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Jennifer was enjoying the warmth of the shower as she went over the events of the night before in her mind. She still found it difficult to believe she was here. She found it difficult to believe that this was Nelson’s job.
She shut off the shower, knowing that Pat and Carol would soon be there. They were having breakfast at the casino this morning.
When she walked out into the room, Nelson was already dressed. She looked through her suitcase, wishing she had something a little newer to wear. She glanced over at Nelson in his new clothes, and she knew there was no point in asking.
They headed downstairs to meet Pat and Carol.
“Good morning,” said Pat. “I was hoping we could eat at the casino, but it’s still closed.”
Jennifer glanced at the clock on the lobby wall and realized it was still only ten thirty in the morning.
“Let’s head across the road to the Delta,” said Pat.
At the restaurant, the four of them sat down and ate breakfast. Nelson and Pat were anxious to get going. While he didn’t say where, Jennifer knew they had business to take care of that required a drive.
Meanwhile, Carol wanted to go shopping.
“Here’s $200,” said Pat. “You girls head over to the Mic Mac Mall and have some fun.”
Shopping sounded like fun, but with no money in her pocket, it didn’t hold much appeal.
Nelson watched as Pat passed the money over to Carol.
Unexpectedly, Jennifer watched as Nelson pulled his wallet from his pocket.
Was he going to give her money?
Sure enough, he pulled a crisp $100 bill from the wallet and passed it across the table. Then he went on to offer to pay for breakfast for the four of them.
Jennifer was stunned, but she gladly accepted the money. Suddenly, she was very excited about the shopping trip. Carol needed to go to the washroom while they waited for the cab. Nelson pulled her aside.
“I gave you the money because Pat gave some to Carol,” he whispered. “But don’t spend one cent of it.”
She wasn’t surprised. By the time Carol came out of the washroom, the taxi was already there. Jennifer hopped in and they drove to the mall.
She had never seen a mall quite like it. And Carol seemed right at home as she flicked through the racks and found some great deals.
“Why haven’t you bought anything?” Carol asked.
“I don’t know, I just haven’t found anything I really liked yet,” Jennifer replied.
She left the mall without breaking the $100, but she refused to let Carol pay for the cab both ways. The fare was over $20.
So when they got back to the hotel, Jennifer paid for the cab, knowing Nelson wasn’t going to like it one bit.
Alone, she went up to the hotel room and watched some television. A couple hours later, Nelson returned to the room. He barely had the door shut when he asked, “Where’s my money?”
Jennifer passed him the bills and loose change, and it was clear Nelson wasn’t happy. She was expecting that Nelson wouldn’t let up once he found out she’d spent the money. But he let it go much quicker than usual. However, there was no mistaking, he was still mad.
That evening they caught the flight back home.
But Jennifer wouldn’t have to put up with Nelson being around for very long. In just a couple days, he boarded the flight back to Halifax and didn’t come home until May 7.
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May 11, 2005.
Nelson was needed back in Halifax. The next day, he caught the first flight out. The next morning he was assigned to pick up a package and fly to Montreal.
Once in Montreal, he had dinner at the Baton Rouge with Pat, Steph, and their girlfriends. The group left for the casino. There, Pat, Nelson, Steph, and a casino employee had a conversation about counterfeit casino chips. It was a good way to make money, and there was even a discussion that perhaps Nelson could go to Las Vegas to deal with “that kind of thing.” Everyone was excited when they left that night.
The next night, Steph picked Nelson up at his hotel. He explained that a member of the organization had been caught driving drunk and his car had been seized by the police. Nelson agreed to help break into the impound to retrieve something from the car.
At 1:30 a.m., May 14, Nelson put on a pair of gloves and a balaclava. With a bag and a set of bolt cutters, he busted the lock and entered the compound. When they tried to break the window, a car alarm went off, so Nelson and Steph grabbed a bag from the under the seat and ran out. The bag contained $30,000 in cash.
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Jennifer could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“Let’s go out to Norris Arm so you can pick out the headstone,” Nelson told her.
Until now, she had to fight to be able to go visit the graves, and here was Nelson willing to spend hundreds of dollars to buy the headstones. Finally. She’d been longing to find a permanent marker for the gravesites, and now she would finally get the chance.
She was starting to like the new Nelson more all the time.
The two of them went inside and Jennifer picked out the one she liked best. She picked out the pictures and the verse that would be engraved on the front.
When she was finished, Nelson took his wallet and made the down payment.
“I’ll pay the rest when it gets here,” he said. “Don’t worry, I have the money.”
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May 16, 2005.
Nelson had taken a flight to Vancouver. Steph picked him up at the airport, and once they had booked into the hotel, the two hit the casino.
“There’s a big job coming up, and I need eight guys,” Steph told him. “Every guy is looking for $20,000 to $25,000. Are you interested?”
Nelson was very interested, but first Nelson would have to be authorized by the boss.
The next day, Nelson and Steph drove to a warehouse in Port Coquitlam, where they met a man who Nelson believed was a member of the Hells Angels. He gave Steph money in exchange for the suitcase Nelson had brought from Montreal. They stopped and counted the money—$20,000.
Nelson told Steph that he was getting anxious to convince Jennifer they should move to the mainland. That’s where the work was, and that’s where he could make the most money.
The following day, Steph picked Nelson up at his hotel. They were delivering a package across town when Steph got an urgent phone call telling him to meet with the boss. They turned around and headed toward the Vancouver Yacht Club.
On board the boat, they had a glass of wine until the boss arrived. His name was Al.
Steph introduced Nelson to Al as “his Newfie buddy,” and then Nelson was escorted outside so Steph and Al could talk privately.
“I asked whether you could be involved in the big job,” Steph told Nelson. “But he wants to check you out first to make sure you’re not a rat and to make sure you won’t cause any problems.”
Nelson continued on with his work for the day. He picked up a package from a locker and then took the bus to Chilliwack—about an hour and a half by bus. In Chilliwack, Steph picked him up and they drove back to Vancouver.
“If I could get this job I would be set,” Nelson told Steph. “Do you know how poor I am?”
Nelson told Steph about having to use the food banks, and having to decide whether he would eat or pay the heat bill. He told him how they had no bed and that they slept on the floor. They were so poor, there were times when Jennifer used plastic bags and old rags to make tampons and pads for her period.
“I don’t want to go back to that,” Nelson told him.
“What would you do if Jennifer says you are travelling too much?” asked Steph.
Nelson told him that if there was a choice, he would leave her.
The next day Nelson was at the airport, ready
to return to Newfoundland.
He was paid $4,000.
84
It seemed like months since Nelson and Jennifer had spent any time together. And today, as she watched his car pull into the driveway, she was looking forward to seeing him.
She wondered what he’d been up to since he was home last. She knew he’d had dinner with Carol and Pat in Montreal. Carol now called her on a daily basis. Just about every night the phone would ring, and it would be Carol. She always wanted to know how Jennifer was feeling, and she was extremely concerned with what Jennifer had to eat each day.
Jennifer always lied and said she had plenty of food, but the truth was the cupboards were usually bare. She relied on the food bank, when she could get there. They did own a car, but it was a manual transmission, so Jennifer couldn’t drive anywhere.
When things got really desperate, she would phone Nelson and beg him for money. Over time she learned that he would leave $20 bills hidden around the house. If he felt she needed money badly enough, he would give up the location of the money.
But he always seemed to be in a good mood these days, and today was no different. He came into the house, and Jennifer started unpacking his bags.
“What do you want for supper?” she asked him. “There’s not much here, so you’re going to have to give me a ride down to the food bank so I can pick up some stuff.”
But Nelson wasn’t interested in supper. He wanted to go out for a while.
As soon as they left the house, Nelson drove straight to S&S Auto. He was buying a new car.
“Well, you need a car to drive while I’m on the mainland at work,” he told her. “This standard is no good to you, so we’ll buy an automatic.”
Jennifer was excited. They took several cars out for a test drive, and he finally settled on a Pontiac Sunfire that was nearly brand new and cost $10,000.
Nelson was riding high in his new lifestyle. The next day, when he came home, he had a small box.
“Come and have a look,” he told Jennifer.
Inside was a stack of business cards. It read “B.C.W. Transport, Coast to Coast Service” with the phone number and address of the company.
But they didn’t have long before Nelson was called back to work on the mainland.
Before he left, he told her to use the car only if she really needed to. He wrote down the kilometres on the car before he left, with one rule. If he felt she was driving it more than she needed to, he would take the keys.
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May 25, 2005.
Nelson was on the flight from Gander back to Halifax. There he was given a package and instructed to transport it to Montreal by train.
The next day, Steph, Nelson, and Pat met at a stripper bar. They had a VIP room in the back with a table. There they discussed business on a U-shaped sofa. Steph said he and Pat were going to Vegas this weekend, but Nelson couldn’t go. He hadn’t gotten the green light from the boss.
Nelson was to catch a flight back to Newfoundland in the morning, and he was disappointed to be left out.
86
“We’re going to get a chance to spend some time with Pat and Carol again,” Nelson announced.
He had just gotten off the phone. Jennifer was cleaning the apartment.
“When?”
“Tomorrow,” Nelson replied. “We’re going to drive into St. John’s, and they’ll meet us there.”
Nelson and Jennifer were on their way travelling east, first thing in the morning. Four hours later, they arrived in the city and checked into their hotel room. Jennifer decided to get a shower because they were going out to dinner, and from her previous experience she knew it would be somewhere nice.
By the time she got dressed, Pat and Carol were waiting downstairs.
She had to admit, it was nice to see Carol again. In some ways, Jennifer felt like they were indeed becoming friends. The four of them headed up over Signal Hill toward the Battery Hotel. That’s where they’d be having dinner tonight, and she could see Nelson was excited for them all to be together again.
For the first part of the evening, Nelson couldn’t wait to tell Pat and Carol all about the car they had bought. How it was in great condition, and how Jennifer now had a car to drive while he was away at work.
“You know, we should plan a trip together, the four of us, for the summer,” said Pat.
Suddenly, everyone was tossing around ideas.
“Me and Carol will find the biggest RV around to rent, and we could pick you guys up in Grand Falls,” Pat suggested. “Maybe we could go to the Salmon Festival while we are there, then take the ferry to Halifax.”
Everyone was so excited. Nelson wanted to get a video camera.
“We’ll need a feed of lobsters along the way,” Pat laughed.
Finally, dessert arrived, a bakeapple parfait. Jennifer explained to Pat what a bakeapple was, and that it wasn’t a baked apple. Instead, it was a local Newfoundland berry.
To finish off the evening, they took a drive to the top of Signal Hill for a view of the city. But the high winds cut their sightseeing visit short.
Pat and Carol drove them back to their hotel, where Nelson was told he’d be flying to Halifax in the morning.
Jennifer had to take the bus back to Grand Falls.
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June 3, 2005.
At the Toronto airport, Pat was there to pick up Nelson. From there they drove to a business where a man showed up with a briefcase. It contained $75,000, all of which was counted by Nelson. A short while later, another man showed up who worked for the company. Nelson counted $100,000 with the aid of a money counter. Later that day, another briefcase was delivered, again containing $100,000.
Nelson told Pat that he planned for him and Jennifer to move to the outskirts of Halifax. He talked about how excited he was to go on a trip this summer. He suggested maybe in the fall they could go to California.
The next day, Nelson and Pat spent time at the Woodbine Racetrack. There Pat instructed him that the next day he would have to take a package to Ottawa. He overnighted in Ottawa and picked up a package that was to be transferred to Montreal. In Montreal, the next day, Steph picked him up at the bus depot.
“Do you want to go home?” Steph asked him on the way to the hotel.
Nelson didn’t want to go home. He was enjoying the mainland. The next day, June 7, Steph and Nelson drove from Montreal to Cornwall.
Along the way they stopped at a pub across the river from the United States border. Steph was taking pictures with his digital camera, and he was also marking locations with a GPS.
It was all part of the information they would need for the big job, and Steph said he wanted Nelson to see the place just in case he was part of the action.
They returned to Montreal, and Nelson went to his hotel until ten o’clock that night. Steph picked him up, and they went to a pub with another member of the organization.
The next morning, Steph and Nelson drove out of town. They were going to see another town near the border. Again it was related to the big job coming up.
At around 11:30 a.m., Steph’s phone rang. It was the boss.
Steph hung up and looked at Nelson. There were some issues that had come up when the boss checked him out. Nelson was not allowed to travel to the border that day.
“The boss did not tell me what the issue was because we were on the phone,” Steph told Nelson.
Nelson was worried. He wasn’t worried about the big job. Instead, his fear was that he wouldn’t be able to hang out with Steph and Pat anymore. They were like his family.
They turned the car around and went back to the hotel.
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Jennifer was nearly asleep when the phone rang. “Hello?”
For a moment the other end was silent, until finally Nelson spoke.
“Everything’s all right,” she said. “Why are you calling here so late?”
“I can’t sleep. I have something I want to tell you.”
Nelson went on to tell her the name of his hotel, and the room number. He also told her the police station was right across the road.
What left Jennifer puzzled for the rest of the night were his instructions. If anything was to happen to him, he wanted her to know where he was.
Nelson hung up, but it was a restless night for Jennifer. She wondered exactly what it was he was up to.
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June 9, 2005.
The boss.
That morning, Steph and Nelson were on their way to another job when Steph got the call.
“The boss is in Montreal and he wants to see us.”
Steph turned the car around and headed for the hotel. Inside, Al and his bodyguard were waiting in the lounge. The four of them went upstairs to the hotel room.
For the first while they talked about the Formula One races under way in Montreal, but it wasn’t long before Al wanted to get down to business. He asked Steph and the bodyguard to leave.
The drapes were closed, and Nelson made himself comfortable on the couch.
The boss confronted Nelson about his past. In particular, he wanted to know about the allegation he had murdered his twin daughters. He told him there was a drug dealer who was offering up information to the police on the girls’ deaths.
Nelson denied it.
Al continued to tell Nelson that he had to tell the truth so the organization could deal with it. Especially if he wanted to be involved in the “big job.”
Nelson said he’d had a seizure that day and that he hadn’t killed the girls.
But Al wasn’t giving up. The organization didn’t want the police snooping around.
Eventually, Nelson told him that he had killed the girls. He would rather they be dead than in the custody of his brother.
“I struck them with the shoulder, like that,” Nelson said.
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