Mr. Big (25 page)

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.

85

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.

87

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.

88

Jennifer was nearly asleep when the phone rang. “Hello?”

For a moment the other end was silent, until finally Nelson spoke.

“How is everything back there?” he asked.

“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.

89

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.

“This is just about the perfect murder,” said Al.

“It was pretty well organized.”

“You must be a thinker, eh?” asked Al.

“Sometimes it pays to be that way,” said Nelson.

Two hours later, Nelson left the room, and he was excited. He was in. He was also put to work right away. The next day, he had to deliver a package to St. John's.

90

June 11, 2005.

So far Nelson had been paid a total of $15,000 for just four months' work, and now he could see the opportunity to make another $25,000 for just one job. And all he had to do was drive and deliver packages. For him it was a dream job.

In St. John's, Steph and another man showed up at his hotel first thing in the morning. Nelson was hardly awake when he finished counting $50,000 in cash.

Steph said Nelson would have to take the money to his house in Grand Falls, so the two of them were packed and on the highway in no time.

It was a long drive, and there was plenty to talk about.

At about the halfway point, they stopped in Clarenville for some lunch.

“My God, I can't believe he is willing to help me out with this situation with the girls,” Nelson told Steph. He was extremely happy about his meeting with Al. He talked of how he regretted not having money when the girls were alive. He would have been able to afford a lawyer. That way he could have fought to make sure his brother didn't get custody of the girls, and he wouldn't have had to kill them.

Then there was the big job. Nelson was loving the idea of making $25,000. Steph told him he would get $12,500 up front, and he would get the other half once the job was competed.

And then there was the business of a drug dealer back in Gander who was telling the police that he had information for them regarding Nelson. He was claiming to have proof that it hadn't been an accident.

But Steph assured him, now that they were back in Newfoundland, he would be taken care of. When that job was done, he would call Nelson. Then Nelson would have to go to the local Walmart, where he could be captured on camera. That would provide his alibi.

But in the middle of their discussion, Steph got a phone call. A call from Al.

He wanted Steph to check out the scene at Little Harbour, where the girls had drowned.

Of course, it was right along the way.

So Nelson and Steph drove down the dirt road until Gander Lake came into view. There were docks and a few people hanging around.

“Al wants to know if it's possible someone was watching you that day,” Steph said.

But Nelson assured him there was no one around. He was sure of it.

The boss wanted to see the layout of the area just in case someone saw it.

Once they arrived, both Nelson and Steph walked out toward the wharf where the girls had drowned.

“Let's go out and see some fishes, that's what I told them,” Nelson said in his explanation of the events of August 4, 2002.

Steph crouched down on his knees, and Nelson showed him how he had bumped his daughters off the wharf.

91

Jennifer was kind of glad that Nelson was still in bed this morning. He had been gone for weeks, and even though his moods weren't nearly as bad, she could get more done without him in the way.

Last night he had picked up some groceries, and this morning she had plans for a big breakfast to celebrate.

While he was gone, there was very little food. She mostly relied on trips to the food bank or the occasional $20 bill she had to scavenge and beg for. But there wasn't any money for laundry, and today there was barely a clean piece of clothes in the house.

She found a couple of garbage bags and rounded up the clothes from around the bathroom. She would wait until Nelson got up before going into the bedroom and waking him up.

With the laundry ready to go, she pulled out the frying pan. Eggs, bologna, and toast. It was the perfect way to start what she hoped would be a good day. She had transportation again, not to mention food and a bit of extra money.

And if last night was any indication, she figured Nelson would probably be in a good mood this morning. It was becoming obvious that his trips were paying off big time.

With the sun shining through the kitchen window, she went about making breakfast. The aromas must have woken Nelson from his sleep, because it seemed like moments later he was sitting at the kitchen table.

She waited until he had his tea before pressing him about the things that needed to be done that day.

Once he started devouring the breakfast, she asked him, “Can we go to the laundromat today?”

Nelson didn't hesitate in telling her they would go, and Jennifer was relieved not to have to fight that particular battle. She believed part of the reason he was so agreeable these days was that he was spending less and less time in front of the slot machines. At least she had something to be thankful for.