The Trust by Tom Dolby Read Free Book Online Page A

around the worktables and behind the file cabinets, crapping on the carpet and gnawing away at several of the canvases. Two of them ran between her legs, over her feet, and down the stairs.
    “Mom!” Phoebe yelled, before remembering that her mother was staying with her boyfriend, Daniel, in Park Slope. Phoebe hadn’t minded her mother being away, until now.
    She shut the door of the studio and ran downstairs to grab her phone. Who should she call first? Her mother? Nick?
    Nick would be a better choice. Her mom probably wouldn’t believe her anyway.
    She got him on the first try, grateful that he had set up a special ring for her on his phone.
    “You what?” he said, still groggy. “Rats? Like real rats?”
    Upstairs, the squeaking and scratching seemed to be getting louder.
    “Yes!” she shouted. “Can you come over and help me? This is really freaking me out. I’ll call an exterminator.”
    She grabbed her laptop, and after four tries, was able to get someone on the phone who could be there in half an hour. She put on shoes and waited in the kitchen.
    Nick arrived twenty minutes later. He insisted on seeing the situation, though Phoebe didn’t want to go up there. Reluctantly, she followed him and peered through the cracked door. She could see why the rats were swarming. What looked like dog kibble had been dumped onto the floor, and the rats were gobbling it up. Someone must have snuck into the house the day before to dump the food and then released the rats early that morning. How could they have gotten in? Security at the town house wasn’t the best; there was a fire escape in the back, and Phoebe and Maia regularly left the windows unlocked. This had to be a major operation, though—there must have been at least fifty rats scurrying around the room.
    Amidst the chaos, she could only imagine that the Society had done this to her. She felt like she was about to throw up as she thought of the implications of her suspicion.
    “Did you get bitten?” Nick asked.
    Phoebe grimaced. “I think I might have. I’m not really sure. Two of them ran over my feet.” She looked down. Inside the sneakers she had thrown on, her feet itched, though maybe it was only her anxiety causing this.
    “We should get you to a doctor for some shots. After we get these little beasts out of here.”
    The rats upstairs were too big to go under the door frame, but their squeaking seemed to carry through the entire house, a revolting, haunting echo.
    “I don’t ever want to be barefoot again in this house,” Phoebe said. “This is so disgusting!”
    The doorbell rang, and it was the exterminating team. They would be spreading traps and bait stations all over the town house, which would kill the rats, and then they would remove the bodies. The thought of it was vile.
    It would also cost fifteen hundred dollars.
    Nick handed over his credit card to one of the exterminators.
    “You don’t have to do that,” Phoebe said. “My mom can cover it.”
    “I feel like it’s my fault that it happened,” Nick said. “I shouldn’t have let you guys boycott the meeting.”
    “You’re sure it was them?”
    “Who else would it be?” Nick asked. “I’ve seen rats in New York City, but you usually get one or two in the basement, not a swarm on your third floor.”
    “We all went along with it, Nick. It’s my fault as much as anyone’s.”
    The guys started working on the problem, advising Nick and Phoebe that they might want to leave the house for a few hours. “I’ve got to warn you, you might want to call a cleaning service afterward,” one of the guys said. “We can get all the vermin out, but there’s still—well, there’s still everything they leave behind.”
    “Like what?” Phoebe asked.
    The guy made a face. “Rat droppings. They’re messy creatures.”
    Phoebe sat down at the kitchen table and put her head into her arms, unable to process this last bit of information. “It’s like the worst part isn’t the