He looked at the wall as if expecting to find an answer there.

Eliot puzzled over the question all day. On his way to work, standing on the crowded tube platform, crushed between the sleepy commuters, ascending the elevator and finally pushing out into the London wintry sunshine to hurry to the tall glass building and snatch a desk where he could.

It ran round and round his brain like an out-of-control toy racing car. And with just as much resolution.

His schedule had been hectic, one call after another, even an actual face-to-face which was, he dec...