Clare said, ‘I didn’t even know this place existed.’

Jo took a sip of her coffee. ‘I found it when I was doing my doctorate. I spent a lot of time in the museum archives over there.’ Jo pointed across the cathedral close. ‘I used to come out to stretch my legs at lunchtime and I tripped over this place.’ She pointed in the direction of her plate. ‘Then I got kind of addicted to their espresso cupcakes.’

‘I didn’t know you did your doctorate down here.’

Jo winked at her friend conspiratorially. ‘There’s a lot folks don’t know about me.’

Clare laughed. ‘Is that when you first came across David? When you did your doctorate?’

‘Yes, but not because I was at the university. I did my doctorate at UCL. But most of my research was in Wessex. David helped me out with the stone tools assemblages from some burials I was looking at.’

Jo washed a bite of her cupcake down with a sip of coffee. ‘You and David never talk much about being students down here.’

Clare could feel herself blush. ‘I guess it doesn’t come up much.’

‘But you were friends when you were here, right?’

Clare studiously avoided Jo’s gaze, instead letting it roam over the Gothic magnificence of the cathedral. She sipped at her tea and nodded.

Jo asked. ‘This was where you met Stephen, too, wasn’t it?’

Clare stuttered, ‘Yes. Yes, it was.’

‘So did David know Stephen as well?’

‘No, not really. At least not very well. Can we talk about something else please, Jo? I don’t really feel up to this right now.’

To Clare’s relief Jo mistook the cause of her discomfort. ‘I’m sorry, Clare. It must be difficult sometimes being round places that bring back old memories. I didn’t mean to open up old wounds.’

Clare waved her concern away. ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s just sometimes the past doesn’t seem very long ago.’

And yet sometimes it seemed like a lifetime. The David back then was a very different David to the one they’d encountered this morning. But then time changed everything, didn’t it?

Jo said, ‘You know David asked us to tell him as soon as the radio carbon dates come through.’ Clare nodded. ‘I was wondering, do you think maybe we should tell him about what happened when you and Margaret met up with the antiquities guy in the parking lot? What do you say?’

Clare nearly choked on her carrot cake. ‘Are you mad? David’s livid with us already. If I tell him about that too he’ll go ballistic.’

Jo said, ‘But what if he finds out anyway? Won’t that make it twice as bad?’