St. Catharines, Ont. -- Christie Blatchford's awareness of the bitter irony that dark deeds befall the decent people who inhabit nice neighbourhoods (A Prayer For Alicia Ross -- Aug. 27, 2005) recalls those golden afternoons I have spent cycling around St. Catharines, Ont. -- trips that often take me through Port Dalhousie, site of the grisly crimes Karla Homolka committed with husband Paul Bernardo.

Words the pregnant sheriff Marge, from the movie Fargo, addressed to the multiple killer she caught after he had matter-of-factly fed his partner's dead body into a wood-chipper always come back to me: "And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well, I just don't understand it."

Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo's crimes are never more unfathomable to me than during the times I cycle through Port Dalhousie's green and pleasant neighbourhoods, when the leaves rustle in a summer breeze.