But, as I was squinting at the photos with the magnifying glass, I saw that they showed even more than I’d realised. I had been too stuck on the workshop connection to notice at first, but the students in the photos were wearing more than name tags on their school jumpers. It was hard to see but most of them had badges and in the four shot, with the magnifying glass, I saw that they were the same as the cartoon-style broken computer badge. Whatever that badge was, it was nothing to do with a band Deirdre had liked, and must have something to do with Gill because he was wearing one too. But what was it? I had been around the Film Festival in 1998 as a volunteer. Was it something he gave out at his workshop? Something to do with his job? A logo? Or free advertising for something? I drummed my fingers on the desk. What did the broken computer symbol mean? Back in the nineties, most references to computers had been positive: people raved about the information superhighway, and it was long before cyber-bullying or online privacy had become issues of concern. I turned it over and over to see if there was a ‘made in’ or ‘made for’ mark on it – any clue to where the badge might have come from. There wasn’t.

Yet the more I looked at it, the more I felt that I recognised it. It would come back to me, I hoped. Though not if I kept staring at it. I put the badge and the other exhibits into my desk drawer, locked it and put the key on my key ring. This was never going to be a criminal trial. I was never going to have to prove a chain of evidence for a jury, but I didn’t know where the case might go ultimately. In the meantime, I’d have to keep the items exactly as I’d found them and free from interference. When an exhibit is used in a trial, you have to be able to show who handled it. A locked desk drawer would have to serve as my evidence room for now.

Quickly I ran through the documents again and sent them to my work email. I couldn’t open a work file on my home computer so I’d get Tina to sort that on Monday in the office. I binned the pizza box in the wheelie bin outside the door, locked up for the night and went upstairs, checking my phone as I went. There was a message from Davy.

‘You out or at home?’