Out of Sorts by Aurélie Valognes

Author:Aurélie Valognes [Valognes, Aurélie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781503950375
Amazon: B00YXZI2H6
Publisher: AmazonCrossing
Published: 2016-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

Over the Edge

If there’s one thing Ferdinand can’t stand, it’s spinelessness. Attacking the weak is worst of all. First, Juliette, and on a whole other level, Daisy. The scum have no limits. He paces around his apartment, from one room to another, like a lion readying himself to encounter a new rival.

Ferdinand seeks revenge on Mrs. Suarez, but he hasn’t devised the perfect plan yet. He dismisses his first ideas—pour rat poison through a funnel to stuff the silly old goose full, or grind her up in the garbage truck. But he risks getting caught and living out his days in prison, which is not the end he envisions for himself.

He has to get rid of her. He can no longer cross paths with her and listen to her honeyed, hypocritical voice without feeling like killing her, tearing out both her eyes, cutting out her lying viper’s tongue. On further reflection, he may not have to attack her directly. Her husband? No, she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about him. But Rocco . . . In his younger days, Ferdinand learned how to butcher rabbits. It shouldn’t be all that different for a Chihuahua. And it would please Mrs. Suarez so much to have a little souvenir, since she can’t go out without her fur coat.

Given all these macabre ideas, Ferdinand knows there can’t be a shared future in this complex. One of them has to go.

The old man is afraid to even leave his apartment. He’s not sure what he’s capable of should he come face-to-face with the concierge. The minimum would be spitting in her face before pushing her down the stairs. With a bit of luck, she’d snap her neck, and it could be passed off as an accident. Unless someone found his DNA on her face . . .

What if he turned her in to the police? Unfortunately, he has no proof, now that his dog has been reduced to ashes. And the silly old goose would deny everything or somehow turn the situation to her advantage and get him sent to jail.

Realizing he won’t find any solutions within these walls, Ferdinand leaves, resigned to letting his impulses do the talking if he comes across the murderess. The concierge has finished with the vacuum and isn’t in her loge. She’s hiding, thinks Ferdinand. Or else she’s off stocking up at the butcher for her next massacre. Ferdinand waits for her next to the trash bins.

Across from the complex is Juliette’s elementary school. The poor child, with her arm in a sling . . . It must be difficult to do her writing assignments and multiplication tables.

12:15 p.m. The school bell rings. Ferdinand doesn’t have time to register the meaning before a tide of book bags, each heavier than the last, tumbles out. It runs, it jostles; the gangs of boys don’t pay any attention, shouldering past daydreaming girls who aren’t moving fast enough. Ferdinand is dumbstruck by the sight of these larval human beings behaving like bullies.

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