‘And did they find them all, then? I can’t imagine that would’ve been too easy.’ Wally didn’t deal in music memorabilia, though he knew his father had taken in a few boxes of old vinyl years ago. Junk mostly. It was still out back somewhere. He guessed Beatles originals would’ve been hard to come by.

‘Unfortunately not. We tried every avenue available to us at this juncture but I suspect it might be a long-term prospect.’

‘OK.’ He had to laugh at the way the guy spoke. It was sort of old-fashioned and nice in a way. In the business he was in, Wally appreciated old-fashioned. ‘Well, there’s a box of older vinyls out the back from my father’s days – might be something in there that Ned might like. Tell him he can hang on to the turntable for as long as he likes; we don’t get much call for those any more.’

‘That would be wonderful, thank you. And if Ned doesn’t like anything, perhaps I might. Anything from the twenties? Frank Miller perhaps? I love a good jive.’

Laughing, Wally went out back to find the box, leaving Colin to man the shop. They didn’t get too many customers but he imagined a fella like him on the staff would be a bonus. If he was staying around the place, and the writing thing didn’t work out for him, he might offer him a few hours.

It didn’t take long to find the box. Like he’d said to Rob before, it was all in the head. Dusting the contents off a little, he lifted up the heavy box and brought it back up to the shop floor for Colin. As he did, something caught his eye.

‘Well what are the chances?’ Wally said chuckling. ‘Is A Hard Day’s Night on the list, by any chance?’

Colin sat up, felt a spark of excitement rush through him. ‘As a matter of fact, yes.’ Jumping up, he crossed the space to where Wally had set down the box.

‘Well, I don’t know much about music memorabilia, but I do know that ownership stickers affect value, though I’m not sure it matters . . .’

‘No, that wouldn’t matter to Ned.’ Colin turned the record over to see what Wally was talking about. There was a small red sticker in the top right hand corner of the album. And on the sticker were two letters – likely initials, and a date.

Staring hard at the letters, Colin felt his heart start to beat faster.

Being back in Doug Grant’s domain once again made Elle feel very nervous.