“Lucas!”  Adam spoke in a sharper tone than he’d intended, but it had the desired effect.

“What?”

“I get that this is very difficult for you, but there is no need to take it out on the rest of the team.  So far this morning, you’ve been rude to Malcolm, who’s been running interference between you and Harry for the last two days, seriously annoyed Ros, and made Jo cry.”

“Jo wasn’t crying.”

“Not in front of you she wasn’t, but her face looked quite blotchy when she returned from what seemed a rather long trip to the ladies.”

Lucas sighed.  “I’ll apologise to her.  Now can I get on with this?”

“With what?  You’ve been staring at the same documents for the last half hour.”

“So now you’re timing me, as well as everything else.”

Adam bit back a retort and stood up.  “I’m going to get some lunch.  Do you want anything?”

“It’s okay, I’ll go.  I could probably do with some fresh air.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“I think I can manage by myself.”

A few minutes later, Ros returned.  “Where is he?” she asked.

“Gone to get our lunch,” Adam replied.  He shook his head.  “I nearly blew up at him, which wouldn’t have been helpful.”

“Has he said anything to you at all?”

“No, and I honestly don’t know what he’s thinking.”

“It’s difficult,” Ros agreed.

A few minutes later Malcolm and Jo also returned, and then Harry charged through, saying, “I’m going to need an update from you all.  We’ll meet in half an hour.  Where’s Lucas?”

“Gone to get lunch.”

“He should be back by then, if he isn’t we’ll begin without him.”

Ten minutes later Lucas returned and gave Adam his sandwiches.  “Sorry, they didn’t have any brie, so I got you turkey and cranberry.”  He then went round all the desks, putting a paper bag down by each of the members of Section D, before knocking on Harry’s door, entering and doing the same, without saying anything.  Once he’d returned to his own chair, he said, “Doughnuts for everyone as an apology for my bad temper.”

“Do you have one yourself?” Jo asked.

“Oh, yes.  I was going to go without, but they had the double chocolate ones and I couldn’t resist.”

Lucas’ phone pinged.  He looked at the message, nodded, sent a quick acknowledgement and returned to his own sandwich.

In just over quarter of an hour, Harry came through to join them.  “Right,” he said, “a few matters of housekeeping before we get started.  Lucas, thank you for the doughnut, apology accepted.  Is there anything else you wish to say which might affect our case timing?”

“The funeral’s next Wednesday, but I haven’t decided whether or not to go,” Lucas replied.

“Right.  In which case I’ll schedule you and Adam to be on the Grid that day, then if you do go, we won’t have to amend our on the ground plans.  Adam, please put that in your diary.”

“Um…” Adam began.

“If Lucas does go, he’ll need you to go with him, as driver.  That way you’ll only be out for one day, which we can easily cover.  We can’t afford to lose Lucas for two or three days at the moment.”

Lucas glanced hesitantly over at Adam, who smiled and nodded.

Harry then proceeded to outline his plans and following some discussion a preliminary timetable was arranged.

Later, after everyone had gone home, Ros went in to see Harry.  “Do you think Lucas will go to the funeral?”

“I have no idea,” Harry said.  “But neither has he.  This way he won’t need to decide until the Wednesday morning.  And please make it known to all staff that no-one is to start asking him about it.  We really don’t want him to revert to being a bear with a sore head.  And since a doughnut by way of apology is appreciated, my waistline could do without him making too many apologies.”