From the moment she steps out into the laneway before her morning shift, Hazel Bates, tea lady at Empire Fashionwear, has the curious feeling of being watched. She glances around but sees no one. It’s early, the lane is quiet and shadowed, and the air sweet with the smell of hops from the nearby brewery.
Lifting her gaze to the strip of blue sky above the buildings, she’s startled to see a face in an upper window of the abandoned bond store across the lane. The woman stares down at Hazel, her pale face almost ghostlike against the dim interior and, with quick urgent movements, traces something in dust on the window, and disappears into the gloom of the old building.
‘Kovac’s late again!’
Hazel turns with a start to see Irene Turnbuckle, tea lady from Silhouette Knitwear next door, standing out in the lane. She pauses to light a cigarette and walks up to join Hazel. ‘Becoming a nasty habit with him, don’t yer reckon?’
‘I just saw someone in the old bond store,’ says Hazel, pointing towards the window.
Irene glances up briefly. ‘Doubt that. It’s a bloody disgrace leaving that place empty all these years. That’s why we’ve got so many rats round here.’
‘I definitely saw someone . . . a woman, standing in the window.’
Irene squints through the cloud of cigarette smoke. ‘Could’ve been a trick of the light. Or get yer eyes checked. ‘
‘Irene, dear, I know what I saw. She was youngish, pretty, with long, dark hair.’
‘Nothing wrong with yer imagination, then.’
Hazel notes the location of the window and wonders how the woman could have got in there. The two roller doors at the back of the building are padlocked, so she must have a key to the front entrance. ‘It is strange. I can have a better look when I’m upstairs.’
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