‘I dare say that’s sensible. Especially when considering the mammoth task we have ahead. But I think I can help with that.’ He took something out of a satchel that was resting on the kitchen chair beside him.

‘What’s that?

Colin handed her a folder. ‘Just a smidgen of progress. You can’t depend on eBay forever you know.’

Opening the folder, Penny found a document that she recognised as a copy of her list, but with handwritten notations alongside each item – names, addresses, phone numbers.

‘What is this?’ she enquired, intrigued. ‘These are obviously all the ones that I haven’t been able to find yet.’

Colin nodded. ‘Exactly. My publisher happens to know a couple of chaps in Edinburgh – collectible record dealers. I gave them a call and they were able to track down some of the rarer ones on your list – the ones you aren’t going to find online because people who own those albums probably aren’t looking to sell them.’

Penny was flabbergasted. ‘You did all of this . . . for me?’ Then feeling stupid, she remembered that of course any novelist worth his or her salt would conduct extensive research on a topic they were writing about. ‘I mean, for my project,’ she added quickly.

‘Indeed.’

Penny considered the list. The addresses were scattered all over the UK but with a few in Ireland. ‘So what am I supposed to do?’

Colin smiled knowingly and took the list from her. ‘If I was a corporate sort, I might refer to it as “cold calling”.’

‘You mean, contact all of these people one by one and try to convince them to sell?’ OK, so it was a long shot, but at least it was something. She looked at him, unable to believe that he’d made this much progress in such a short time. He had a contact for all of the records on her list except Twist and Shout and the Anna single.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how you managed it but . . .’

He followed her gaze to the list, all business and Penny knew that she was right about this being simply part of his creative endeavours. ‘Twist and Shout is proving to be an exceptionally difficult one, hard to find any edition that hasn’t been used as a frisbee for forty years. And Anna, well, same situation.’

He stuffed his hands in his pocket. ‘That one might be a bit more tricky, since it’s a single, and rarer. But I’ll keep looking.’ Eyes twinkling, he looked at Penny and rubbed his hands together. ‘So, my dear girl . . . when do we begin?’

Elle began, once again, with Della and Jim at the builders providers.

‘I’ve come to make amends,’ she said to their puzzled faces.

‘What for?’ said Della. ‘It’s really us who should be . . . I felt that we weren’t exactly helpful last time, but I couldn’t make myself clear.’