‘Wonderful,’ says Crystal, her eyes glinting. ‘Why don’t I make you a cup of tea while you get acquainted with the classroom?’

She gestures to the ceiling, and Marina does as she’s been bid, making her way to the far end of the shop and climbing the staircase to the first floor. There is a table in the centre, surrounded by plastic chairs. Two of the walls are lined with shelves of battered books. A further bookcase is laden with teaching materials. It’s a possibility she thinks, running the fingers of one hand across the spines, returning to teaching, or at least combining it with her editing, and Crystal seems like a genuine person. It would be a reason to stay, to throw down roots in London. Is that what she wants?

She moves to the window and spots Mrs Hyde hurrying past. What a strange woman she is, scurrying like a mouse. Victor hadn’t liked her. What had he said? Vinegary and sly. Kenneth’s right-hand woman. Going into people’s flats without permission. Does she still have spare keys? It strikes Marina that it might have been Dorothy who had been inside her flat that time, not the landlord at all.

Marina goes back downstairs. Crystal has been waylaid by a customer, an elderly man. She has a book in her hand and is clearly recommending it to him. She slips a packet of biscuits into his bag along with the book. ‘No charge,’ she says.

While she is busy, Marina examines the collage of postcards on the wall. Welcome to York. Greetings from Whitby. If the postcards weren’t trapped behind glass, she would love to turn them over and read the writing on the back. Who sent them and to whom? There are several arty postcards amongst them, which seems incongruous. Leonardo and Raphael. Christ with a crown of thorns. The Madonna in prayer. Marina breathes in the scent of incense and has a sense that she is missing something.

‘Quaint, aren’t they?’ says Crystal, appearing beside her. Marina turns. The elderly man is ensconced on the window seat drinking a cup of tea.

Marina agrees. ‘Were they part of what was left behind?’

‘Yes, along with the photos and the sign.’

‘Strange to leave something so personal’

‘Too much like hard work to get rid of it all, I expect. It’s interesting though, after you mentioned it the other day, I started trying to remember why there had been the delay – with the will, I mean. I’m pretty sure it was something to do with a missing family member who should have inherited, but I can’t remember who it was or why they didn’t.’

Marina is intrigued. Maybe at some point there was someone living with Thomas. How can she find out? Somerset House perhaps. She could find out if he was married.