“The wedding. When he went AWOL…” Ben began, but the rest of the sentence fell away into silence.

“What do you mean ‘went AWOL?’” Sinead asked.

Ben shot a pleading look at Hamza and Dave, but both men just stared back at him in wide-eyed horror. He quietly cleared his throat.

“What I mean is… And, you’ll get a laugh at this…” Ben said, stalling to give himself more thinking time. “Is… Oh! Actually, maybe I’m thinking of a different wedding! I think that might be…” He spotted the grin on Sinead’s face, then blew out the breath that had been trapped in his chest for the past several seconds. “You evil bitch!” he ejected. “You knew bloody fine!”

“Sorry, sir, couldn’t resist,” she told him. “Aye, he told me he nearly bottled it. Said Hoon gave him a talking to.”

“Probably less of a ‘talking to’ than a ‘swearing at,’ but aye, he seemed to get the message across,” Ben said. He clapped his hands together. “Right, shocking news like this warrants a nice cup of tea, I reckon. Hamza, do you fancy doing the honours?”

Hamza got to his feet. “I’m sure I can manage, sir, aye,” he confirmed.

“Good on you, son,” Ben replied. “Then, once you’ve got that down your neck, grab your coat and head up to talk to Jazmin McAllister, assuming we get word that she’s home. What time are we on?”

“Just after seven, sir,” Sinead told him.

“Good, plenty of time before the train gets in, then,” Ben said. “Until then, you’re on the clock. Fair?”

“No complaints here, sir.”

“Right, good. Jack said he’d heard that Neeps and Tatties were getting a Hogmanay show on the BBC this year. I want to know if that’s true.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath for it happening now,” Dave chipped in.

“No, but Billy Neeps didn’t mention it when he was talking to Jack and Tyler. If it was happening, why didn’t he say something? Seems unlikely he wouldn’t know he was going to be doing a live New Year’s special on the national broadcaster. That’s no’ the sort of thing that gets sprung on you at the last second. Well, no’ outside of a nightmare, anyway.”

“I can phone around, see if I can speak to anyone involved in production,” Sinead suggested. “Or contracts, maybe. If a deal’s been made, there’d be something in writing.”

“See what you can dig up,” Ben instructed. “Dave, I’ve got a few jobs for you, too. But let’s get the most important one out of the way first.”

Dave nodded. “Dig up some takeaway menus?” he asked.

Ben winked and smiled at the man in the wheelchair. “David, my boy, you read my bloody mind.”