‘I think so.’ Rachel picked up another slimmer, smaller notebook. ‘All the details of the camera obscura are in this single notebook, separate from the designs for the tower itself. I think that was deliberate, so that even the workers tasked with building the site wouldn’t know about it.’

Toby looked around. ‘This can’t have been the work of just one person, though,’ he reasoned. ‘There’s the viewing table, for a start. They must have had to get that up here before they completed the floor.’

Rachel nodded. ‘I know. Something else I haven’t been able to work out.’

Toby looked at the blueprint again, noting the now-familiar three initials in the corner. ‘But through all of this there’s still no hint about who E.A.M. is?’

‘Not yet,’ Rachel said, letting the scroll close, curling up on itself. ‘It’s got to be here though, hasn’t it? It must be, somewhere.’

‘Well, look,’ said Toby, ‘from a purely practical point of view, I think the first thing to do is to start making digital copies of everything. Having scans will mean we won’t have to handle the actual documents too much, or work on them up here in the camera obscura room.’

‘Right,’ Rachel said. ‘That’s a great idea.’

‘They’ll also probably be easier to decipher that way,’ he said, tapping keys and frowning at the screen. ‘I can download an app to my phone that will act like a scanner. Then we start reproducing everything we can.’

Twenty

‘Don’t you have a car?’

This from Gilly, who stood beside Rachel at the bus stop. The two of them were on their way into Great Dunbar, Rachel because she had some cheques she needed to deposit into the bookshop’s account and Gilly because she wanted to find some new – or at least, new to her – clothes. She’d agreed to help out at the lighthouse but had decided on her own that before she took on a proper shift behind the counter, she needed to be tidier.

‘I look like a hobo,’ were her exact words.

Edie had agreed. ‘Go, do,’ she said. ‘I can look after the bookshop for a few hours. Get her some more clothes, for goodness’ sake. Those are no better than what I use for rags in the print room.’

Rachel was pretty sure Gilly had flipped a finger at Edie’s turned back as they’d left.

‘I used to have a camper,’ Rachel told Gilly, ‘before I came to Newton Dunbar.’

Gilly looked mildly interested. ‘What, for holidays?’

‘No. I lived in it.’

Gilly took this in with quiet contemplation. ‘I’d love a camper. A VW, you know, one of the old ones?’

Rachel smiled. ‘That’s what I had. I loved it, but it was cold in winter. I’d spend all day hunched under as many duvets and blankets I could fit on the bunk.’

Gilly shrugged. ‘Doesn’t sound so bad.’

‘Well no, not compared with sleeping rough,’ Rachel agreed. ‘At least I stayed dry.’