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any case, she wouldn’t be able to find the right words. She settled for an inadequate ‘I love you,’ which she whispered repeatedly to him as he slept beside her. Sometimesthe intensity of her feelings brought tears to her eyes when she watched him as he slept. All the love she was capable of feeling had been stored up for this man sleeping beside her. He stirred. She slipped out of bed, careful not to wake him. She could have lain awake watching him all night, but she had to go to work.
    Sophie felt for her clothes in the dark and crept downstairs. She hesitated in the hall but decided not to stop for coffee. The sooner she reached the office, the sooner she could get started. She was keen to get the system up and running again, to minimise the backlog. It wasn’t ideal, driving when she felt groggy, but the roads would be empty at that time of night. She could have plenty of strong coffee when she reached the office. She thought of her husband, sleeping soundly upstairs and her face softened into a smile. He wouldn’t need to get up for another five hours. She blew a kiss at the stairs before she set off, closing the front door softly behind her.
    The freezing air shocked her fully awake. Overhead, stars shone brightly in a clear sky. Sophie felt a dreamlike alertness as she hurried over to her car. The revving of her engine broke the silence. As she accelerated out of the drive, a figure suddenly darted in front of her. Sophie slammed her foot on the brake and swerved. Her car door came to rest against the hedge. Leaves and twigs scratched at the window. In the orange glow of a street lamp bulging eyes stared wildly at her before the figure dashed away into the darkness. Sophie reversed away from the hedge and drove off, shaken by the near miss.
    It was gone half past six by the time she left work. Pumped up with caffeine, she knew her restlessness masked an underlying exhaustion and her reactions might be sluggish so she drove slowly back through the centre of town, past closed up shops and out towards Harchester Hill. The streets were deserted at that time of morning. Soon, houses wouldlight up as people dragged themselves out of bed. Two hours later, the centre of town would be crammed with cars idling in queues. She passed a police car cruising the streets. Apart from that, all was quiet. At this rate, she would easily be home before Tom left for work. She accelerated involuntarily at the prospect of seeing him. The engine whined.
    Sophie was on her way to Harchester Hill when she heard a muffled boom. For an instant the air in front of her windscreen quivered. As she approached the bottom of the hill, a siren pierced the hum of her engine. In her rear mirror she saw a fire engine race towards her, police cars on its tail. She pulled over to allow the emergency vehicles to pass before pulling out to accelerate behind them up the hill. Ahead of the flashing lights a column of black smoke hovered above the rooftops like a medieval angel of death. The emergency vehicles swung off the main road, leading her in the direction of her home. She followed. Turning the final corner of her journey, she found her way blocked by a police car. Fear struck her like a punch in the guts. She scrambled out of the car. Leaving the engine running and the door open she ran along the street. Her legs felt weak. She battled for breath. It was an effort to keep moving. Her heart was thumping painfully as she pushed through the watching crowd. Some of them recognised her and fell back.
    A man shouted crossly. ‘We’re all trying to see here –’ His voice stopped abruptly when he caught sight of Sophie, as though someone had switched off the radio.
    ‘Keep back there please,’ a police constable called out.
    ‘Tom!’ Sophie gasped. None of the uniformed figures took any notice of her. She seized a fireman, clung to the coarse fabric of his sleeve. ‘My husband! Tom!’ Her voice rose to a shriek. A tall man in a helmet advanced