“How’s your mouth feeling?” he asked.

“The pain seems to have gone for now, sir, thanks for asking.”

“You should have gone to the hospital.”

“It was nothing. Just a glancing blow.”

“Even so…these things can have complications. How’s Wells?”

“Last I heard still in the infirmary. Armitage gave him a real going-over.”

“He always was a hothead, that one. Even as a football player. Now what about the Palmer girl? Anything interesting there?”

Annie recounted what little she had got from Liz Palmer, then Gristhorpe sipped some shandy and told her about Ryan Milne’s interview. “He said he knew nothing about the bag, just like his girlfriend. He told me he was out that day and didn’t see Luke at all.”

“Did you believe him, sir?”

“No. Winsome went at him a bit—she’s very good in interviews, that lass, a real tigress—but neither of us could shake him.”

“So what are they hiding?”

“Dunno. Maybe a night in the cells will soften them up a bit.”

“Do you think they did it, sir?”

“Did it?”

“Killed Luke and dumped the body.”

Gristhorpe pursed his lips, then said, “I don’t know, Annie. Milne’s got an old banger, so they had the means of transport. Like you, I suggested some sort of romantic angle, something going on between Luke and Liz, but Milne didn’t bite, and to be quite honest I didn’t notice any signs I’d hit the nail on the head.”

“So you don’t think there was any romantic angle?”

“Luke was only fifteen, and Liz Palmer is what?”

“Twenty-one.”

“As I remember, the last thing a twenty-one-year-old woman would want is a fifteen-year-old boyfriend. Now maybe if she were forty-one…”

Annie smiled. “A toyboy?”

“I’ve heard it called that. But I still think fifteen’s too young.”

“I don’t know,” said Annie. “The head teacher’s daughter told DCI Banks she thought Luke was having it off with his English teacher, and she’s pushing thirty.”

“Lauren Anderson?”

“That’s the one.”

“Stranger things have happened. What does Alan think?”

“That little Miss Barlow had reasons of her own for causing trouble for Miss Anderson.” Annie sipped some beer. Nectar. “But I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question that Luke was having relations with someone older than himself. Everything I’ve heard about him indicates he seemed much older than his age, both physically and mentally.”

“How about emotionally?”

“That I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s the one that counts,” Gristhorpe mused. “That’s what causes people to get out of their depth. They can understand something intellectually, accomplish something physically, but the emotional aspect can hit them like a sledgehammer if they’re not mature enough. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable.”

Annie agreed. She’d had enough experience with troubled teens in her job to know it was true, and Luke Armitage had been a complex personality, a mass of conflicting desires and unresolved problems. Add to that his creativity, his sensitivity, and Luke was probably as volatile to handle as nitroglycerine.

“Does the Anderson woman have a jealous boyfriend?” Gristhorpe asked.