"At a certain point, Inspector, you are going to ask yourself a certain question. It is a long question. Not a question that can be answered or indeed asked in so many words. It is expressed in stages, because the answer to each section opens the door to the next. The truth is rotational: it is a pattern of responses arranged around a core. You are a woman traversing the skins of an onion. As one uncovers one answer, it vanishes away to reveal another. All are true, and each contains within it a claim on the origins of the next, until the whole is visible at one time and is revealed to be quite different from what was suggested by the individual parts. ‘I have touched the elephant, and it is something like a tree.’ Yes? You’ve heard that before, I’m sure. But it begins very simply."