‘So there it is,’ said Stuart as we gazed up at the first floor. He closed his eyes and began to sway. ‘Oo, I think I’m getting something, yes, going back …’ He started laughing.

‘Oh stop it. Be serious. And, even if I was looking to see if it was familiar, which I’m not, I can’t say I’m getting any sense of déjà vu, apart from it being a route I’ve taken many times.’

‘I like the look of the property, though,’ said Stuart. ‘I wonder how long this Grace lived here. Did you find out any more about her or the family?’

‘Oh yes, a couple of nights ago I looked on the census taken in 1951. Grace wasn’t listed on there. It was just her parents and her sister, in fact …’

‘So maybe they still live here? What do you think?’

‘I think her parents will be long gone.’

‘Yes, but not the sister. Do your maths. You said that the sister Lily was only just older than Grace who was born in 1925. She might just be around still.’

‘Spoken like a true accountant. I guess she might be, but she’d be very old.’

‘So go and ask,’ said Stuart as he opened the gate.

‘No! You can’t just go barging in there asking something like that … Come back. What would we say?’

Too late. He’d already rung the doorbell and I had to admit I was curious too. He rang the bell again but there was only silence from within. ‘Nobody home,’ he said. ‘Never mind. You can always come back.’

‘I don’t think so.’ I’d had a better idea. I could look on Zoopla or Rightmove. Zoopla tells a bit about the history of a house, when the last sale was, and so on. If there had been a sale in recent years, it was very likely that the property details would still be on line. I could see inside the rooms, the kitchen, the upstairs, the bedrooms, and so on.

*

After Stuart had dropped me off, I went straight online and looked for 176 Northern Road on Zoopla, under current house prices and values. It listed all the houses along the road, stating their worth plus any recent sales. When it came to 176, it said current value not known, which I knew meant there hadn’t been a recent sale. Even if there had been, I thought, and I’d found recent photos, the house had probably been updated and redecorated many times since the 1930s, or whenever it was that Grace lived there. Owners might have knocked walls down since, built on, changed windows, extended.

‘Ah well, it was worth a try,’ I said as I closed down my laptop. ‘I seem to have come to a dead end.’ I laughed. ‘Hah. Dead end. Funny.’

25

‘How are you feeling today, Bea?’ asked Simon, as I took my seat opposite him for my second appointment.