“Not according to Winsome. She did a bit of digging. Only bit of dirt on Ms. Anderson is that her brother Vernon’s got a record.”

Gristhorpe raised his bushy eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Nothing really nasty. Just dodgy checks.”

“I’ve written a few of those in my time, according to my bank manager. What about the other teacher, Alastair Ford?”

“Kevin Templeton says there are rumors he’s gay, but only rumors. As far as anyone knows he has no sex life at all.”

“Any evidence that Luke Armitage was gay, too?”

“None. But there’s no evidence he was straight, either. Ford has a temper, though, like Armitage, and he’s been seeing a psychiatrist for several years now. Definitely the unstable kind.”

“Not to be ruled out, then?”

“No.”

“And Norman Wells?”

“Looking less likely, isn’t he?”

When their food arrived, both were hungry enough to stop talking for a while and eat, then Gristhorpe slowed down. “Any ideas of your own about how Luke’s bag ended up where it did, Annie?” he asked.

Annie finished her mouthful of lasagne, then said, “I think Luke went there after his run-in with the three bullies in the market square. What happened after that, I don’t know, but either he died there or something happened that made him run off without his bag, which I don’t think he’d do under any normal circumstances.”

“So something happened there?”

“Yes. Certainly.”

“What about his mobile?”

“One of those tiny models you can just flip open and shut. Probably couldn’t find it among all the stuff if he kept it in his bag, so he carried it in his pocket. Anyway, it hasn’t been found yet.”

“Has it been used?”

“Not since the ransom call. Hasn’t even been switched on. I checked again with the company.”

“Anything valuable in the bag?”

“Stefan’s going through it. From what I saw, though, I don’t think so. I mean, the laptop was worth a bob or two, but I don’t think theft was the motive here. That is…”

“Yes, Annie?”

“Well, there was nothing valuable to you or me, nothing of any real material value, but I got the impression that Liz, at least, is ambitious, and there’s a chance they could ride a lot farther and a lot faster on Luke Armitage’s coattails—or rather Neil Byrd’s coattails.”

“I think I must be a bit of an old fogey,” said Gristhorpe, scratching the side of his hooked nose, “but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of Neil Byrd. I know who he was to Luke and what happened to him, of course, but that’s about as far as it goes.”

“Alan—DCI Banks—knows a lot more about it than I do, sir, but Byrd was quite famous in his time. The record company is still bringing out CDs of previously unreleased stuff, greatest hits and live concerts, so there’s still a thriving Neil Byrd industry out there, a dozen years after his death. Luke inherited some of his father’s talent, and if Liz and Ryan wanted to milk the connection, I’m sure there are plenty of song ideas and fragments on the laptop and in his notebooks.”