Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

Moira and Thomas went into the large freezer under the kitchen.None of them could remember the last time they had been in.Usually the kitchen is always crowded with staff, or threatened by staff, it is a public space, but Moira has fired almost all the staff who live at home. For Thomas's sake, Moira decided to keep Mary, the nanny, but after they discussed the matter, Thomas said he didn't need it.He doesn't want her anymore.When he said this, Moira looked at his pursed lips, not his eyes.He wasn't sure his mother knew about Mary's creeping into his bedroom in the middle of the night, but Moira agreed and called Mary in, telling her they had no money to hire her now.Mary, seemingly relieved, replied that she would pack her bags and get out of here before they woke up in the morning, and she shook hands with both of them, cold and professional, without searching Thomas's face, or trying to see his Eye.He watched her leave the room, the curve of her small, alluring buttocks looming through the silk dress, and it dawned on him that her father had ordered Mary to sleep with him, so she was glad it was all over now, too?He found it odd that she hadn't asked them to write her a job reference.

Jamie has received special compensation of £2,000.Moira hadn't mentioned the chokehold yet, and Thomas thought she probably wouldn't now. The hall, the kitchen, the whole house was empty.They hadn't had supper yet, and Moira suggested going to the kitchen. The freezer was warm, windowless, and the whirring motor bounced off the floor.It took them a while to find the light switch, and in the pitch-black darkness, a rope hung from the bottom of the steep staircase, three large sarcophagus-like freezers vibrated slightly, one of which was locked with a padlock.Moira walked straight over and touched the lock with her fingers.

"This must be the meat cooler," she said. Thomas suddenly thought of a bed of flesh, a corpse, locked in this cold cabinet, but it was just a creepy strange room, dark, silent, eerie. He lifted the lid of the freezer and looked down. The things inside were arranged in an orderly manner. The transparent plastic buckets were filled with handmade delicacies, which were prepared by the chef before he left. The names of the dishes are clearly marked on the lids of the dishes in heavy cursive letters. Moira had already opened another freezer to find it stuffed with different kinds of breads, toppings, frozen herbs and cheeses, frozen fruit juices.She triumphantly lifted the top of a frost-covered cylinder. "Look!"

Mini pizzas, cheap mini pizzas. "This must be what they eat," she said. "The employees eat, let's eat this!" "But what are you going to do?" "In the oven," Moira explained, "it says on the package, wrap it on me." She hurried past him, climbed the stairs and headed straight for the kitchen, ready to cook for him, proving she could do it.But she left the lid of the freezer open, against the wall, and the cold mist hissed out of it, filling the warm room.Thomas waited until her ankles disappeared from the steps leading to the bright kitchen before walking over and closing the lid on the freezer.When she heard the sound, she bent over and crouched on the stairs, and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I have a bad start." She stood up and walked to the kitchen.

Thomas took another look at the locked meat cooler. It was empty. Sarah Errol wasn't there, and Ella wasn't there.It's just a slightly spooky room. He climbed the stairs to the kitchen and found Moira with her head in the oven, and for a moment he thought she was gassing herself, in an electric oven, and thought she was dying, but didn't move to pull her come out. "Ah, here..." She withdrew her head from the oven and smiled at him, "It's electric, I'm so stupid." After speaking, she pressed the power switch and turned the knob. Thomas was horrified to find himself so cold, so hard-hearted, so he changed the subject, "Mom, where are the keys?"

She pointed to the small metal cabinet on the wall behind the kitchen door.He opened the door and found six key hooks, each with a key on it, and a label attached to each key.On the key ring under a pink strap was a small key marked "FREEZER".He took the key and walked carefully down the steep steps leading to the freezer.He stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the padlock opposite. The lock was small, brass, and he didn't want to open it.He never wanted to see a mess like Sarah Errol's again.But the longer he stayed, the more frightened he became.He forced himself to go there, groping blindly for the lock, looking for the keyhole with the little key, misaligned, and he felt that the act was a bit sexual, horrible, shameful, dirty, but he had to go on like this Do, because not knowing feels even scarier, and he'll be thinking about it all night and won't be able to sleep.

The padlock popped open and fell into his open hand, and he pushed the hinges aside, stood there, watched, and lifted the lid.A layer of frosted meat.Steak, lamb chops, venison, hooves.A huge leg of lamb.No body, no blood, no dead Ella. "Meat?" Moira followed him down. "Yes," he slammed the lid back on, "just meat." "Do you think he'd hide money or something in there?" "No, I'm just... curious." While waiting for a pizza to be baked, Thomas opened a bottle of beer from the fridge and the two enjoyed the quiet of their home.Moira explained that Lars' company went bankrupt, leaving them with a maximum of 300,000 yuan a year, and they needed to sell their house and live elsewhere.The ATR-42 plane is owned by the company, the house in South Africa is also owned by the company, Thomas has never been to it, because they always go there when he is in school, and most of the cars and the London financial center The office building, as well as the membership to Stamford Bridge, are all owned by the company, so they will never see that again.Thomas didn't care, he didn't like football that much in the first place.

She took the pizza out of the oven and cut it open on the chopping board.Very tasty. Thomas watched Moira eat, "Your mouth is quitting." She looked up at him, knowing what he wanted to ask, "You are right, quit, I quit." "when?" "Five weeks ago. Your father hasn't been home much." It was not clear to Thomas whether his mother knew where Lars had gone, Thomas knew very well where he had been, that he was with a woman, his other wife. That was the last conversation he had with his father.The day before the fall term begins, Lars takes him out to Fortnum's Ice Cream Parlor, where every other table is watched over by a suit-and-tie, stony-eyed father watching over an estranged child .Thomas was older than the other kids, and he wondered if his father noticed how much he had grown.

Thomas looked at Moira.She may know.She probably doesn't care. "Why did he really want to commit suicide?" Moira shrugged. "They disqualified him. I think he knows he's never going to be a big player anymore, he can't survive without the game. He has no friends or other interests, I think." She looks like she's dreaming, "You don't know what he was like when he was younger. He was so funny back then. Very funny. He was funny back then. And earlier, we were really in love. We had friends. We were Could be happy all the time, but, you know what happened. God... we have so much to squander."

Thomas listened, nodding, until Moira looked at him and saw his red eyes, and she told him to go to bed. "I need a shower," he said quietly, "I really need a shower first."