Georgie ignored her and started opening drawers. They were poorly marked and most of the labels had peeled away but generally they were full of scrapbooks containing news articles from the right era. Mostly the local papers, the North Norfolk News and the Eastern Daily Press, but occasionally a national was squeezed in with dog-eared corners and faded type, presumably because it was running with a main story from the area.

‘What are we looking for exactly?’ asked Li, taking one of the books out and blowing the dust away.

‘There’s a little village called Tome near the coast,’ Georgie explained. ‘You’re looking for anything of significance that happened in or near there in 1989.’

‘Significance being . . . ?’

‘Anything. Here’s a map.’ Georgie pulled out a yellowing document from one of the drawers, which she spread out on the table. It showed Norfolk and Georgie was able to point to Tome. ‘Here. Anything near here, maybe these villages here and right up to the coast to this—’ Georgie peered over. The edge of the land was marked, although it didn’t seem part of any settlement or other point of interest. ‘Devil’s Point.’

Li nodded and started flipping through a book. ‘Got it.’

An hour passed. Then two. It seemed that 1989 was a particularly quiet year for newsworthy stories in the county of Norfolk, although there had been a minor earthquake near Ipswich which caused an old man in Sheringham to fall out of bed. In a series of unrelated incidents, a number of missing dogs featured. A drowning at some local beach was about the only thing of interest and by the time the third hour ticked away, Georgie was beginning to feel disheartened.

‘I’ll see if I can get us some coffee,’ Georgie announced, standing up. ‘Maybe give it another half an hour and, after that, give it up as a bad job.’

‘Are you sure?’ said Li. ‘I was just getting into this. Did you know how many duck-related accidents happened in July 1989?’

Georgie smiled and started to make her way across to where she thought she might have seen a vending machine. She had got halfway when Li shouted over.

‘Wait! Come and look at this.’

She rushed across and peered over Li’s shoulder. She was looking at a double page spread of a story about a woman who had gone on holiday to Thailand and been mauled by a tiger. It didn’t seem immediately relevant.

‘Thailand isn’t in Norfolk,’ Georgie pointed out.

‘No,’ Li said, excitedly pointing to a smaller article in the corner of the page. ‘Here.’