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happening? Neil felt a crushing blow across his forehead and against his nose as the handle swung violently down. Freeman MacNeil looked on as Burroughs fell to the floor once again.
    But his misery would not end with that vicious blow. Nor would the struggle. Unable to lift his head, Burroughs extended a pleading hand for help; he could feel the steel front of the sink, but it was too slippery for him to pull himself up. As the strength ebbed from his body, Burroughs felt something in his left hand, and he grabbed hold of it—something solid, something to cling to. It was one of the legs holding up the sink. He looked up to see a flash, then darkness, as a bullet entered his brain through a small hole just above his right eye. He did not feel the third and final shot, fired with the gun pressed firmly against the back of his head.
    While Neil Burroughs was fighting in vain for his life, Donna Warren was experiencing a terrifying ordeal of her own. After shooting Burroughs in the ear, Derek Wood had returned downstairs to find the young manager. “C’mon, bitch, get up.” Wood grabbed Donna, led her upstairs to the tiny office, and ordered her to open the safe.
    Donna’s hands shook, tears blurring her vision as she wrestled with the dial. “I’m going as fast as I can.” She wept, gasping for air, trying to remember a combination that she knew perfectly well. Finally the last number clicked in, and the door swung open. Donna, who had been kneeling as she fought with her panic and the lock, rose to her feet, hoping that Derek would let her go back to help Arlene, and crying uncontrollably as she thought of her friend.
    Suddenly she felt a terrible pain and a spinning in her mind; barely aware that she had collapsed, she found herself on the floor, the top of her shoulders against the wall, her legs folded beneath her, her head tilted forward as she watched Derek Wood rifle the safe. Everything around her began to close in, as though she were looking through a narrowing tunnel. The masked man came to the door and gave Wood a kitbag, then left. She saw Wood get to his feet. A flash—and then a bullet entered her right eye; Donna never realized she had already been shot in the back of the head.

    Neil Burroughs was cleaning the sinks at the back of the kitchen when he was attacked. [RCMP crime scene photo.]
    The 1:00 a.m. news had just ended as Daniel MacVicar turned his cab into the driveway, drove up the ramp, and parked just past the drive-through window, where he knew the employees’ entrance was located. Jimmy Fagan grabbed his light blue Canada Games kitbag and opened the door. He handed MacVicar the fare and said goodnight, swinging the door behind him. As Jimmy turned to walk away, he realized the door had not shut properly, and it was not in his nature to ignore it. He stepped back to the car and closed the door properly, waving to MacVicar again as he turned towards the restaurant. McDonald’s employees who arrive after the restaurant is closed can only gain entrance if someone inside opens the large brown door at the back corner of the building; like the black steel door at the front corner of the building, the rear door cannot be opened from the outside. Jimmy rang the buzzer and turned to watch the cab drive away, noticing that Arlene’s and Donna’s cars were still in the lot, along with Neil’s. He’d have someone to chat with.
    At that moment, Derek Wood came out of the upstairs office, carrying a kitbag, a plastic bag, and a metal cash box from the safe. He headed for the door, calling to Muise and MacNeil: “I’m gettin’ outta here. Let’s go.” MacNeil wanted to go downstairs to check on Arlene—she might be alive; she had been breathing when he left her—but Wood argued that it was time to get out. He grabbed the door handle and swung open the door.
    Jimmy Fagan turned as he heard the door open. At first he was