Maxie took over. ‘We read through all the postcards again too, Eliza. Made notes of any facts and dates we thought might help us.’ She handed Eliza a printout of all they’d emailed her that morning.

‘We also read through the paperwork you brought from Melbourne,’ Olivia said. ‘There were years of bank statements. Someone was sending your mum money. A lump sum once or twice a year, until the year you turned thirteen.’ She paused. ‘We think it might have been your father.’

‘His name was on the statements? It’s been there all this time?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘All we could find out was that the deposits were made from overseas. We don’t know who by. But we pooled everything else we remembered. All the relevant dates. Anyone she ever spoke about from that time. You were right. It does all point to her friend Emmet.’

‘We actually met him once. Very briefly. He was living in Melbourne when we visited Jeannie. He’d travelled out to Australia with his cousin.’

‘You met him?’ She looked from one to the other. ‘Do I look like him?’

‘It was thirty-one years ago, Eliza, we’re sorry,’ Maxie said. ‘We don’t remember much beyond him having darkish hair and a nice accent.’

‘Was he tall?’

‘We think so,’ Olivia said. ‘But we don’t remember for sure. We do know he was in an accident soon after. A bad one. He went back home to Ireland after he recovered.’

‘He’s definitely the most likely candidate. If not him, his cousin. Jeannie mentioned him too.’

‘The only problem is we can’t find Emmet’s surname anywhere. Or the cousin’s name.’

Eliza glanced down at the pages Maxie had given her. ‘So we’re trying to find an Irishman or his Irish cousin who lived in Australia for a few months thirty-one years ago.’ She looked up. ‘There must have been thousands of them.’

‘We’ve got a few extra details that might help us. We know his family ran a pub in Ireland. Jeannie worked in it for a month, before she came back to Australia.’ Olivia picked up the postcard in question. ‘That narrows it down. She said she could see a castle from it.’

‘I know it seems worse than finding a needle in a haystack,’ Maxie said, ‘but I’ll keep looking until we find him. I’ve got all the time in the world at the moment. I’ve already googled “Irish castles”. And “Irish castle ruins”. There are only thirty thousand of them.’

‘Thirty thousand?’ Olivia said.

‘And only seven thousand pubs,’ Maxie added.

‘That’s if the one we’re looking for is even still open,’ Eliza said. ‘Maxie, please, let me help.’

‘You can’t,’ Olivia said. ‘You’re coming for a walk with me. I need to tell you something else.’