This is part of a communication by myself with author Nick Redfern (just to name drop) whic appears in one of his books, "Women in Black".
As you may already know, I live on the 13th floor of a tower block of flats originally built as social accommodation for families in Manchester just after the war. The local council eventually sold them to a housing association and recently, due to Lottery money and other funding they have been radically improved beyond recognition. Security is very tight, with electronic entry systems front and back, CCTV, inner doors which can only be accessed with a tenant's key and, behind these the actual front doors of the individual flats, which are arranged in sets of three.
Now, in order to view a property you have to apply to the housing association using their official forms and provide ID in order to collect a set of keys to view at an arranged time. Usuall,y a letting officer from the association will come along, too.
Around 18 months ago the flat across the hall from me became vacant after some rather sweet (but seriously in arrears) African students had to move out. It had stood empty for a few weeks after the caretaker had been in and done his stuff. One afternoon I was about to pop to the corner shop when I heard voices in the hall and thought I'd take the opportunity for a peek at any potential new neighbours on the way out.
On opening the front door I was met with the sight of two individuals, a male and female, both white and, I would estimate, in their early thirties. They were dressed as if they had come from an office - he in standard black suit and tie and she in a black skirt suit and white blouse. She had blonde, almost shoulder length hair and he had short brown hair, very neat and conservative. He was tall - a good six feet and looked like he could look after himself she was around five feet six and medium build. Both were healthy looking. Neither had any odd features; they just looked like an "ordinary" couple but there was something "off" about them I couldn't quite put my finger on. I wondered, in fact if they were plain clothes police officers, trying to pass themselves off as a couple.
"Hi!" I said, smiling "are you viewing the flat?" The woman said nothing but the man said, "Er - yes." He smiled back but the smile didn't reach his eyes. He reminded of those Scientologists you see in documentaries who exercise enormous control over their facial movements. Then he reached as if to put an arm around the woman but she looked uncomfortable and moved away. She looked me up and down, quite rudely like a young child might, then turned to look at the front door and asked, in a flat sort of voice, "Is anyone in there, do you know?"
"No", I said, puzzled. Threy said nothing so I continued.
“The flat's empty, of course. They don't let them while tenants are still in! Don't you have keys?" "Oh . . . yes!" said the man, as if the thought had just occurred to him. He cleared his throat and put his hand to his side as if to retrieve keys from his pocket, then repeated, "keys", as if it was a new word in his repertoire. The woman, meanwhile, was staring and frowning at the front door and suddenly reached out a tentative hand towards it, for all the world as if she didn't know how it worked. It really was the most odd gesture - similar to the way a cat reaches out a paw when it's unsure of what it's seeing.
"Is no one meeting you?" I asked. They didn't answer; the woman looked nervous and disorientated, while her companion just stood there like a statue. "Well, I'll leave you to it", I said, "Maybe see you later". There was no response so I set off to the shop and left them to it. When I returned less then ten minutes later there was no one there and no signs of life from the vacant flat. I hadn't seen a car pull away or anyone walking from the building.
Well, there's no reason to suspect these were alien visitors, MIB or anything other than rather odd humans but, even apart from their seeming social awkwardness, the whole situation didn't ring true for people viewing a property. They would have received keys and been met by an agent from the housing association for a start - I've never known anyone be allowed to just wander about on their own in a vacant flat. If they didn't have keys how had they got into the hall? There was no one in the flat to answer the doorbell. There is a chance someone may have let them into the main part of the building if they had rung a number at random or followed someone in but the interior doors are fire doors and you have to use a key on them from the exterior side which no one but the housing association is allowed to make a copy of these. They also didn't seem like your average social housing tenant; they looked too professional, too middle-class but their behaviour was almost autistic. And I swear they weren't a couple in any usual sense of the word - their body language was way off. I never saw them again.
Date: Friday, 2 November, 2012, 20:37
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