The carriage stopped fully and they all heaved a breath of relief.
"Good luck!" Bennett said and got out first.
Cedric followed.
Noel sat alone in the carriage for exactly three seconds.
He closed his eyes and thought about Rowan on the floor of that cell. The bruising on his jaw. The wound at his side that Cedric had stitched through that night. The rope marks on his wrists.
He thought about the photograph he had pinned to the mirror.
'I'm sorry, Rowan.'
He thought about the ivory flower soaking red in the newspaper photograph. Joel's body in the shop that the killer had put there so that Rowan would be here, in this cell, while he walked free somewhere in the city
He thought about the time he had left.
Two and a half of which were already gone.
He got out of the carriage.
---
Cedric saw him first.
