The sky is pink and gold. I can hear the blackbirds singing and a lawn mower groaning in the distance. The neighbours are having pre-dinner drinks in their yard. I can hear them laughing. I pick up everything left on the table. I go out looking for my bag behind the shed. I wring the rag out over the place where I was waiting, to simulate rainfall and cover my tracks.

The magazine goes in the recycling bin; the mineral water in the fridge. I draw the curtains. Lock the doors and windows. Turn on a few lights. I’m doing the tour of this mansion when the phone vibrates in my pocket. A certain “Anita” just sent a text: their date was pushed back from 8:00 to 9:00. She wanted to give him a heads-up so he wouldn’t get there too early. I say I can’t make it, blame it on a headache and a tough week, which isn’t too far from the truth. She answers with a platitude and a smiley face.

I drag him to the basement. Going down stairs with a 175-pound unconscious man is a real workout. I’m almost tempted to pour ice water over his head to wake him up so he can give me a bit of a hand. Crime requires much more exercise than people think. Finally, after thirty minutes of intense effort, I manage to get him down the stairs.

The basement has a giant home theatre, a bathroom, and another unfinished section where the hot water heater and heat pump are housed. A few framed-in but unfinished walls sit waiting for their viscera to be covered with drywall.… All the house’s systems seem to converge here. I feel around in search of the fixture most solidly attached to the walls and settle on a metal pipe that doesn’t yield to any of my attempts to move it. I use it to immobilize Bonenfant’s legs with rope. I leave him just enough slack to grab a water bottle, or to reach his cellphone if he’s willing to dislocate a limb for the cause.

I sit him down against the wall studs and fasten his neck to a cross-brace with a U-lock. Who said TV was a waste of time? Even if he manages to wriggle free, his neck isn’t going anywhere. He’d have to saw through the board, or the lock, or his neck.