Heather Moor Is a Therapist

ZAQ

There are two facts that will become relevant in the case of Charlz Simon's murder on Davenport and Walmer Rd, which Heather Moor witnesses in the back of a Lyft after drinking cocktails with Lucy French and Lisa Mei-ying.

First, in Heather Moor's account with Jojo Wright they had discussed the death of his younger brother spring of last year. His name was Zaq. He was seventeen years old. He was hit with a rapid-fire, one-use, 3D-printed gun while walking up Augusta with his girlfriend. He had been struck in the chest by a stray bullet. Heather could have handled Jojo's disclosure better, but Jojo forgave her in a general, all-encompassing sense, and it felt so genuine, and he was attractive, intoxicatingly attractive in a significant way she had forgotten it was possible to feel, and Heather had found herself uniquely open to Jojo's pathos. Because she has a younger brother too, Rollo Moor. This is what had brought her excited peace after the account. The way he said goodbye was kind to her. There was a connection; it had opened like a veil.

Second, that she chose the Lyft over the Auto, the latter if chosen meaning helplessness, that is, without a human driver present. Otherwise the incident might not have left the impression it did.

Heather Moor says goodbye to Lucy French and Lisa Mei-ying at midnight. She had consumed two Mai Tais, the alcoholic content of which at Tanktales is fairly controled. She had consumed the Mai Tais over the course of four hours, so had little effect on her perceptions. Hugging her friends outside, Heather feels perfectly sober and lucid.

And, sad.

Her finger hovers over the Auto app, usually comparing fares with Lyft, but tonight for whatever reason, probably due to an interaction of themes introduced that night by Lucy and Lisa, and perhaps to the soft light of crawling, robotic fireflies, she would be pushing the Lyft 'Quick Ride' shortcut directly to take her cab the old fashioned way home to Summerhill, bypassing the driverless Auto app completely.

Her Lyft driver is a disheveled, white man who -- and he also seems sad to Heather.

A catch in the throat. The driver apologizes to Heather for the lack of music, and the way he says it communicates what she imagines as sadness. His sound system is broken. She sits in the back seat feeling crumpled in the corner, looking out the window. She listens to the particular silence two strangers can share in a car of the road at night.

She thinks what kind of person would rate this man poorly for the lack of music? Are Lyft rides so important? Maybe that is what he's sad about, she thinks. That might have been in his voice as he told her, pleading with her not to rate him poorly for the lack of music. She listens to the ribbons under the road. A client of his might have rated him poorly before Heather had climbed into his black Subaru Impreza all for the lack of music.

But wouldn't the best thing be not to work tonight, in that case? Heather wonders. Why not spend his UBI on repairing his sound system instead of pulling this shift if he was only to worry about his passengers' expectations? Maybe he didn't know it would be such an issue until he got the bad rating. But it was so nice to listen to the silence!

And with that emphasis on the idea of 'so nice', a phrase which seemed to contain this big impression of a world she couldn't quite grasp, nor often could she even see, never to hold any actual meaning in it beyond some habitual exaggeration, cheesy really, that she looks at the side of her driver's face (the app would tell her his name is Eli Biers-Altman) that she would think he could be 'so nice' too, and in his own way, for him, in his own dignified and complex life, when Eli eases to a stop behind a white Tesla Model Ab(c) (Alphabet's debut, budget model Tesla after the acquisition) at a red light across from the castle, Casa Loma.

The shooter walks out from Casa Loma's Child Care Centre on the south side of the intersection across the street from the castle. He is accompanied by a Black man wearing a red durag and AR glasses. He wears a teal sweatshirt featuring a black mark on the breast, fitted jeans and purple sneakers. But the shooter cannot be identified, is entirely covered in a black hoodie, black pants, black gloves and a ski mask.