The Perfect Nanny

Chapter 32 introduces the point of view of Hector Rouvier. Now 18, he was the last child that Louise cared for before she started working for Paul and Myriam. The chapter shows Hector, with his mother, being questioned by the police. Hector doesn’t recall Louise ever being harsh. He and his mother are shocked and horrified to learn that Louise has killed two children. However, Hector also feels “an immense and painful relief. […] As if he’d always known that some menace had hung over him, a pale, sulfurous, unspeakable menace. A menace that he alone, with his child’s eyes and heart, was capable of perceiving” (168).

Chapter 33 returns the narrative to Myriam. She’s unable to sleep after discovering the chicken carcass. Paul thinks she’s overreacting: “It’s like the script of a bad horror film, he laughs” (170). Myriam ultimately does not confront Louise about the incident; “she is terrified by this little blonde woman” (171). She and Paul discuss letting Myriam go in the fall, after the summer holiday. Letting Louise go seems impossible to Myriam: “Louise has the keys to their apartment; she knows everything; she has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her” (175).