Looking at the list that she had been working from and then at the empty boxes, she bit her lip. ‘It looks like one isn’t here.’

Ned looked at her with an anxious glance. ‘Which one is missing?’ he asked curiously.

‘I thought they were all here,’ Colin said airily, which caused Penny to look suspiciously at him. She didn’t know why, but his voice had changed – it didn’t sound normal.

‘We’re missing the Anna single,’ she said. ‘You didn’t see it, did you?’

Ned began shuffling again through the records. ‘I thought you said all of them were here?’ he questioned gruffly, directing his attention to Colin. ‘Where is that record? That’s the most important.’ His voice took on a frantic edge as he began looking through the box with renewed interest.

‘I’m afraid that the one you are looking for has been sold,’ called a voice from the hallway.

It was Arthur.

Penny turned as the very man her dad had sold the collection to so many years before entered the room. ‘Sold?’ she repeated frantically. ‘But I thought . . .’

Arthur smiled – a seemingly inappropriate response to the look of worry that had rushed onto Ned’s face.

‘That record . . .’ Ned said in a tone that Penny had never heard him use before. ‘It was a present from Anna to me on our wedding day. Of all the ones in there that you could have sold . . .’

Penny stepped forward, realising at once that her father was dangerously close to having an outburst of sorts over this new information. If today was any indication of just how emotionally tied Ned was to the collection, based on his reaction to one being missing, she knew just how much she had to find that record.

‘Arthur, you said that the Anna single was the one that had been sold. I know it’s been decades since you bought this collection, and maybe just as long since you sold this particular one; but do you remember who you sold it to? And if so, do you maybe have a way for me to contact the person? Was it a local?’ She knew she was sounding desperate but she couldn’t help it. They couldn’t fail now.

Arthur’s grin suddenly widened. ‘I was thinking you might ask that.’

‘As it happens, you’re in luck.’ Wally piped up. ‘The buyer is local. And the man himself is here now, in fact.’ He pointed at Colin. ‘I’m sure you can work out a deal.’

Penny was mystified. ‘What . . . why would you . . .?’

Colin was grinning as he held up the missing record. ‘I couldn’t resist one last bit of drama,’ he said theatrically.

Then he handed Ned the record. ‘The final piece in the puzzle, my dear man, congratulations.’