“Half ten,” Logan confirmed, reaching for his roll. “I’m sure you can see yourself out the same way you came in.”

Hoon stopped in the doorway, fumbled with a couple of vowels and a consonant or two, then ejected a muted, “Cheers, Jack.”

“No bother,” Logan told him. “Good luck.”

“Aye,” Hoon said, but he didn’t yet start moving.

“Was there something else, Bob?” Logan asked, his stomach mewling like an injured animal as he held the roll just inches from his lips.

“You spoken to Boy Band yet?”

Logan frowned. “Boy Band? Oh, you mean Tyler? About what?”

Hoon glanced back over his shoulder, then shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “Doesn’t matter.”

And with that, he was gone.

Chapter Four

There was some commotion when Tyler and Sinead crossed the reception of Burnett Road Station, making for the stairs. Five or six uniformed officers were escorting someone off the premises through a side door, while a dozen others stood ready to jump in and lend a hand if things started to escalate.

Quite ironic, Sinead thought as they started up the steps, given that there was very little that would escalate a situation more effectively than twelve Uniforms blundering in with good intentions and swinging batons.

“Wonder what that was about,” Tyler mused, his feet thacking on the hard steps as he plodded his way up them.

“Probably just some nutter,” Sinead said, shrugging the question off. “I swear, this place attracts them like moths.”

Tyler smiled. “You talking about the staff, or…?”

“Aye. Us lot are the worst of all,” she said, keeping the conversation light.

She could see the worry written across his face, and the way each step seemed to take more effort than the one before. His mind might have accepted what had to be done, but his body was doing its best to put a stop to it.

“Just another day,” he’d pleaded that morning. “We can tell them tomorrow. Another day won’t hurt.”

And, in a way, he was right. There would be no real harm in holding back the news until tomorrow. It was Monday, and his operation wasn’t until Thursday. Given the circumstances, they’d understand why the request for time off was coming at such short notice.

But she’d spent the first day of her married life watching her husband stressing about telling them the news. The thought of it was eating him up worse than any cancer ever could. He had to tell them. Today. For his sake.

They continued to speak about nothing whatsoever until they reached the Incident Room and found it mostly in darkness. The only light filtered out through the gaps in the blinds on Logan’s office windows.

He was in, then.

Of course, he was.

“You OK?” Sinead asked, putting a hand on Tyler’s back and rubbing it. “You want me to come in?”