August 4
Valerio de Alba eased the Cadillac into a parking lot near Richmond and Sherbourne a few minutes after 9:00 a.m. He got out and read the instructions on the parking meter before dropping in a two-dollar coin that bought him one hour. He looked up: limpid blue sky, temperature feeling in the mid-nineties (was that thirty-something in Canada?) on account of the high humidity. By the time he placed the ticket on the dashboard, Chris Dawson was already tapping on the computer resting on his lap.

“You found one?” the Peruvian asked, as he closed the driver’s-side door.

“Are you kidding? This is downtown Toronto,” Chris said. “Hundreds of offices, thousands of routers. Most people don’t encrypt. I’ve found six. Let me see . . . Excellent connection. Now, what should we surf first?”

At Valerio’s indication, Chris googled “gay community Toronto.” With the Peruvian peeking over his shoulder, he clicked until he found a map.

“Write this down, dude.”

Valerio opened the glove compartment, pulled out a notebook and a ballpoint, wrote Places to Avoid at the top of the first page. “Ready,” he said.

“Gay territory. Limits: Yonge, Jarvis, Bloor and Carlton.”

Next Chris dictated the names of three hotels, four restaurants, and two bed and breakfasts considered gay-friendly.

“What now?” he asked.

“Areas of violent crime?” Valerio proposed.

It took Chris a little over six minutes to find out: “The club district, downtown; the general area around Jane and Finch; and the Junction-York area.”
“Not good enough. Try recent shootings and stabbings,” Valerio said.

Less than two minutes later Chris started rattling off street names. “Richmond Street near John Street; Flemington Park in the Don Mills area; Jane and Lawrence Avenue; Weston Road near Eglinton Avenue West . . .”

Valerio wrote down forty-two places where violent incidents had taken place in the past two months.

“I’ll be damned. I thought this city was a lot less violent,” Chris said with a puzzled expression.

“And I thought it was cooler in the summer. Okay, let’s find out ‘race of murdered men.’”

The best they got was a vague “mostly young black men.”

“Search for neighbourhoods with more drug dealing and drug use.”

Finding this took longer. Eventually Chris started reeling off city areas.

“The downtown core of Toronto and the neighbourhoods of Malvern, Jamestown, Jane-Finch, Kingston-Galloway, Lawrence Heights, L’Amoreaux, Markham and Eglinton . . .”

Valerio had to drop two more two-dollar coins in the meter to finish the first phase of their research. They drove back to the unexceptional hotel on Harbour Street where they had spent their third night in Toronto, had lunch, and went to their room. After spreading a city map on the floor, Valerio produced a red marker and sat cross-legged. Chris sat beside him and started reading addresses that the Peruvian located — first in the street index, then in the grid — before circling or dotting the areas and places they would avoid.

An hour later they were done. Valerio contemplated the map.

“The east seems quieter than the west,” he said.

“Except for a few trouble spots in . . .” Chris leaned forward, “Scarborough.”
“Right. But see, this area here” — Valerio moved his forefinger over the map — “let’s see . . . between Bayview to the west and Victoria Park to the east, north of . . . Danforth and south of . . . Lawrence seems less problematic.”

“Uh-huh. And it’s not too far from downtown.”

“Yeah. Lots of green spaces. See? Parks, rivers; looks promising. Let’s start looking for houses in that area. C’mon, let’s go.”

Back in the same parking lot, Chris googled “Toronto houses for rent.” Checking the map for each address, they found none in their chosen area.

“I guess we’ll have to go there and drive along the streets; try to find For Rent signs,” Valerio said.

“Remind me why an apartment is out of the question,” Chris asked.

“Would it be possible to ride an elevator feeling absolutely certain no one will step in?”

“No.”

“Walk a hallway absolutely sure that no neighbour will come out?”

“Okay, okay.”

“The Professor said privacy is a must. A house in a quiet street with a garage and the least neighbours possible, as far away as possible. We don’t find the perfect place, then we put up with neighbours; may even have to take one in a noisy street, but a house with a garage is absolutely essential.”

From the Hardcover edition.