‘What? You mean the whole, play it backward on the turntable to hear the words “Paul is dead”?’ Colin had told her all about the conspiracy theories surrounding the album, which were almost as famous as the record itself. ‘Obviously he isn’t.’

‘Well, yes there was that. But there was other stuff too. Symbolism on the cover. This,’ he pointed to the image of the four men crossing the street, ‘is supposed to symbolise a funeral procession. Paul’s funeral, in fact. Lennon is in the white suit, like a preacher – critics used to say that it was because he thought he was Jesus – but that wasn’t it. Ringo, he’s supposed to be the mourner, all dressed in black. And George here at the back, is supposed to be the grave-digger. Paul is the corpse. He’s wearing an old suit and he’s barefoot. Did you know they don’t ask for shoes – at funeral homes?’

Penny’s smiled faded and she swallowed hard – she had a funny feeling that her father might be talking from recent, more personal experience – and not about the album cover.

‘Dad . . .’

‘Paul is also out of step here with everyone else. And even though he is left-handed, he’s holding the cigarette with his right hand. People said, when this album came out, that it was the coffin nail. There are other things too, a police van that was supposed to be a reference to the police who kept quiet about Paul’s demise. And then you can trace a line from the Beetle here,’ he pointed at the image again, ‘ to the three cars in front of it,’ Ned traced his finger, drawing an invisible line through the right wheels of the cars, and right through Paul’s head. ‘The conspiracy theory went that this meant that Paul sustained a head injury – because of a car crash – and that’s how he died.’

‘You know that was just people who had too much time on their hands, the ones who came up with all of that,’ Penny said, attempting to switch the focus, get his mind off all this death-related stuff. If she had known all of this ‘hocus pocus’ about this album, she would have insisted on going after it another time. Or maybe never.

But Ned seemed focused on pressing on, and providing Penny all of the grisly bits.