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Warm milk supposedly aided sleep, didn’t it? Perhaps it might have the desired effect. She turned towards the television screen as the microwave whirred loudly on one of the worktops. Jess flicked channels looking for even the slightest mention of the accident at the Crystal Tower but there was nothing on any of the major networks. She wondered if the regional London news programme might feature something. After all she’d seen their outside broadcast van at the building. Or maybe even they didn’t deem the latest tragedy worthy of a slot.
    She took the milk from the microwave when it was ready and crossed to her large lumpy sofa where she pulled off her shoes and sat down gratefully cradling the milk in one hand. She took a few sips and flicked channels again.
    There was something on about a possible increase in the Congestion Charge, a story about a boy of twelve who’d been stabbed in his classroom at a school in Tottenham and some other items that Jess found less than riveting but towards the end of the bulletin she saw the caption appear on the bottom of the screen ANOTHER ACCIDENT AT THE CRYSTAL TOWER. The frame then showed a reporter standing a few feet from the temporary fence around the Crystal Tower with the looming edifice clearly visible in the background. There were a number of long distance shots of the structure before they cut back to the reporter.
    Jess grabbed the remote and turned up the sound.
    ‘…incident in as many weeks,’ the reporter was saying into camera. ‘The families of both men killed have been notified. An investigation will be conducted but a police spokesman said that there didn’t appear to be any blame attached to the building owners and that the accident had been unavoidable. Health and Safety officials will present a full report tomorrow afternoon after an investigation.’
    Jess raised her eyebrows and sipped more milk.
    There was another shot of the building and then the weather forecast came on.
    ‘Don’t overdo it will you?’ Jess murmured, watching as a smiling weatherman told her that it was going to rain during the night and then turn humid during the day. She shook her head and flicked channels in a desperate attempt to find something to watch as she finished her drink. She finally settled on an old black and white film but it was little more than background sound as she scrolled through the photos she’d taken earlier that evening.
    Perhaps Hadley had been right, perhaps her imagination was working overtime. Maybe she was trying to make a story where there really wasn’t one. She looked again at the pictures of the bloodied mess that lay on the stretcher between the two paramedics and wondered briefly who this man had been in life. That was something else Hadley would have taken her to task about. He’d have said that her job was to take pictures, not to get too interested in the people she photographed. He…
    Hadley. Why are you even thinking about him?
    Jess cradled the mug in her hands and gazed blankly at the TV screen.
    What happened between you is ancient history.
    She stretched out on the sofa.
    It still happened though didn’t it?
    Jess yawned. Perhaps she might be able to sleep if she went to bed, she mused. She stretched again then finished the warm milk.
    Maybe it was working.
    She smiled to herself and headed towards the bedroom deciding that she could always read for a while if she didn’t drop off straight away.
    Outside the traffic continued to roll past and, from the doorway of an abandoned shop on the other side of the road, eyes that had been watching since she returned saw the light in Jess’s basement flat go out.

TWELVE
     
    Alex Hadley had been alone before and it had never bothered him. He was alone but not lonely. Loneliness he had always thought was a state of mind and he had never been in that state.
    That was what he told himself now as he stood before the door of his flat fumbling in his coat pocket for the key. And yet, even as he