Chapter 4

4: 4

Horace pinched his nose and yanked the front door open.

"Losing your mind first thing in the morning. There goes my good mood, all because of you!"

Gone, just like that?

But the real show hasn't even started yet.

The door slammed shut behind him.

I pulled off the gloves and mask and stood up out of the pile of trash.

I walked to the study doorway, leaned against the frame, and stared hard at that suitcase.

Snoring drifted out of it, one breath after another.

In my last life, when Horace pushed me off the building, Darlene had leaned out of the window and waved at me.

"Bye-bye, old hag~"

Darlene, I bet you never guessed. Right now, in this apartment, it's just you and me.

The doorbell rang.

The two workers stared at the mess scattered across the floor, stunned.

"All of this... is being thrown out?"

I nodded. "My husband said not to keep anything. Just haul it all away."

The workers went back and forth several times.

The path from the study to the front door was finally clear.

I walked into the study and pulled up the suitcase handle.

Darlene's voice came faintly from inside.

"Honey, are you taking me out now?"

I hushed her, and she went quiet.

I dragged the suitcase into the elevator and down to the garbage truck out front.

The truck's speaker was blasting music, cut through by a woman's recorded voice reading the ad:

"Trash pickup? Call Cortech. Cortech Inc., professional disposal of all kinds of waste."

The worker came out with the last load from my place, looked at the suitcase in my hand, and called over:

"Ma'am, that's a nice case. You want it gone too?"

I nodded.

"There's hazardous material inside. Careful you don't get poisoned. Just have it disposed of."

"Whatever you do, don't open it. My husband said the stuff inside releases toxic gas the second it hits the light."

The worker nodded, waved the other man over to help him lift it, and tossed it into the truck.

As the case dropped into the back, I thought I heard a woman scream.

Maybe it was just the ad playing. I couldn't really tell.

I went back home, mopped the floor, and used an anonymous SIM card to contact a troll farm overseas.

Once everything was arranged, I settled onto the couch with a book.

At nine, the door lock beeped.

Horace stepped inside, humming, the corner of his mouth curled up.

I glanced up at him.

"Why so happy?"

Horace gave a knowing little smile. "About to get rid of a big headache. Of course I'm happy."

"Is that so? Congratulations, then."

I lowered my head and went back to my book.

Horace made straight for the study, a bounce in every step.

The moment he pushed the door open, the humming cut off.

He rushed in, searched the whole room, and found nothing.

"Lucy! Where's my case? What did you do with my case?"

Horace ran over to the couch, sweat all over his forehead.

I picked up my coffee and took a slow sip.

"You mean that case with the hazardous material inside?"

"I had the garbage truck take it away. Disposed of it."