Chapter 2
“We’ll get another body,” Cora said matter-of-factly.
She was wearing a sheer nightgown and had raging morning breath.
Beside her, Piglet was chowing down on two slices of bread with Nutella and drinking a glass of milk.
On the kitchen floor, Miguel was cleaning his glasses, trying in vain to hold back the tears streaming down his face.
For a moment I also wanted to cry, but I couldn’t give in so easily: “Everybody just stay calm … There has to be a solution.”
“I already gave you the solution,” she said. “Steal a new body.”
Miguel looked up, exasperated. “Do you have any idea what we had to go through to get this one? I told you all to just put a stop to this whole thing! There’s still time to cancel the dinner and give back the money.”
“That’s out of the question,” I insisted. “We need that money. We spent that money!”
Miguel got up and reached for the clock on the wall. He held it up to show us, his hands trembling. “The dinner is in nine hours!”
“Your bitching is really getting on my last nerve,” said Cora. “Go get a body and I’ll break it down. I can go even faster this time.”
“You’re out of your mind!”
Miguel smashed the clock on the ground and began flailing his arms, breaking two glasses that were on the drying rack before I grabbed him from behind.
“Stop it!”
We were all on edge. Nobody moved to pick up the pieces. All that work for nothing. The rotting meat just sat there on the counter, blood seeping through the plastic and dripping into the sink. Plink, plink, plink.
“Will somebody please throw that away?!” begged Miguel, putting his hands over his ears.
Hugo, who until then had been leaning quietly against the wall with his arms crossed, suddenly stirred.
I thought he was going to throw out the meat, but instead he went to the front door, grabbed the keys to Bukowski, and fetched two black garbage bags from the laundry room.
He called the service elevator while Cora and Piglet gathered the rotten meat in another bag.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Before slamming the door behind him, Hugo turned to me with unrecognizably cold eyes.
“I’m going to fix our problem.”