‘If there’s anything else that you feel should be itemized on your policy, it might be an idea. Strictly speaking, jewellery and so on should be revalued every five years or so, for insurance purposes. And it makes sense to have photographs of small items.’

The call over, Adam groaned with frustration. Now what were they supposed to do?

‘Look,’ said Cass, without preamble, as soon as her sister picked up her phone, ‘are you busy this weekend? Is there any chance you could come down, help me and Adam go over everything with a fine-toothed comb? We think Mum must’ve hidden the medal when she was going batty. It must be here, somewhere. You know what she was like, squirrelling. We could do with a fresh pair of eyes. There might be some very obvious place we haven’t thought of.’

‘OK,’ said Georgie, at once. It was nice to be needed.

Cass came to collect her from the station. Even before Georgie had done up her seatbelt, Cass asked her, ‘Did you know that Mum had had an affair with Hamish’s dad?’ She had come alone, in order to have this conversation in private.

‘Bruce?’ said Georgie, astonished.

‘Yep,’ said Cass. ‘I wonder if that’s why she was always so tight-lipped about me and Hamish, do you remember? She was always trying to stop me seeing him.’

‘Are you sure?’ said Georgie.

‘Absolutely. I found some letters he’d written her, while I was hunting for the medal. You can read them, if you want.’

‘Where?’ asked Georgie.

‘Where what?’ asked Cass. ‘Where did I find the letters or where did they have their trysts?’

Georgie laughed. The idea was so implausible. Celia and Bruce had always seemed to dislike each other. And Bruce was so coarse, compared to her father.

‘Both, I s’pose.’

‘The letters were in the end room, where the telly used to be. In a box behind some books. God knows when she stashed them there. I don’t know where it went on. It was when we’d already started at big school, though. I mean, they would have been quite old by then.’

‘I wonder if Dad knew,’ said Georgie.

‘I hope not. I don’t think so, actually, do you? He and Bruce were always so pally. The letters were written over a period of about eighteen months, so it was more than just a roll in the hay.’

‘Eugh,’ said Georgie.

‘Sorry,’ said Cass. ‘I think it got quite serious. She was talking about leaving Dad.’

‘Oh my God. That’s really awful. Do you think Dad cheated on her as well? He was always quite flirty around women.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Cass. ‘It was all just chat with Dad. It didn’t mean anything.’

‘What do you think they saw in her? I mean, she could be such a bitch, to be honest.’