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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘I think I should go back up there and talk to him again,’ Rose says. ‘If I go armed with photos, there’s a good chance he might help us nail down a location. It’s a question of coaxing him to remember but without pressing him too hard.’

‘Any more you can get from him will be a bonus,’ says Naylor, ‘and a level of certainty on the location would be phenomenal. But I’m not sure we can rely on the quality of the pictures we’ve got here. No offence, Brad. They’re from the wrong angles, not at all how Evan would have seen the bridges. We need something better. Might it be worth contacting local councils, Chambers of Commerce, planners, rail operators, anyone we can think of, to see if they can help with publicity shots, stuff like that?’

‘Great idea,’ says Hagen. ‘Pity we haven’t got time to get people out there with drones. We need a portfolio for each place, with the bridges from every possible angle. Rachel, why don’t you and Rose take a town each, and maybe we can requisition someone to do another. I’ll do two since I had a head start.’

‘A vote of thanks is due to you, Bradley, for your hard work on this one so far,’ says Campbell. ‘And let’s make this our priority, so Rose has got something useful and solid to take with her by the time she has to leave.’

THIRTY-NINE

THIRTY-NINE

15 December

A few days before Christmas. In the red light of the Christmas tree and the fire, Evan, Jack and Claire are watching a programme about bygone children’s television, a countdown of the most popular programmes from the last fifty years.

Jack remembers most of them well, and Claire remembers many. For both of them, it’s enjoyable nostalgia, and Evan’s amused by the bright and imaginative characters he’s never met before, and incredulous at the sometimes poor quality of the animations and the occasional oddness of what passed in his mother and grandpa’s days as youthful entertainment.

They pass through many well-remembered theme tunes – Andy Pandy, Captain Pugwash, Tales of the Riverbank, Noggin the Nog – until a piece of familiar, cheerful music fills the room.

‘Oh, I used to love this!’ says Claire. ‘Every tea-time, just before the news.’

On the screen there’s a little girl puppet with a bow in her hair, and a shaggy-coated dog zipping about. Moments later, they’re joined by a purple-faced puppet on a spring, and a slow-moving rabbit whose eyes droop as if he’s been smoking dope.

‘The Magic Roundabout,’ the announcer is saying, ‘was one of the most popular children’s programmes ever to hit Britain’s screens. With its zany mix of loveable characters – including Dougal the dog and Florence, Mr Rusty the organ grinder, Brian the snail and jack-in-the-box Zebedee with his nightly sign-off – viewers were entertained . . .’