Passport to Murder by John McFetridge

Author:John McFetridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: anthology, short stories, international, crime fiction, bouchercon
Publisher: Down & Out Books

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Here To Stay

Tanis Mallow

Five months, three weeks and two days ago Val crossed the Blue Water Bridge and entered Canada driving a borrowed car, and flashing a stolen passport, eight grand in cash hidden under the center console liner. No goodbye parties or tearful farewells. Val was not sentimental.

There were a myriad of reasons for Val to stay on in Toronto and never return to her homeland south of the border. She liked the pub where she tended bar, made decent tips to supplement her small nest egg. The city, itself, was interesting in a diverse eclectic kind of way, the people nice enough. She thoroughly enjoyed Jake’s prowess in bed and tendency to rarely speak. Ditto for Lenny. And the fact that neither Jake nor Lenny knew about each other (or if they did, they didn’t care) was an added bonus.

Others—had they known—might suggest that the warrant for Val’s arrest stemming from that unfortunate incident in Chicago was the real motivation for her new love affair with Toronto, and they’d have a point. But in truth the most powerful reason for staying in The 6ix was Victor.

Victor lived in Chicago. Victor expressed a seriously misplaced sense of patriotic pride in the fact that he didn’t own a passport. Victor was a nasty boil on humanity’s butt. And Victor harbored a well-earned grudge against Val.

For all those reasons, Val embraced her new home enthusiastically. She could see living in Toronto for a very long time. There was only one problem: in a few days, her one and only piece of identification would show she had outstayed her welcome. She needed a new passport. Preferably Canadian.

It was a dilemma.

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