Robin wasn’t even thinking about that. The publisher wanted to talk “Book Two” and so did Barrows. The Without Her money was running out. They were moving on to the next project—they had the luxury.

Emma got up. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Sure,” Robin said. And as Emma turned to go, he called after her, “One more thing.” She turned back. “Did I ever tell you about Clatteridges?”

Emma shrugged. “No. No, you didn’t.” And then she was gone.

Robin turned back to his plate and looked down at the notes he made. Emma’s arguments were in his head—a stupid joke, just a prank, just a load of rubbish.

But what if Emma was wrong?

Chapter Three

Robin got home a little after 1:00 p.m., his head still buzzing with Matthew’s words. Emma’s had faded into the background, and the hardback he was carrying seemed to pulse with the secrets he had written down.

He threw his keys on the kitchen table. The room wasn’t a total mess, but it wasn’t exactly clean either. There was an organized stack of dirty dishes on the draining board, which Sam would never have accepted. Robin, on the other hand, had let standards slip since she had gone. He only really tidied up when he was expecting company, and besides Emma, no one came around anymore. His friends had been Sam’s friends as well, and meeting them felt wrong without her. Evidently they felt the same way because he hadn’t talked to most of them in a year.

He put the kettle on and turned to find his laptop on the kitchen table. He looked at it for a few seconds before sitting down in front of it. He opened it up and logged in. Emma’s voice was in the back of his head telling him not to, but he went to Google and typed the one word that had been swirling around in his head for hours: Standedge. He clicked Search and was absorbed.

Standedge was the name of a canal tunnel in Marsden, Huddersfield.

Huddersfield.

That couldn’t be a coincidence.

The last time he saw Sam was in this very room. He was sitting in this very chair, poring over a laptop just as he was now. It was 8:15 a.m. on August 28, 2016, and he had been up all night, trying to make an article slightly more interesting. Sam came into the room with her suitcase, and he didn’t even look up.

He did now. The kitchen was empty, but he could almost see the ghost of her standing there in the doorway. She was going to the station. She made her money as a traveling lecturer, always on the move. Robin didn’t like her being away but was proud of her for being so proactive. And she was good at her job. Universities were always fighting over her.