All Chapters of My Neighbors Came Begging Me in Tears: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

I glanced down at my chest.I checked that the little action cam clipped there, the one recording how the poison performed, was running fine.Then I turned to the guy from the health department."So I'm handing the rats over to property management, and they'll hire a licensed company to deal with them. That's fine, right?""That's fine."But Brenda got frantic."Nora, if you dump this on management, who's paying for it?"I smiled."By the rules, this is management's job. How is that dumping it on anyone?""And the cost gets covered by all the owners who benefit. Obviously."I glanced back at the health inspector."That's right, isn't it?"He nodded in agreement.The owners standing around weren't having it."My place doesn't have rats. I didn't benefit. Leave me out of it.""Whoever started this pays for it. Not my problem."I ignored them.I walked straight up to the property manager."Greg, while the health department's still standing right here, I'm officially handing these rats ove

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 neig

Chapter 3

For a whole day, the resident group chat never went quiet.[Greg, how are there even more rats than before?][What is management doing?]Aside from crying poor, all Greg could do was make empty promises.[This came out of nowhere. We really didn't have time to prepare. Please bear with us.][I'm already working on a fix. Everyone please stay calm.]Brenda, meanwhile, went invisible right along with me.Not a single word from her.That evening, I got home from work.I took the stairs for my usual bit of exercise.But in nearly every stairwell corner, I found cracker crumbs and bits of bread.Heart thumping, I climbed to the floor just below mine.That was when a figure slipped past me.I fell in behind them at once.I got a good look.It was Brenda, scattering food crumbs outside a neighbor's door.I held my breath, tailing her and filming.I didn't stop until I had her face and what she was holding clear on camera.Then I backed into the stairwell and bolted home.I'd finished dinner a

Chapter 4

In just two days, Brenda had collected seventy percent of the money.A full one point nine million dollars and change.And the extermination crew moved into the complex, right on schedule.They gathered the owners to go over the extermination do's and don'ts.And Brenda made a big show of hyping up the crew's poison."Look, everyone. This is premium German import.""Over ninety percent kill rate on the bait."But one look at the packaging and I knew it was no-name junk.So I raised the question in front of everyone."Brenda, are you sure this is imported from Germany?""Did you check the import paperwork for it?"Brenda knit her brows and said, flat and certain, "Of course. Greg and I checked it together."One of the crew members darkened at once."Ma'am, please trust our expertise."The words were barely out before an owner rounded on me."Right. If you don't understand it, stop pretending you do.""If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be paying all this extra."There was nothing more t

Chapter 5

"Greg, are you slow or something?""I reported that girl so she'd back off in the first place.""If the rats disappear, where does that leave us?""Rats chewing their way out of a cage? Happens all the time.""If the owners find out, what happens to me?""I've already lined up a fall guy for you."The place went silent for a few seconds.Then came the cold, questioning stares from the neighbors.Brenda froze where she stood.But she forced down her panic and kept up the act."Don't believe her. She recorded us in secret and faked all of this."I'd never planned to bring her down with one recording anyway.So, after a thin smile, I opened another video.In the slightly shaky frame, Brenda was walking along, scattering cracker crumbs outside every neighbor's door.The ones she wasn't on good terms with, or who'd ever doubted her, got an extra helping.At that, the onlookers couldn't hold back."Brenda Walsh, how rotten is your heart? Turning the rats loose wasn't enough, so you scattered

Chapter 6

"This is just amateur hour, isn't it?""No wonder they wouldn't let us watch while they worked.""That level of work, and they charged that much? Refund it.""Refund" rang out again and again through the crowd.A few women who'd never liked Brenda grabbed her by the hair.She yelped in pain and thrashed.As they dragged her past me, she latched onto my pant leg for dear life."Let go and hear me out...""Nora's the real culprit. I have proof...""I have proof!"She pulled with everything she had.I shook my leg hard a few times but couldn't get her off.In the end the women had to let go.Brenda hauled herself up off the ground, a wreck.Trembling, she dug her phone out of her pocket, fumbled with it a while, then looked up."I already posted the proof in the group chat. Take a look, all of you."She'd sent a video a few dozen seconds long and a dozen-odd photos.They showed lab glassware and jars, plus a couple of test reports.I recognized them at a glance. They were from my study.S

Chapter 7

The crew vanished in a heartbeat.The owners who couldn't catch them took all their fury out on Brenda.In under five minutes, her face was bruised and swollen.I didn't join in, and I didn't stop it.I just stood off to the side and watched, cold.It wasn't until a few of the older owners, worried it would go too far, stepped in to break it up that Brenda finally got to breathe.Her clothes were in tatters, her hair a wild mess.She looked exactly like a drifter off the street.Facing the seething neighbors, Brenda blubbered and sobbed, and still wouldn't quit."I got conned too. I'm a victim here. How can you all treat me like this?""After everything I've done for this complex, have you forgotten it all? Have you lost every last shred of conscience?"Still crying, she pulled out her phone and aimed it at the owners who'd hit her."I've got you memorized. Not one of you is getting away.""Just wait till my son gets back. You'll all be making license plates in a cell."I'd lost intere

Chapter 8

The commotion quickly drew a crowd.But this time Brenda didn't care about her pride in the slightest. If anything, she begged even harder with an audience."Nora, I'm begging you, forgive me just this once. Bring out your special poison, please?""As long as you'll help exterminate the complex, I'll agree to anything you want."I shook my head, firm."I'm sorry, Brenda.""That poison of mine isn't for sale, and I'm out of it anyway, so you'll have to find someone else."But Brenda wouldn't let go."Please, Nora, we're neighbors. How can you just watch me drown? Have you forgotten how much I helped you when you first moved in?"I actually laughed."Brenda, you mean the couple of times you pressed the elevator button for me, and grabbed a few forms from management while my place was being renovated?"With that, I pulled two hundred dollars from my pocket and held it out to her."I appreciate the help. Consider this two hundred a little something for your trouble."Brenda stared at the t

Chapter 9

The police opened a formal case.Brenda was taken into custody on suspicion of fraud.They also launched a full effort to track down the con artists on the extermination crew.The farce was over, but the complex's rat crisis was not.Because of Brenda, the owners had lost all faith in the HOA board, and counting on her to pay for extermination was no longer realistic.Bringing in another pest company kept stalling out.An owner who couldn't take it anymore tagged me in the chat.[Ms. Mercer, we were shortsighted before. You're a bigger person than that, so please don't hold it against us. Would you help us one more time?][Yeah, Ms. Mercer. Don't worry, we won't ask you to spend a single cent this time. We'll even cover the cost of the poison.]The whole chat rallied behind it, even forming a chain.The vast majority of owners apologized and voiced their support.Only the ones who'd openly doubted me and tried to pin it on me went mute, not a word from any of them.Not that I cared any

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