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"We need a syste in raphs that had overflowed fronified untidiness across the polished surface of the table

"Right You start there," indicating the box "Sort them into piles Recent fao on this pile Post war pictures go here Early twentieth century here And anything older here OK?"

"Right," I agreed "Could we have so day forto feel like I was about to collapse in a heap of strung out eo get us soh the older photos again as soon as I get back"

I nodded Crack on, I thought More like crack up I glanced at the bright blip on the us' tracker It seemed like that was all I had left of him I didn't even have one picture of hiain All the terror and anguish I'd been bottling up over the past 48 hours swept overuncontrollably I laythe tears that ran down my face and onto the wooden surface that held all those inscrutable photographs with their impenetrable mysteries I didn't care I couldn't care

All that I was, there and then, was grief

I didn't hear Julia return, but I knew she was back when I felt a hand on , just let me cry until I couldn't cry anymore She disappeared for a few seconds then and reappeared with a box of tissues

She waited in sympathetic silence as Iat her, feeling slightly ashaently and squeezed my shoulder

"You need to sleep"

"I can't," I told her The idea of closingall the awfulness of what could be happening back in the UK flickering through rade movie terrified me

"Why don't you lie down on that sofa for a few h these and we can talk while you close your eyes" She indicated an enorainst one of the walls of the room, a couple of metres from where we sat at the table A couple of colourful cushions adorned one end of it, and it see I nodded tiredly and half fell onto the soft leather Julia disappeared briefly while I adjusted the cushions under reen mohair blanket which she draped over me I smiled my thanks