Chapter 10 Chapter nine

Kay is almost done with washing and mopping glassware that is never used, a major cleanup that happens twice a year.She was almost certain that Mrs. Tyrine hadn't used the little red vases for three years, but the vases had been given to her by one of her children, and she loved them.Kay dunked them in hot water and watched the grease float off and the glass return to its original luster.She smiled at the onslaught of steam, which clung to her face like artificial sweat, cooling her. The doorbell rang non-stop, across the house, and Kay turned to see who it was, the yard and front door visible through the kitchen window.

A man and a woman stood at the door, both in suits, looking confident, not apologetic like the average salesman, not shaking a briefcase nervously, or practicing smiling. Mrs. Thales trotted gracefully with small steps, crossed the hall, and opened the door.Kay turned back to work in the sink, took out the vases and set them on the drainboard, her meditation interrupted by curiosity, and she craned her neck to listen in on the faint conversations coming from the hall. The man and woman introduced themselves first, and Mrs. Tyrine asked some questions, Kay couldn't hear the details, and then she heard footsteps approaching.She resented it, because she still had odd jobs to do, and she had promised herself to sit on the bench when she was done, smoke a cigarette, and then go to the Campbells.

Margaery Thealine sounded nervous, high-pitched, trembling.Whoever they were, if they were annoying salesmen, of course she knew to bring them to Kay, who would tell them to fuck off immediately.Salesmen visit here almost every once in a while, because there are rich and well-mannered old people living here, they can't swear, and they need hired workers to tell these salesmen where to go. Sure enough, footsteps crossed the front hall, and they were talking in low voices, but Mrs. Tyrine talked a lot today, and she didn't feel the tension of being forced to do something. The voice stopped at the door, and the door was pushed open. Mrs. Thales stood at the door, and the man in a suit followed her. Kay looked at her face suspiciously.Mrs. Tyrine paused for a moment.calm.She's a little excited.She shouldn't be excited.

"Kay, they're the police." Kay then looked at the two cops, surveying them from head to toe, and the man looked at her condescendingly, nose up, looking her straight, and the woman leaned forward, her hand outstretched. "I'm Detective Leonard." Kay wouldn't shake hands with a policeman.She raised her wet hands, and the policewoman had to put hers down.Kay is disrespectful to many people, and the police have a low status in her eyes. The soap scum from her hands dripped onto the freshly cleaned floor, one more thing to do. "You want to..." She sounded as if she was going to get angry, and she knew it was, but she didn't want to upset Lady Tyrine either.

Mrs. Thales forced a smile, "If you don't mind..." Kai dried his hands.She knew she looked angry, and on the way to the bus stop, she promised herself that she would be back, explaining why she didn't like the police and didn't trust them because she had trouble with them. She softened her tone and said, "Well, if you don't mind, let's stop here today." Madame Thales pouted.Kay made his way to the door, touching Mrs. Tyrine lightly on the forearm as he passed, to let her know he wasn't mad at her. "Actually." Hearing Margery's voice, Kai turned his head and saw her recovering, "Can you take the recyclable waste out?"

Kai suddenly became very angry, curled his lips, "Can't you take it out by yourself, Margery?" Margery snapped back at her, not liking Kay calling her by her first name in front of guests.They stared at each other hard until Margery looked away and sat down on a chair in the kitchen, "I'd rather let you take them." Kay left the kitchen, slammed the door behind her, and stomped across the long living room, where the small windows in the wall were next to each other, and the bright sunlight streamed in through the windows like a string of hits on her face. slap on the face.

She opened the cabinet in the hall.There are recyclable waste bags neatly placed there.This is what Kay put there for Margery, near the door, with the handle facing up, ready to be picked up by the owner at any time. Kay always arrives half an hour early, and the 30 minutes are unpaid, just spent listening to Margery's laments and complaints, because she is lonely and has so many troubles, she can't talk to the ladies in the fancy clubs their own troubles, because none of them admitted that they had troubles.It took Kay 20 minutes this morning to scrub those stupid little teacups—the ones that don't even get a mouse's tongue wet—to get Margery to promise that she'll go out at least once a day, leave the house and go for a walk. Good thing, today her expedition mission is to go to the waste recycling bin 100 yards away.

Kay felt stupid, a sense of being cheated, as if the intimacy she had shared with Margery was worthless, as if she had been kicked back into her place again.But her grief was so deep that she knew it was actually because of Joey.She didn't like Margery.She's just trying to replace Joy with Margery.She and Joey had been so close, that tender, caring, sometimes motherly, sometimes childlike intimacy.Looking at the recycling bag, she felt a small dry hand caress her forearm, and she had to clear her throat to hold back tears. She glared at the bottle in the cupboard, cursing in her heart, calling herself a fool.She turned and looked out the living room window into the kitchen.

Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, she saw the policewoman filling out a form on a clipboard, which must have been some kind of snooping scheme into the surrounding neighborhood.Margery could do that kind of thing, invite all her phony best friends over to her house, treat them to makis and tiny sandwiches, and pretend she was doing fine, when in fact she Barely penniless, she was so filled with fear that she was afraid to leave the house that she would wake up in the middle of the night and listen to her husband's heartbeat just to make sure he wasn't dead. Kay took off her coat from the coat hook, put it on, picked up her handbag, slung the strap over her shoulder, picked up the recycling bag and her own plastic bag, when she suddenly wanted to go to the bathroom, She slammed the cupboard door, put the bag in the hallway, and went into the bathroom.

She washed her hands and looked at herself in the mirror, and what she had buried deep began to emerge, and she could see strands of gray hair, and she looked more than tired, she looked defeated, defeated .She took a few steps back, turned slightly sideways to avoid the harsh sunlight, looked into her eyes in the mirror, and smiled softly, loving what she saw. "I'm fine," she whispered, thinking of Margery's complaints, she nodded, knowing that she was right, "Only those who are willing to give can get it." She calmed down, spread out some toilet paper, wiped the splashed water on the basin, polished the side of the basin, threw the paper in the toilet, flushed it, came out of the bathroom, picked up the bag in the hallway, and left Lady Tyrine's home.

She knew that Mrs. Tyrine would watch her step out of the house, and watch her clumsily walk on the unevenly spaced flagstones.Kay didn't look back, but she was thinking that she should go home and get Joy's picture out, she wasn't going to lie to herself anymore.She won't come early tomorrow, she'll be on time, and she decides to buy a bottle of hair dye and maybe some hand cream on the way home. She kept her head up until she was sure Mrs. Tyrine could not see herself from the kitchen window, then she took out a cigarette from her handbag, lit one, and wandered around the corner enjoying the smell of it.She knew it was still a little early to go to Campbell, so there was no need to hurry. The cold wind is blowing, and it seems to be raining. It is not suitable for smoking outside in such a wind. It is difficult for you to enjoy the deliciousness of cigarettes, but she still enjoys it because this is her time to relax.This is the only thing she really owns now, even though it's just the free time between two jobs, it's enough for her. Wheelie bins and drop-off points are a bone of contention among locals.No one wanted to see these trash cans, or see them placed near their houses, and a compromise was reached: set aside a vacant lot, about the length of two cars, cover it with gravel and asphalt, and use four It is surrounded by tall hedges in all directions.This disposition always made Kay want to laugh, as if the managers were ashamed of the fact that they needed to use the trash cans.This is a natural wind barrier.She leaned back and took another breath, which felt good, and she took the anger at Margaery deep into her lungs and out of her stomach. There was the sound of a car engine in the distance, and Kay took another puff, this one so badly that she dropped the cigarette on the ground, then crushed it with her heel, and walked away.There have been complaints about those cigarette butts next to the bins.She picked up the bag of recyclables, thinking to fuck Margery, opened the lid of the general waste bin, and threw the bag of recyclables in, when the car drove up. The car pulled up behind her, and she turned, expecting to be greeted by a local accusing her of throwing cigarette butts, but no, it was the police from Margery's house. The male policeman was driving, and he pressed the window, grinning an exaggerated stupid grin, and nodded slowly, as if she was a simple-minded fool. "Shouldn't that bag go in the recycling bin?" His mouth opened wider, and Kay could see his tongue curl and glisten. "If she really cared about the environment that much, she could come and get it back herself," Kay said sullenly. He was not discouraged, and continued to grin. He spoke slowly, with a lighter accent, as if he was afraid that she would not understand, "Don't you care about the environment?" She saw his eyes rest on her breasts, and he wasn't even embarrassed when he saw that she had noticed it, which was disrespectful.She folded her arms across her chest. "Are you stopping here just to tease me? Is there anything I can do to help you?" The policewoman who had tried to shake her hand leaned over the window, "Are you Kay Murray?" "yes." "Have you ever worked at Grenavall on the Hill?" "Yes, until Mrs Errol died two or three months ago." "Can you go up with us and see what has been taken?" "Has the house been burglarized?" "We don't know, we don't know if something was missing." Kay frowned. "Ask Sarah Errol. She's home, I suppose." "It's a pity that Sarah was killed by illegal intruders last night. Mrs. Tyrine said that Sarah was selling furniture and ceramics. We don't know what the intruders took. Can you go over and help us see what is there?" Lost it?" "Killed? Sarah? At home?" Kai realized that his voice was trembling. "Well," the policewoman seemed to suddenly realize that Kai was very sad after hearing the news, "I'm afraid that's the case, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you in that way..." "Who killed her?" The male policeman stopped grinning, "That's what we want to find out." "She's 24 years old..." Kay was calculating the age difference between Sarah and her children, who were eight years older than Joe. The female policeman tried to ask again: "I'm sorry, are you very close?" She couldn't help but want to light a cigarette again to ease her excitement, and she realized that Margery was alone in the house now, accompanied by another news of sudden death, another news that frightened her. The reason, "You haven't told her yet, have you?" "Tell who?" "Ma-Tyrine, Mrs. Tyline?" They glanced at each other and she knew they had spoken. "Oh my God." She hurried around the hood of the car. "Are you coming with us?" the policewoman yelled at her from the car window. "Later," Kay replied loudly, running at full speed to Mrs. Tyrine's house, "I'll be over later."