The First Appointment.

The stairway gave me an uncanny sense of déjà vu.

It curved tightly upwards, not a spiral, but a U, snug in the rounded end of a narrow room. Green tiles lined the floor and stairway; an early Deco stained-glass window let a little subdued sunlight cast itself in colour on the steps.

There was a hush in the building. The kind of hush that is only possible in a building that is not empty of people, where the muffled little sounds of separate individuals, each at their own separate purpose, create a strange sense of invisible company.