going to do it anyway, buck protocol - the Annie's way.

"Okay Annie... Oh by the way do you have any idea how Mossad found out about the file hidden in the York home." Now Joan was nearly ninety percent sure Eyal was involved and not totally trusting Annie to come clean. Too many times in the past had Eyal and Annie run their missions together and with both the CIA and Mossad benefiting but still...

"None."

"Have you seen Eyal Lavin?" Joan with a mordant tone to her remark knowing he could be working with Annie or watching her. "He has a way of popping up in the most unsuspected places."

"Like a ghost, yeah I know but haven't seen me lately." It was a half truth because Annie hadn't seen him in two days.

"Alright Annie but don't stay to long and watch yourself now that MI6 is aware of you being in the UK. Don't want to ruffle any feathers with our allies."

Well one hurdle crossed, as Annie disconnected from her conversation with Joan. There was one more meeting with the MI6 investigating team and she was finish with them. Anxious to get back with Eyal and back to the mystery that was starting to unfold with Blair Vogel and it really peak her interest in uncovering the hidden secrets that the skeletal of a sorceress was harboring. 'Skeletal! - Sorceress!' Annie had to laugh; she is even thinking Halloween in her description of Blair.

Later that night, Annie had showered and now relaxing in her hotel room, going over the notes she had made and trying to figure out what all the pieces they had collected really meant. Something Susan Matthews had said kept creeping back in her mind.

'Mae McMillan and her brother would fight all the time as children. They didn't like each other.'

Annie had to question the reason why if Mae McMillan Stewart didn't like Malcolm why would she allow her daughter Blair known to the public see so much of him or even why she would agree to becoming the mother of her brother's child. Too many questions and didn't add up.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone, "Neshema." Came Eyal's voice, "How about a late night drink and some information."

"Perfect. Where are you?"

"In the pub next to your hotel. I'll order a pint for you unless you want a cocktail."

"The English ale will be fine. See you in a jiffy." Annie excited about seeing Eyal again and wonder what information he had found. She quickly dressed in jeans and bulky knit sweater, pull her hair in a pony tail and a touch of perfume, she was ready.

Sitting in a back booth waiting for Annie, Eyal also wanting to see her. Their last parting was the start of something he desiring to take further but would move cautiously, absolutely not wishing to upset their bond of trust and friendship. He looked up to see her enter, a beautiful down to earth looking Annie the he so adored.

"Hey Neshema." Eyal standing seeing Annie enter the pub and finding him. "You are all smiles and I know why."

"Why?" Annie with her mixed smile of sweetness and devilish.

"Mossad is impressed with the intel found in the York house and questing how they received the tip. Thanks Annie, I appreciate that." Eyal giving her a tender kiss on the side of her cheek. A welcome and thank you kiss.

"You would have done the same."

"Perhaps."

"On come Eyal, I know you better than that, that's how we have worked since the intel exchange from that watch deal back in Washington." Annie reaching for the pint of dark ale Eyal had waiting for her.

"You're right. Now down to business. My first stop after you left for York was to find some of McMillan's contemporaries, find out more of his earlier background. There is a mystery here I can't let go of."

"Funny, I feel the same way. Some deep dark secret is being covered up and maybe there is just enough detective intuition in me to want to find that secret."

"Or secrets. I believe there are more than just one secret and that Blair Vogel is right there square in the center." Eyal taking a sallow of his brew, "Anyway, I went in search of anyone that may have known McMillan as a younger man and found several of his colleagues. Our Deputy Chief of Defense Malcolm McMillan was not a well-liked man. I found very few of his colleagues who had anything good to say about him. Most of it had nothing to do with what we wanted to know about, but one man, retired businessman by the name of Wilkinson did have something interesting to say. He was a former business manager of the law firm where McMillan worked before he went into politics full-time."

"Oh?" Annie's ears perked up.

"Well, he said in mid-1965, right around the time Blair Vogel was born, McMillan suddenly turned up missing for a week or more. He didn't show up in his office or anywhere else. They couldn't reach him by phone and when someone went to his flat, it was locked up tight as a drum with no sign of anyone being there for a while."

Annie tilting her head to one side and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Well, that's strange alright, just to disappear without letting anyone know at work but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, this Wilkinson said when McMillan finally did show back up, he announced that his sister had just had a little girl and would be moving in with him. He said that he'd gone to get her and that was why he had left so suddenly."

"Now that is also weird. Susan Matthews told me that McMillan and his sister Mae hated each other and as children would fight all the time. But the birth thing does explain his disappearance." Annie shrugged. "What about this woman Anna? I mean she was living there as well, wasn't she?"

"Supposedly." Eyal answered. "But after Mae and Blair moved in, Anna wasn't seen again. The good Mr. Wilkinson said that he'd been over to McMillan's flat many times and could remember seeing her many times after she moved into McMillan's place. He couldn't recall seeing her at all in the 6 months or so prior to Blair Vogel's birth. And he never saw her after Blair was born."

"Giving validly to Anna Golubev as the real mother of Blair. But what happen to Anna?"

"My thinking also. Decided to check records and you know how much I hate pushing paper around but did it anyway." Eyal looked at her with a smirk. "It's not what I found, it's closer to who I didn't find."

Annie rolled her eyes at Eyal. "Okay, I'll bite. So what did you find, or didn't find?"

"Anna Golubev supposedly left town right before Malcolm McMillan moved his sister and new baby in. Only the rumor was that she didn't leave on her own steam. I talked to an elderly woman by the name of Hester Franham who worked for McMillan's next door neighbor at the same time Anna was working for McMillan."

"Go on, it is sounding interesting."

"It just so happens, Mrs. Franham wouldn't talk to me at first." Eyal cut his eyes at her. "She wouldn't even let me in the room, so I had to pull out the Annie Walker charming empathy way and it worked. Guess a bit of you has rubbed off on me."

"Catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

"Smarty pants. Anyway, the way this woman tells it, Malcolm McMillan was determined to have Anna, only Anna wasn't cooperating."

"Are you saying he forced her?" Annie asked. Only a few things surprised her, things of this nature did upset her. Annie shook her head at the thought of it.

"Well, maybe. According to Mrs. Franham, Anna seemed uncomfortable around McMillan but she never actually said why."

"Well, why didn't she just leave?" Annie thought the solution a simple one.

"Because," Eyal answered. "Anna was a poor child of immigrants who had no money and no place to go. Mrs. Franham seemed to think that Anna was afraid of him. So anyway, she stayed. At least for a while. But Mrs. Franham said she seldom saw her about five or six months before Blair was born and never saw her again afterwards. But the few times she did see her, Anna look to be gaining weight."

"After I talked to Mrs. Franham and a few others I starting combing all available records for Anna. But Anna Golubev can't be found on any official records of any kind after Blair was born. Her national insurance number has never been used for work and there are no records anywhere of her marrying anyone or even of her death."

"What are you saying, Eyal? You don't think he killed her?" Annie's brown eyes widened at the thought.

"I don't know." Eyal answered with a shrug as he leaned against back of the booth. "Maybe, or maybe she died trying to have the baby - who knows."

"You got any ideas of how to find out which?" Annie asked, folding her arms across her chest.

Eyal shook his head with a sigh. "No. Everything I found out is just basically hearsay. We can't prove any of it and even if we could, what good is it? If McMillan did murder Anna, he's beyond punishment now. The man is dead."

"Don't tell me all of this was for nothing." Annie shook her head in irritation.

"Not so fast Neshema. I made a second trip to Seaford and Trotter Castle. Check back with that local talkative shopkeeper we had spoken to before. Remember she had said that Blair had live at Trotter Castle as a child."

"Yeah and as I remember she called Blair a strange one, marched to a different drummer."

"Mae and the daughter move in when the child was about two years old with a house full of servants. The little Blair had a nanny, not just one nanny but a steady stream of nannies and none of them staying long. When Blair was old enough to start school she was packed off to a boarding school in Scotland only spending her summers at Trotter Castle. Once she reached her teens and during summer holidays she would travel throughout Europe with a hired companion."

"So much for Mae becoming the mother figure."

"Mae had her own set of problems - drinking and drugs according to the shopkeeper. Mae Steward was a woman to be pitied, stayed by herself and only came into town two or three times a year. At first the good women of Seaford would try to visit with Mae but were turned away."

"Malcolm had some hold over his sister but what?"

"Another part of the mystery Annie. Anyway, after Mae died and Blair married Jordon, they would come to Trotter Castle for holidays and stay several weeks at a time. McMillan would also come and stay with them and always brought a lady friend with him, a different one each time."

"Small town knowledge runs deep. Nothing else butter to do... huh..."

"So right you are Neshema. Also I found Busby Ferguson."

"Good, did he have more information to add?"

"Didn't speak with him but did follow him on one of his lawn maintenance trips to Trotter Castle. Bizarre what a yard man will take with him."

"What do you mean - bizarre."

"Boxes of staples, food and other supplies all delivered to the watch tower section of the place."

"Hot damn I knew it. Someone is living in that watch tower but who." Annie almost dancing with excitement as what she had suspected was true.

"Well are you going to tell me I told you so?" Eyal himself taking pride in Annie's deduction and being right.

"No, don't think I will but I'll just sit over here and gloat... Who could be living there and does Blair know it?"

"Now that is the mystery." Eyal finishing with his pint and ordering two more. "I have an idea and are you gamed for a little play acting."

"Damn right."

"Great but first, we have to find out who is living and hiding in the watch tower and then get help from that person. I have a suspicion who is living there and another idea why." Eyal's twinkle in his eyes settled on Annie, "And I know of no better person to convince him to help us with our ruse."

"Oh my it sounds exciting. Read me in on your planned scheme Eyal."