Chapter 2

The next morning, a dull pounding on my door dragged me awake.

Bleary-eyed, I opened it to find Rachel from downstairs.

Dark circles ringed her eyes, the whites shot through with red.

She was scowling like I owed her five million bucks.

Behind her stood Brenda and a crowd of neighbors.

"Nora, those rats put us through hell all night."

"How do you have the nerve to still be asleep?"

I rubbed my eyes.

"The rats weren't bothering me. Why wouldn't I sleep?"

She stamped her foot, furious.

She yanked a sheet of paper open.

She shoved it in my face.

"The rats chewed my son's SAT admission ticket to shreds, and he missed a whole section this morning."

"You give me an answer today, or we are not done."

By now I knew what she was after.

I scratched my head.

I pulled up my video doorbell footage.

Then I played it back right by her ear.

"You said it yourself. The rats did it."

"What answer do you want from me?"

Rachel crushed the SAT admission ticket into a ball, seething.

Then Brenda and the neighbors crowded in.

"Nora, honey, that's not the right way to look at it."

I leaned against the door.

I watched her put on her show.

"If you hadn't gone and dumped those rats on management yesterday, none of this would have happened."

"So when it comes down to it, this is your responsibility."

"You owe Rachel for what she lost."

I shot Rachel a look and gave a faint smile.

"If I remember right, weren't you one of the ones saying your place had no rats, you hadn't benefited, so you weren't paying?"

Rachel's face went red in a flash.

"That's a lie. When did I ever say that?"

I fiddled with my phone.

Then I held it up for everyone to see.

"You forgot? No problem."

"Whatever anyone said, I've got the whole thing on video."

They all glanced at each other.

Rachel was at a loss for words too.

I put the phone away and went on.

"You didn't want to split a twenty-dollar disposal fee, so all I could do was hand the rats to management."

"The health department signed off. Management took them."

"Want me to pull the video up again?"

They all dropped their heads.

"So if you want answers, go talk to management."

With that, I turned to head back inside.

Brenda dug in and grabbed my arm.

"Nora, don't take this the wrong way."

"Rachel and these housewives don't know any better. But you? A fancy PhD, and you're telling me you didn't know handing rats to management could be dangerous?"

"And secretly filming everyone to weasel out of the blame."

"Don't you think that's selfish?"

I studied Brenda, curious now.

"Brenda, when we were trapping the rats, why didn't you tell everyone they'd have to be disposed of humanely?"

"And the second we went to handle them, you filed a report."

"If we're talking responsibility, as head of the HOA board, aren't you the one who can't wriggle out of it?"

At that, Rachel shot Brenda a glance.

"Brenda, about this..."

Brenda's face darkened.

"Rachel, don't you dare mix up right and wrong."

"The only reason I didn't warn people is that I made the mistake of trusting this PhD."

"I filed that report for the health of the whole complex."

The more she talked, the more worked up she got.

She raised a hand and pointed at me.

"If you couldn't leave them in the complex, why not just dump them somewhere outside?"

I put on a look of surprise.

"Brenda, are you saying the health of everyone else out there in the city doesn't count?"

Realizing she'd said the wrong thing, Brenda went dead silent.

I couldn't be bothered wasting any more breath on them.

I just raised my phone.

"Anyone else got a problem? We can let the police sort it out."

Getting nowhere, Brenda shot me a vicious glare.

She was rounding up the crowd to leave when I called after her.

"Brenda, don't rush off."

I pointed at my kicked-in door.

"Who's paying for this? Somebody owes me."

At that, the neighbors all threw up their hands.

"Brenda's the one who told us to kick it."

"I just came to watch."

Not one of them waited for Brenda to speak.

They dropped her and packed into the elevator.

I pulled up a Venmo request.

She saw the amount and went green.

"A thousand dollars?"

"Nora, this is highway robbery."

I smiled.

"Too steep? Then let's call the cops."

"And if it comes out to more than a thousand, we won't be talking about a simple repair anymore."

Brenda hesitated a good long while.

In the end she paid, grudging every cent.

On her way out, she shot me one last venomous look.

"Nora. You'd better watch yourself."