Goodmans Hotel

He was looking around the empty hall wondering where to put the papers he had collected. I went over to him, took them from him, tidied them into a neat bundle and put them at the side of one of the stairs.

He avoided looking at me, but my eyes were now constantly drawn towards him. He must have showered and shaved immediately before coming out. His black curly hair seemed light and fluffy, and his denim shirt curved over the contours of his muscular shoulders. He wore new jeans, and my fingertips could almost sense the rough texture of the dark material.

I turned away from him, reminding myself we were there to look at the house, and tried to act calmly and sensibly. My hunger for him had become too strong; it engulfed me. Standing close to him made me sweat and tingle inwardly. My hands seemed to develop a will of their own and wanted to reach out to touch him. Paying attention to what Andrew and the estate agent were saying was impossible.

After a brief look around the ground floor, where the tenant was out, we descended the dark staircase to the basement. The 'garden' flat remained unoccupied and had deteriorated since our last visit. When the agent opened the door at the top of the stairs the smell was awful, much worse than before. In a corner of the back room were a twisted pile of bedding, two large holdalls packed to bursting, an orangeade bottle half full of dubious liquid and some festering take-away food cartons. The lock and security bolts of the door to the garden had been forced, bare wood showing where the frame had split apart. The person who had been dossing in the room was absent.

'You'd think one of the tenants would have let me know about this. One of them must have seen or heard something. I suppose now I'll have to call the police.'

Tom said: 'No, don't do that, what harm's he done? There's no call for that.'

Andrew agreed: 'He's right, what are the police going do about it? They can hardly put a twenty-four hour watch on the place.'

The agent shook his head. 'I'm thinking about insurance. If there's any damage, if he - or they - cause a fire or steal anything from upstairs, the insurers will want to know that the police were informed straight away.'

'The insurers will know only what you tell them. Tom will put the man's things outside and board up the door; we'll check tomorrow to see if he's moved on. If not we'll let you know and you can call the police.'