Fifteen crows all neatly lined up on the haggard stone wall that kept the little town of Meadsbrough away from the rest of the world.

They did not squawk, or flap, or move. They stayed still, watching and waiting for someone to find them. Until someone did.

James was a paranoid man, who believed too deeply in his culture, and his work, and that it was his choice to be divorced from his wife af...