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If you want to sit back and relax, you can have the whole of pageram read to you by the author.

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“Ow, fuck!”

He jumped back shaking his hand. The lamp toppled outwards off the sill and disappeared from view. The short flex went taught and whipped the sockets of the extension towards the window. They struck the sill and disappeared. The flex accelerated after them like a snake in a hurry. The plug was yanked from the wall and, in less than a second, my lamp and flex had gone. This excitement ended with a smack of metal on decking and the hunch-inducing sound of breaking glass. The three of us stood there. Skinner looked at Passmore who was looking at his hand. His teeth were clenched and on show. He looked like a dangerous dog.

“It was bloody hot!” he snarled.

Skinner looked at me.

“That’s just great,“ I said, and I gestured towards the window. “Brilliant.”

“What did you expect?” Passmore said, “It was a fucking stupid set-up.”

He pushed past me again and went to the bathroom to cool his blistering hand. Skinner returned to the window.

“The lamp can be paid for,” he said, and he began a succession of small head movements designed to let me know that he was looking. This was done in silence – to the left, to the right, extending neck, ducking down. He looked stupid. I had to stop him.

“How do you know that I got a picture?”

“People see things,” he said, and he stepped back. I moved to where he had been and looked down at the mess below. “Do you know the woman next door?”

“Not really,” I said. “I spoke to her for the first time this morning.” An unimaginative image of her appeared in my mind.  Don’t mention the underwear. “ I know her name and where she works. That’s about it….And she doesn’t have a cat.”

“Really? That’s useful to know.”