There was more or less no phone signal in the area, but the house had wireless. At least, it was supposed to, but it was hit and miss at best. Downstairs you were OK if you were in the kitchen or dining room; the living room seemed to depend on the time of day or alignment of the stars or some other arrangement, and upstairs was a dead zone. Tom had discovered that it also worked outside on the stone terrace that overlooked the lake, which was where he now sat.

He glanced over his shoulder. He did not want Alice to appear behind him and read the email he had just received.

Hi Tom

Hope you’re well. Here are some photos of Alice from her university days. Some of them were prints that I scanned, but most were already digital so the quality is pretty good. I had quite a lot of fun looking through them – it brought back a lot of happy memories – so thanks for doing this!

They’re quite self-explanatory and Alice will recognize all the people. I’ll let her explain to you who they are.

If you need any more or have any questions, let me know. Happy to help – and looking forward to getting back in touch with Alice after you give her the album!

Nellie

He typed a reply.

Nellie,

Thanks – this is fantastic, I really appreciate it. I’ll take a look at them.

One thing I wanted to let you know – we’re away on a kind of extended holiday. It’s pretty remote so I won’t be able to get the photos printed. I was going to make an album online, but decided to do it by hand – tape them in and write my own captions – so am asking my brother, Roland, to get them all printed and then bring them to me in the next couple of days (her birthday is coming right up!)

I’ll forward these to him and copy you so you have his email address in case anything comes up.

Thanks again!

Tom

He sent the email then went back to the photos. There were nine attachments, and he opened the first one.

Three young women – Alice, Nellie and Mads, he assumed – looked at the camera, their faces slightly flushed. They were in a bar – probably on campus somewhere – and all three had cigarettes in their hands.

Which was odd. He had never known that Alice smoked. She had a bit of a thing about it, in fact – when he’d met her she wouldn’t go anywhere near anyone who was smoking. He’d thought she was a bit obsessed with her physical fitness. She ran or did yoga or weights every day, and as often as she could she went swimming. He’d gone with her once; she was like a fish, scything through the pool.