Free Murder at McDonald's by Phonse; Jessome

had left there. Edith knew that Michelle Sharp suffered from asthma, and Freeman added credence to his alibi by phoning Michelle to tell her he’d found her puffer. Then he told his mother he’d be staying at Michelle’s for the night, and he and Darren left, taking some of their loot with them and leaving the rest in a dresser drawer in Freeman’s bedroom. In all they had $2,017.27—tens of thousands less than they had expected to get.

Four
    After leaving the MacNeil house, the two drove to a secluded brook, a few kilometres away. Grantmire Brook runs through a large culvert underneath Beachmont Road. The point where the road meets the brook is a deep valley, perfect for getting rid of evidence without being seen from any residence in the area—or from the road, empty of traffic at one-thirty in the morning. In the darkness of the secluded road, MacNeil and Muise emptied the car of everything they could think of that was connected to the crime. A tin cash box was thrown into the woods. More than a dozen tiny red change purses containing McDonald’s gift certificates were tossed into the fast-running brook. Also discarded was a sheaf of papers Derek Wood had grabbed from the safe—everything from a petty-cash expense sheet, to a paycheque being held for a vacationing employee. Muise then tried to rinse blood from the blade of the larger of the two knives he carried, and MacNeil threw both weapons into the brook, one at a time, on either side of the road. Muise also threw his deck shoes in the brook. The two had chosen a great location to get rid of these items; the fast-running brook quickly carried them out of sight into the dark, wooded areas of the Coxheath hills.
    There was more evidence to dispose of, but the branches hanging over the brook made throwing clothing in there a bit too risky. MacNeil and Muise decided to drive towards North Sydney, taking Keltic Drive, which runs along the inner harbour, to a one-lane bridge. They got out there with some clothing they had not put in the duffel bag they’d left in the woods near MacNeil’s house, threw the clothing into the tidal waters of the Sydney harbour, and headed back to Sydney. But first they had to get back up on the bypass. Staying on Keltic Drive would be too dangerous; that cab driver must have phoned police, and Keltic would take them back to Kings Road, only a block from McDonald’s. Driving past the restaurant on the bypass did not concern them; Muise, glancing over, noticed an ATV News truck parked at the side of the highway behind the restaurant—just where he, MacNeil, and Wood had run out of the field a short time before. The ATV truck had arrived at the scene at 2:15 a.m., only moments before the killers casually drove past. In it were cameraman Bruce Hennessey and I. We had no idea how close we were to the killers; we were too preoccupied with what was happening around us, and, of course, we wouldn’t have known who they were.
    MacNeil drove to Muise’s home, on Patnic Avenue, just outside Sydney. Muise realized he didn’t have his keys, so he asked MacNeil to take him to the Sanitary Dairy, a twenty-four-hour convenience store on George Street in Sydney. Muise wanted to try his luck at the Mega Double poker machines; he loved the game but usually didn’t have enough money to play. But tonight he could pop quarters into the machines and kill a few hours. He’d head home later, when his father would be awake for work. Less than two hours after cutting an innocent man’s throat, Darren Muise was feeding a video-gambling machine with money taken in the commission of that grisly act.
    MacNeil left the store and drove to his girlfriend’s place. Michelle Sharp lived with her mother and stepfather in a trailer on East Broadway in Whitney Pier, not far from Derek Wood’s former home. Michelle’s mother, who was on the couch watching TV, noticed nothing unusual about Freeman as he