Chapter 10 009

Laura was standing outside in the cold, and Sergeant Brisebois tried to make eye contact with her.He asked softly: "Are you okay?" The surrounding air condensed into water vapor with the syllables he spit out. She looked up at the towers, which rose above the treetops like bookmarks.will i be okwill we be okthis is a problem. Laura offered to stay, but her mother refused.My brother suggested to take my mother back to his home in the suburbs so that she would not be alone, but she also refused. "I want to stay here tonight," she said, so weakly that it sounded more like a wish than a whisper.I want to stay here tonight, maybe he'll call.

She sat at the kitchen table when they left, waiting, however long, for a husband who would never return. "I'm fine," Laura said to Brisebois, "we're all going to be fine." "It's painful," Brisebois said, "when you lose a loved one." She turned to meet his gaze, "You know what hurts more? To lose someone you were close to, and you haven't been close to in a long time." All the things that die with us, all the things that always Nothing to say. "He's a good dad." The officer nodded. "I'm sure he was. I lost my parents within a few years. It was brutal. Can I give you a ride?"

"It's on the hill, I can walk home." She pointed to the two tall buildings, "The second building on the left, the third lighted window in the corner on the top floor, that's my home." "There's someone waiting for you." The officer's tone sounded more like a question than a statement. "Just lights." She forced a smile, "Not even a cat." "If you want a cat, I can give it to you." He said, speaking a little fast, "To be honest, I don't mind giving it to you. It's terrible. It's not so much the relationship between us as the owner and the pet. Said it was an opponent. If you want it, I will send it to you tonight."

She forced a smile again, "Thank you, no need. It will probably die with me." Brisebois looked at her.Why would she say such a thing? "Well," he said, "here's my calling card if you reconsider. Also, if you find out anything new, whatever it is, about your father, or anything else, please call me. " I will not. "OK." She had already started to walk up the mountain, and suddenly turned around and said, "The last time I saw my father, he seemed a little restless." "Uneasy?" "sad." "Sad or restless?" "Both."

After saying goodbye to the police officer, Laura walked home up the mountain road, her lungs filled with puffs of cool air.Snowflakes danced in the beams of the street lamps.The snow particles are very fine, like sand underfoot. Laura lived in a shopping mall, and she joked about it all the time.Actually no joke.The apartment elevator carries the tenants directly to Beishan Shopping Plaza. The word "北山" should have two "h" in the middle, namely "northhill", but it is spelled "northill".Every time Laura sees the name of a mall, she tries to resist the urge to take a pen and put an "h" in the middle.It can be said that this is a mall with an apartment building, or an apartment building with a mall. This architectural combination can be compared with zebras: is it black on white, or white on black?Is it mainly residential, supplemented by commercial, or vice versa?

It would be nice to have a shopping mall downstairs.There was everything she needed in the mall: Safeway at one end, Sears at the other, gym, bookstore, chocolate shop, beauty salon, food court, and pharmacy.There is also a swimming pool upstairs where she lives.And the Professional Services Center included not only a clinic, but also an auto insurance and registration office, except that she didn't have a car.She auctioned off her parking space online to pay for her monthly gym expenses.She hits the gym every other day, running on the treadmill or riding an exercise bike as the metronome predicts.

Laura's work is online and her commute is only four steps - from the small kitchen to the small office - so she doesn't have to go out at all in bad weather - which is not uncommon.Even when the weather is nice, days can easily slip by.One day last spring, she suddenly realized she hadn't been out for three weeks.In the "occupation" column of the electronic tax return, she typed "recluse."It was returned by an invisible accountant out of nowhere who didn't find it funny at all. Nine floors, two towers, no balconies.Laura walked into the apartment and threw the key into the fish tank.The fish had already given up their territory.Laura was not good at keeping animals, and all the ferns were sickly and drooping.When she decided to keep that fish (a small experiment), she had a premonition that the finger of death would touch this young life.She also had the idea of ​​keeping a cat, but felt that it was too inhumane to confine it in such a high place.Fortunately, according to her written records, the cat suffered from feline leukemia on the way back from the pet store, and died as soon as she stepped out of the elevator.

Laura pressed her head against the living room window and blew gently on it, watching it fade away.The Rocky Mountains on the opposite side are surrounded by the building complex, and the black mountain peaks are reflected against the night sky. "Look, I fell too." Laura had a vision of her father on his skates, falling over and over again. The most immediate reason Laura chose this apartment was because it had no balcony, which avoided the unsettling allure of altitude sickness.When she started looking for a house, she considered a two-bedroom house overlooking the river, but when she looked out of the balcony, she suddenly thought: I don’t know how long I’m going to climb over the balcony and step my feet out. What's the point?" How long will my life last?How long will it be before someone finds out I'm missing?The friends and colleagues she could think of were scattered all over the country.They probably thought she was just offline.But when Laura asked herself the question, she already knew the answer: Daddy, he would find me missing.He must have been the first to call the police.If her body was swept away by the river, he would organize a search and rescue party.Warren would find her, but Dad must be the one leading the team.

What if she didn't fall?What if you just drifted away with the current? The window of Laura's apartment did not face the mountains, but the downtown area.They faced a city made of steel and concrete, with outlines etched from sketches.This is a city that is constantly erasing and rewriting itself, a city that keeps exhaling steam, a city that hides professional managers, venture capitalists and oil company bosses behind the curtain. Through the window of the bedroom, Laura can judge the changes in oil prices by the ups and downs of the pumping units in the distance.When the price of oil drops below some magic point, the pumper slows down and stops completely.When oil prices rise again, the pumps come back to life, and faster and faster.

Heart of the New West—that's what they call the city.Standing here and looking at it, it is indeed beating like a heart. Near Laura's high-rise apartment building, in an alley, there is a two-story apartment building. Mathieu Brisebois's home is on the second floor of this apartment building.At this moment, the host has just entered the house.He brushed the snow off his boots, took off his hat and coat and hung them up, and finally turned on the television that had been muted earlier.He stopped and looked around the room.what did he seeBare walls, a multipurpose dining table: serving as a stove, writing desk, mail sorting center, etc. at the same time.On the desk was an open laptop, a stack of papers and a box of Just Right breakfast cereal.A few framed photographs line the mantelpiece.It's just that the fireplace has never been turned on, and empty boxes from last year are still piled up in the corner.

As an investigator, what conclusions could he draw from this situation?Single male, around 45, possibly divorced, concerned about fiber intake.If you sniff, you can still smell cologne and air freshener, but not cat. He also couldn't tell why he had lied to Laura about the cat, maybe just to win her trust.He knew that the accident was more than just an old man encountering a piece of thin ice—but it was a judgment based on facts after all.If she accepts his offer, he drops by the animal shelter to claim a cat, which he uses as an excuse to come to her house.But she didn't accept it, and he didn't go. He looked up at the twin apartment buildings that towered over the ridge.The second building on the left, the third lighted window in the corner of the top floor, is my home.He would call the insurance company tomorrow to find out who the beneficiaries were after Henry Curtis died.The insurance company would have told him, they have always been like this.They might even be exempt from paying. He stood at the window for a long time, watching the light in that corner until it went out. Do you know who we are?We are the Mafia.We will find you and kill you!