He asked if he could join us, draped his jacket over the empty chair. White letters spelled SECURITY over his chest pocket. He was around sixty years of age with sparse grey hair.
When he returned with his coffee, I asked where he "SECURITIED".
"At Tawwassen- Deltaport Container Port for the last nine years. I was a truck driver before that." he replied. "Do you remember the case two years ago when a guy killed his wife? I found her body."
This was obviously going to be an interesting morning coffee visit!
"Yup...I finished my shift and was feeling a little bleary eyed so I pulled over to rest and noticed something in the ditch. I thought at first that it was a mannequin. When I got closer, I realized that it was a woman's body, in very bad shape. I found out later that her husband and her brother tortured her for five hours and tried to cut out the fetus before setting her on fire. Apparently she was pregnant with a baby girl and had refused to have an abortion."
"Did you have to appear in court during the trial?" I asked.
"Oh yeah! Many times and they wanted detailed descriptions of the body."
I felt like a therapist, asking leading questions in the hope that he could exorcise some of the imagery from that horrid discovery. Maybe sensing that he had given us enough details, he decided to fill in another half hour with descriptions of his job. Tons of coal dust leave the port every day on cargo ships crewed by guys from around the world. Most of the ships are destined for China and Japan. He described how he would often be invited to share meals onboard and how he had convinced a crewman from Russia that he shouldn't jump ship.
When we finally got ready to leave, I thanked him for sharing with us and wished him a good day. His response was "With a smile like that, you deserve a good day too!"
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