Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Neighbors Came Begging Me in Tears: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 9

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

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

"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

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

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