Chapter 52

It had been an emotional day for Willie Davids. In the morning, he had left behind his hometown and the only one he had lived in, made it to Canada thinking he’d put his past behind him, was detained by Canadian authorities for murder, then released because of an error by U.S. police, and was now back on his road of freedom. He decided to overindulge on burgers and beer.

He was in Montreal, full of piss and vinegar because he was free from the authorities. The beer was good; the burgers better at “Lanky Larry’s Big Burgers,” a restaurant and pub on Sainte-Catherine Street in the downtown section.

Davids sat at the bar, scarfing down his big burger—a pound of grass-fed beef topped with three slices of cheese, six slices of U.S. bacon, mushrooms, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. No lettuce, no relish, no sauerkraut.

He was on his third beer, starting to feel a little buzz. The TV was on. Unlike the last time, he ignored it. All he thought about was that he was free.

A woman two stools from Davids was watching the TV. The newscaster finished a story about a political scandal then told the audience that the police needed the public’s help in finding “this man” wanted for questioning in the hit and run death of a woman in Connecticut. The “selfie” Jamieson took of them, cropped to show only Davids, appeared on the screen. The woman at the bar spotted Davids, wearing the same clothes as in the picture and listened to the newscaster’s telling of the death of Toni Chapin and the injuring of two others, including a small girl. Tears came to the woman’s eyes. She ordered a coffee and thought about her son, killed by a drunk driver.