217 Babel Street | Apartment 1
Viv Gillis lived alone on the ground floor of the building. Her job was quite simple really: sorting out residents' problems, doing little odd jobs around the place, changing light bulbs and plugs, unlocking doors when keys were lost, checking the boiler every morning. Things like that. Calling in the services for the more difficult problems. Most of the people who lived here were private types; they kept themselves to themselves, whether single or in couples. Every so often there was a spot of bother that needed to be sorted out, a neighbours' tiff for instance. The occasional late-night argument. Like the young unmarried couple in flat 8, they were always at it, either screaming at each other, or making wild passionate love. Dreadful. But Viv liked the job of caretaker. She was a very private person herself.
Her own flat was situated next to the lobby. She could see everyone who came in and out. She could wander the corridors at will and nobody would mind her. She could make copious notes on what she saw each day. She could wait until residents had gone out to work and then use a set of spare keys to enter their apartments. She could look around at will, opening drawers, reading letters, poking her fingers in. Viv was the secret eye of the place. 217 Babel. This was her realm.