Free Murder at McDonald's by Phonse; Jessome Page A

said goodnight and headed to bed. As he drifted off to sleep, the big-time criminal was unaware that he had left a critical piece of evidence in the back of the car. The tiny silver handgun had been thrust down behind the seat cushion in the confusion of the getaway.
    While MacNeil and Muise were carefully discarding evidence and police were beginning their search for clues at McDonald’s, Derek Wood continued looking for his accomplices. Wood walved from Kings Road up Keltic Drive to Coxheath Road, passing Riverview Rural High School, where he and Muise had both dropped out and where MacNeil had graduated. From there he climbed Mountain Road, descending to the intersection with Beaton Road. There was no sign of the Impala; maybe MacNeil and Muise had not gone to MacNeil’s after all. It had taken Wood an hour to cover the distance to Beaton Road, and now he decided to walk back. The night was raw, with temperatures running below the freezing mark, but Wood was too preoccupied to feel the cold. He still did not know what to do; he still felt uncertain about what had happened in the restaurant. He knew he had shot Arlene, Donna, and Neil, but he had heard other shots after Darren took the gun from him while he rifled the safe. He tried to replay the whole crime in his mind, in slow motion, but the pieces weren’t fitting. Where had Donna and Arlene come from? What were they doing in the basement? He couldn’t understand it. Had they been in the manager’s office downstairs? Why was Arlene even there? Her shift had ended with the inventory, hadn’t it? And what should he do now? As Wood continued to sort through the events, and his options, he found himself back at Kings Convenience, but now the store was locked. That made no sense, either. That store was always open, and there were two clerks inside; he could see them. Wood pounded on the window—he wanted to call his cousin Mike again—and one of the clerks came over but would not open the door.
    By the time Wood was walking down Mountain Road, police had already visited all the twenty-four-hour businesses in the area and told employees not to allow anyone inside until they were informed that the situation was safe. Then they blocked off a section of Kings Road, from the Sydney bypass, back about a kilometre and a half towards Sydney, to the intersection of Kings Road and Kenwood Drive. There were several all-night or late-night establishments in that corridor, and police were afraid a cornered suspect could turn one of them into another blood bath.
    The roadblocks created an eerie effect in the area, and the yellow glow of street lights added to the ghost-town atmosphere. The area was well lit, but nothing was moving; it was as though all the people had disappeared—except for John and Dave Trickett, who, with Storm, were still trying to find out where the culprits had gone.
    After failing to pick up a trail in the area of the Sydney River Shopping Plaza, the officers returned to McDonald’s. At Kings Road, an excited motorist stopped and told them he had seen someone running up behind Jasper’s restaurant, one of the few all-night businesses that had not yet been ordered closed. The motorist, who had driven down from a side street inside the cordoned-off area, gladly agreed to allow Storm to jump in the back of his small white truck while he drove the officers to the restaurant. What they found was a group of teenagers in the middle of a drinking party; what they lost was precious time. John Trickett knew very well that every second away from a fresh trail was a second in which it could be contaminated. Dave Trickett ordered the kids to leave, and the brothers returned to McDonald’s.
    Kevin Cleary had finally managed to secure the crime scene, and officers were being detailed to take footwear from the taxi drivers and ambulance attendants who had tramped all over the floors. Footprints were now a crucial concern: Henry Jantzen