The Shadow of Great Britain-Chapter 635 - 313 Poland? Russia?_2

She began, "That diplomat didn’t visit the Russian Embassy frequently, but it wasn’t infrequent either. Before I resigned from the embassy in December, I had seen him once more."

Upon hearing this, Arthur suddenly frowned, "Wait... you resigned from the Embassy? Who is working there now?"

Fiona responded measuredly, "You might not believe it, but it’s quite the coincidence, I dispatched three girls to the embassy before I resigned, one of whom was Agnieszka, or rather, Defina."

"You sent her to the Russian Embassy?" Arthur’s scalp tingled. "Don’t tell me she has already disappeared."

Fiona awkwardly defended herself, "Dear, you must understand that finding girls who can speak Russian isn’t easy, and even fewer are under my command. Moreover, with Defina being a Polish girl, Scotland Yard had previously provided legal support for her and Harrison’s lawsuit; I thought she would certainly become a reliable informant."

Arthur took a deep breath, "Why didn’t you consult me before doing this?"

Fiona cried out in her defense, "I did consult you, but when I went to your house, only that new maid you hired was there, and she told me you had gone to Liverpool early in the morning."

"Oh..."

Agares, appearing from nowhere, produced a fan and began fanning Arthur while smirking maliciously, "This little girl is just too much my type. No wonder she tried to seduce you the moment she walked in. Arthur, you probably couldn’t resist her, right? Now it might be hard for you to blame her."

Arthur didn’t rush into anger; instead, he cradled his head and thought deeply for a while.

Although he was indeed annoyed by Fiona’s preemptive action without consultation, if Fiona had actually asked him about the embassy reassignment, he would have likely approved it.

After all, given Defina’s background, it was highly improbable that she would willingly betray her identity to the Russians.

After all, the Russians’ attitude toward these Polish exiles was well known to everyone.

However, if planning for the worst, if Defina had really defected to the Russians and disclosed all secrets to the embassy, then Arthur and Scotland Yard would be in an exceedingly perilous situation.

If Defina chose to come forward and accuse Scotland Yard of setting up a sting operation for the MPs, although Sir Peel, the leader of the Tory Party, had decided to distance himself from Mr. Harrison due to the recording issue,

nonetheless, publicly, to maintain party unity, the Tory Party would still pursue Scotland Yard in the House of Commons. Even if they did not exploit the issue, Arthur, the mastermind behind the sting op, would definitely not escape blame.

However, the Russian Embassy had not sent Defina to make accusations yet, nor had they leaked any information regarding this matter.

Thus, only three possibilities remained.

Either Defina had not defected to the Russians at all, and the Russians were unaware of the intricacies of Harrison’s case, merely coincidentally hiring Defina’s husband to assassinate Arthur.

Or Defina had already defected to Russia, and the Russians were aware of her identity, and the pocket watch left behind at the crime scene was solid evidence. The Russians knew Arthur would notice this item and follow the clues up to the Russian Embassy.

The Russians refrained from letting Defina make accusations to keep a backup plan, warning Arthur not to mess around. They did not want to target Scotland Yard, but merely to give the British government enough reason not to further intervene in the Poland issue.

Of course, there was a third possibility, that Defina had indeed defected to someone. And the real culprit left such clear clues precisely to make Arthur trace it back to the Russians, thus framing them to conceal their real purpose.

Arthur pondered back and forth, then suddenly turned his gaze to the nervous Fiona, "Madam, where is your earlier confidence? Successful people do not fear over such trifles. That being said, although you have created a mess, at least you did not hide your mistake, which could have led me to a greater misjudgment; for that, you deserve some praise."

Blushing, Fiona lowered her head and said, "Do you really mean that?"

"What are you blushing for? Your dress is still clinging to your butt. Playing the naive girl here won’t work on me, I need your remedial measures after this."

Arthur leaned back in his chair and asked, "I believe with your intelligence, you must have checked Defina’s background thoroughly, right?"

"Hmm..." Fiona stood next to Arthur with documents in her hands, gently asking, "Do you need me to read it to you?"

"Your behavior is much better than before."

Arthur glanced at her, "Keep it up, if you can maintain this high standard of service, perhaps I might consider setting up a healthcare fund for the Criminal Investigation Department."

Fiona finally breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but her frustration grew as her act was still perceived through.

She said through gritted teeth, "Actually, before you were attacked, Defina had already disappeared. But because she was a maid at the Russian Embassy, I didn’t just report it to Scotland Yard casually but waited to see if the embassy would report it. After waiting two days with no movement from the embassy, I let two other girls working there inquire about it."

They told me the housekeeper told them Defina had resigned and gone back to her hometown. But we all knew Defina’s hometown was in Poland. So, the housekeeper was clearly spouting nonsense, something must have happened to her. That very night, I sent my ’Locksmith’ over to Defina’s residence."

The bedroom was a mess; the table and cabinets were all disheveled. It looked as if it belonged to a family that had received a sudden notice and had to flee quickly. Besides some clothes, we found almost nothing. However, upon searching, we did discover something interesting."

Arthur asked, "What did you find?"

Fiona recounted precisely, "A dozen pawn tickets, pledging items like gold and silver jewelry, books, and various other trinkets that could be exchanged for money. The ’Locksmith’ was worried that bringing nothing back would anger me, so he brought all those tickets back to me."

"Pawn tickets, that does match up with the official investigation results..."

Arthur pondered for a while and then asked, "You didn’t throw them away, did you?"

"My dear," Fiona chided, "I’m not that foolish. As soon as you had someone tell me to investigate Defina, I paid out of my own pocket to redeem everything from the pawnshop. However, I know you don’t care much for those ladies’ jewelry, you like books, so I brought the book for you."

Arthur pointed at the corner of his eye, "Can reading cure ptosis?"

"Of course not, but the book might unlock some clues about the ptosis."

Fiona turned around, pulled a book marked ’Napoleon’s Biography’ from her bag and carefully opened the title page, pointing to a passage saying, "Look at this, my dear, what do you make of it?"

Arthur glanced down and saw written clearly in French at Fiona’s fingertip:

To my friend Mr. Czeslaw Kowalczyk.

— Alexander Kolonna Walewski

This was a typical Polish surname; Arthur quickly recalled in his mind but found no particular memory of it.

He asked, "So who is this Walewski?"

Fiona pursed her lips and whispered in Arthur’s ear, "My dear, he is just like that male secretary by your side, a member of the Bonaparte family, the illegitimate son of Napoleon and the Polish Countess. Are you sure that Officer Louis Bonaparte beside you is reliable?"