‘It just fell down?’ she said, eyes opaque, a faint sneer of disbelief on her lips.

‘There must have been a cause, but really the only important fact is that it fell down.’ Once I had said this, I became worried that perhaps glibness wasn’t quite the right tone, not with Kay. ‘There was building work going on next door. They must have undermined the foundations. I’m sorry, it’s come as a bit of a shock.’

‘Huh,’ Kay said. I expected more. She stepped past me, to the green wheelie bin against the wall. Into this she dropped the heavy load of magazines she had been carrying. They were recent copies, decorated with sticky bookmarks, each one of which represented one of Kay’s contributions.

‘What are you doing?’ I said. ‘Don’t you need those?’

‘Not any more,’ she said, with a stiff smile.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Why don’t you ask Eddie that?’ Kay said.

Eddie, yes. He had seen me, and his brown eyes, peering over the top of his fortifications, followed me as I crossed the office towards him. My terror of the awaiting possibilities was at last overcome by the need to know.

‘Jack. You’ve come to join us at last.’

‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ I said, although I didn’t put much contrition into my tone. ‘My house fell down.’

He looked me over, and I saw him pass from the dust on my jacket to the tears in my trouser legs to the blood-spotted bandages on my legs.

‘It’s a better excuse than usual, I’ll give you that,’ he said. ‘You missed the meeting. The meeting I expressly said you had to attend.’

‘Well, I’m here now,’ I said. I no longer saw any harm in being blunt. ‘Or am I? I’m out, right? Redundancy? Or dismissal?’

Eddie rolled his eyes, as if bored by these questions, and I felt the heat rise in my chest.

‘You need to speak with Polly.’ He nodded in the direction of the aquarium. I glanced over, and saw that Freya had hunched over, and Polly was leaning across, towards her, grim and concerned.

‘Why can’t you just tell me?’ I said to Eddie.

‘Polly,’ he said. ‘You need to speak with Polly.’ He lifted his phone receiver and began to punch in numbers, signalling an end to the conversation. I was momentarily seized by the urge to put my finger on the receiver switch, ending the call before it was dialled, like they do in TV dramas. But I did not.

Both the women in the aquarium were standing. Polly had come around the conference table and was guiding Freya to the door, a gentle hand on her shoulder. Freya’s eyes were red and her posture shrunken. She sniffed and hurried past me once the door was open. All that time, even while still mouthing comforting final words to Freya, Polly’s eyes had been fixed on me. She ushered me into the meeting room.