Sunday morning, she’d compiled a shopping list. Rousted Mickey from his well-earned and not fully completed doze. Instructed him to drive them down to the nexus of all evil, as far as Mickey was concerned. A supermarket next to a DIY store. With the post-modern labyrinth of a branch of IKEA across the roundabout. Roz tended to manage shopping with Mickey as any intelligent woman would. By treating him like a grumpy toddler and showing him the alternatives. Outlining her plan to him as they crossed the car park.

‘A nice easy whiz round an empty shop to get the groceries. And then a quick dip into Granddad World to get those screws you need to finish building my new worktable. Couldn’t be easier. And if we get all that done timely, with you pushing the trolley like a responsible adult and not using it as a surfboard, there’ll be no need for lunch over the road. Will there?’

Casting her gaze across the urban clearway at IKEA’s forbidding presence. Knowing Mickey to regard it as a fitting stand-in for the seventh circle of hell. Mickey, about to reply with a one-liner to crush all potential for such an outcome through its brilliance and wit, had found himself abruptly ignored. Roz having suddenly left formation to stand and stare, frowning, at the newspaper stand. Papers piled high, ready for the Sunday morning rush. The Clarion, as usual, in pole position.

‘What the…?’

She reached out and picked up a copy. Looking at it for a moment before turning back to Mickey with a frown. Holding up the paper for him to look at.

‘Greece and Turkey square off over Cyprus?’

‘Not that! This!’

Pointing at a secondary headline. Which Mickey read. Doing a bit of a double take. Reading again. A secondary headline, but still front-page news. ‘Hero Cop Blasts Minister!’ He looked up to find Roz giving him an old-fashioned look over her specs.

‘I think we need a sit-down and a chat before we start shopping, don’t you?’

Roz bought the paper and sprang for two cappuccinos. Sat Mickey down in the store’s restaurant. Generously allowing him time to read and digest the piece before reaching for her thumbscrews. Hero cop? It was a distinction that Mickey reckoned he could have done without, all things considered. Especially given that there was no commendation involved. And the ire that Roz was about to visit upon him. The paper quoting an anonymous but “well-informed” source. Yeah, right. Three guesses as to who that might be.