Stella said, ‘Your playlists have weird names.’

‘The songs are great though. Oh God, I love this track.’ She whacked up the volume on the stereo and the swaggering beat of ‘Suffragette City’ swung into action like an instant party.

‘Ahh, Mum, this is the best,’ Stella shouted. ‘Who is it?’

Ali grinned at her. ‘Bowie,’ she shouted back.

They let it roll. Ali sang the words, Stella tried to pick them up. At ‘Wham bam, thank you, ma’am’ she hooted with joy and played it back again until she had the timing just right and could belt it out with Bowie and her mum, and when the song slammed to its halt, she heaved a sigh and said, ‘Loved that, what next?’

Ali said, ‘One more Bowie, then the Byrds – two of those as well – then Talking Heads, two, the Kinks, same, the Police, T. Rex, the Animals, Jimi Hendrix, the Buzzcocks and, finally, the Beatles. Two of each, every time. The best last two.’

Stella stared. ‘You’re such a music nerd,’ she said.

‘Thanks.’

‘Hmm, not sure about this one though,’ Stella said.

‘“Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide”,’ Ali said. ‘The last track on The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.’

‘That’s the weirdest name for an album,’ Stella said. ‘So “Suffragette City” is second last?’

‘You got it.’

‘Why?’

‘Why what?’

‘The “best last two” thing?’

‘Oh,’ Ali said. ‘It wasn’t my idea. A friend gave it to me, years ago, when I was even younger than you are.’ Daniel’s image formed in her mind. She recalled a lingering kiss against the wall of his house, the feel of the cassette in her coat pocket, and the very first time she heard the playlist, alone in her bedroom, in an empty house, before she’d discovered where her brother had gone that night, and where her mother was, and what Martin had done, or what he was yet to do. Like light before dark, she’d listened to this tape in her cold bedroom, and loved it, and loved Daniel for thinking of it. ‘I didn’t listen to mix tapes in those days,’ she said to Stella. ‘He made this for me, so each pair of songs was in their proper order, from the album they came off.’

‘He sounds like a nerd too,’ Stella said. ‘A bit of a try-hard. Did he fancy you?’