My Best Friend Bought Me a Cursed Life novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Inspection

The inspector arrived at nine sharp with two assistants and a flashlight the size of a baseball bat.

She was a short, square woman who had clearly heard every excuse there was.

"Rats," she said, reading off her tablet. "Feces in the waiting area. Animals with open sores near the public. Staff not washing hands."

"We don't have rats," Ben's sister said. "We have four cats who'd kill a rat for fun."

"Then I won't find any," the inspector said, and walked in.

She didn't find rats.

She found other things.

A cracked floor tile by the kennels.

A handwashing sink in the back that only ran cold.

A water stain on the ceiling from the laundromat's pipes next door.

Two fire extinguishers that had expired a year ago.

A hand-lettered sign over the coffee maker that said NO ANIMALS ON THE COUNTER, with a cat asleep on the counter right under it.

That was the tabby. She'd been let out of her kennel for the inspection and gone straight to the warmest spot in the building.

"Is that cat yours?" the inspector asked.

"She's nobody's," Ben said. "She's a Vandermeer."

The inspector didn't laugh.

She wrote for a very long time.

At eleven she handed Ben a closure order. Seven days, minimum. Re-inspection Friday. Fix every item on the list or stay closed.

Then she left, and took the flashlight with her.

The waiting room was silent.

The pigeon boy was still standing on the sidewalk with his empty shoebox.

Ben sat down on the bench where the old woman usually read her paper and put his face in his hands.

"I can't do seven days," he said through his fingers. "I've got eleven animals boarding and rent due on the first. A plumber's eight hundred just to show up."

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