10 Earlier that morning, 9.01am.
Eric Black had polished off the last of the cornflakes and was considering whether to pop out into the garden to do some light pruning.
The weather was due to be good, and it’d been a fair few days since he’d last been out there.
His reverie was stolen, though, by the sounds coming from next door. The first one sounded like a cross between a roar and a scream.
Although his eyesight hadn’t been the best for a few years, there was no faulting his hearing. Besides which, the walls in these houses weren’t exactly soundproof.
He shuffled closer to the wall to get a better angle, and heard what sounded like a pained moan, punctuated by grunts and rhythmic banging. It didn’t sound right. Not at all.
He wondered about going round to check everything was okay.
