Chapter 12
TWELVE
An hour later, Jane pulled her old Toyota into the alley behind Butler’s Garage. She and her friends used to stop by the minimart where they’d stock up on snacks before lying by the lake at Randall Park. But now Jane avoided the front of the store and entered the garage through the back door. She’d learned a lesson running into Mrs. Swanson at Ford’s, and the fewer people who might spot her on this particular errand, the better.
Jane stepped into the building, which somehow managed to be dark and blindingly bright at the same time. A dim fluorescent bulb flickered on the ceiling, casting only the barest light into the corners of the vast room. But scattered through the middle was a variety of cars, some suspended on lifts with mechanics in coveralls working on them from below, and others parked on the greasy ground with their hoods open and bright work lights shining in. Jane jumped at the sudden buzz of a welding machine starting up entirely too close for comfort, its sparks bouncing in all directions.
All around her hung the sharp scent of gasoline and tire rubber. Jane hovered in the shadows, scanning the room for a familiar sleeve of tattoos and a head of short, reddish hair .
“Miss, you can’t be in here.” A tall woman with long dreadlocks and a pair of blue coveralls appeared from behind a high-end SUV, waving a wrench toward the door Jane had entered through. “You need to leave.”
“I’m here to talk to Kait. Is she available?”
The other woman tucked the tool in her pocket and hitched her chin in the direction of the minimart. “If you’re here to have your car serviced, go through the front and leave your keys with the attendant.”
Jane shook her head. “I don’t need my car serviced. I need to talk to Kait. Please? It’s important.”
The woman eyed her for a moment, and then turned in the direction of a Mustang parked a few vehicles away. “Hey, boss.”
“Yeah?” To Jane’s relief, a familiar figure stood up from under the hood. Kait’s hair was still short, still reddish blond, though in the gleam of the work light, Jane spotted a few streaks of gray.
“This woman is here to see you.”
Kait squinted across the garage, and Jane gave a nervous wave. Surely Kait would remember her. It had been a decade, but they’d spent almost four days in a car together. Jane had a feeling that despite whatever kind of excitement came with Kait’s line of work, it wasn’t every day that she drove fugitive teenagers to the West Coast.
Kait wiped her hands on a dirty rag and crossed the garage, giving her employee a nod. “Thanks, Piper. I’ve got it from here.”
“Okay, boss.” Piper shrugged and went back to the car she’d been working on.
“Jane McCaffrey,” Kait said, with a raise of her eyebrows. “This is a surprise. I never expected to see you back in this town.”
“Me either.” Jane shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. “Believe me. ”
Kait’s gaze roamed over her. “You look exactly the same. Even that black eye hasn’t changed a bit. Why is that?”
Jane pressed a hand to her cheek. She’d hoped it would have started to fade by now. “Just bad luck, I guess.”
“More like bad company.”
“That, too,” Jane acknowledged with a nod. Kait had been the one person Jane could be honest with all those years ago, and she had a feeling that hadn’t changed. “Is there somewhere private we can talk?”
Kait hitched her chin at a door in the back corner of the garage. “My office.”
Kait’s office was a small, cluttered room with two chairs and a desk piled with unsteady stacks of paperwork, paper cups of old coffee from the minimart next door, and grease-stained tools. Jane sank into the first chair, a gold-upholstered relic from another era.
Kait moved a file box from the desk chair and sat down. “So, what’s it been? Nine or ten years?”
Jane nodded. “Ten and a half.”
“Are you still out in LA?”
Jane shook her head. “I’m… in transition.”
Kait leaned back in her office chair, waiting for Jane to elaborate. She’d never been the kind of person to pepper someone with questions or push them to talk if they didn’t want to talk.
Jane and Kait had formed a sort of tentative friendship on their drive across the US but hadn’t kept in touch after Kait had dropped Jane off in the motel parking lot all those years ago. For one thing, Jane hadn’t had a phone number to give Kait. And she’d gotten the feeling that Kait was someone who would help you with a ride, but she wasn’t going to call you for a chat. Plus, Jane had been trying to cut ties with Linden Falls.
Jane rubbed her sweaty hands on the fabric of her leggings. She never would have imagined herself asking for another favor when Kait had already done so much for her, and for nothing in return.
Jane had little to offer in return now, too. But she also had few options. “I hoped you could help me with a car.”
“What kind of car?”
“An old one. Junky, but not too junky. Something extremely unmemorable.”
Kait nodded like she was thinking it over. From out in the garage, Jane could hear metal clanking against metal, drills whirring, and the steady puff of air from a hydraulic lift. Kait ran a bigger operation here than Jane had imagined. Hopefully that meant she’d be able to help, and quickly. Jane’s only plan B was Greyhound, but a bus full of strangers meant there could be dozens of witnesses.
“I don’t have a lot of money. But I have that Toyota out there.” Jane waved her hand at the grimy window behind Kait’s desk that opened to the alley in back. “It’s an older model, but it runs well. You could have it.”
“So, you want to do a trade?”
“Yes.” Jane let out a slow breath. “Except there’s just one other thing…”
On their drive out to Los Angeles ten years ago, she and Kait had mostly listened to country music and news on NPR. Other than their initial conversation where Jane had begged for a ride, they hadn’t talked about Jane’s home life or Kait’s business or anything personal at all. Jane certainly hadn’t asked if Dad’s suspicions about Kait’s illegal side business were true. Kait had been doing Jane the biggest favor of her life. Jane hadn’t wanted to know if her getaway car was stolen.
But there was no getting around it now. If Dad had been wrong, and everything about Kait’s business was on the up and up, Jane was about to offend the last person who deserved it .
“What is it?” Kait prompted.
“The Toyota needs to disappear. Forever.”
Kait’s eyebrows rose.
“And nobody can trace the car you give me,” Jane continued.
Kait’s attention shifted to the spot below Jane’s eye where she’d done her best to cover the yellowing bruise with make-up. The other woman cocked her head. “Because you need to disappear, too.”
Jane nodded. “Yes. And I need your help.”
Kait stared at her, as if considering Jane’s words, and Jane held her breath. After a moment, Kait nodded. “Alright. What’s the plan? How is this all going to work?”
The less information anyone knew about where she was going, the better. But like she’d said to Mom, Kait was the one person she’d ever been able to trust. “My mom grew up in Canada, in a small town outside of Ottawa. She was in her first year at the University of Toronto when she and a couple of girlfriends took a trip to Niagara Falls. It was the same weekend my dad and his buddies had driven up from Linden Falls for a bachelor party.”
Kait’s lip curled up in disgust, but she nodded at Jane to keep talking.
“My dad was more than ten years older than my mom, handsome, charming, and had a good job on the Linden Falls police force. It didn’t take long for him to convince her to drop out of school and marry him.” Jane shifted in her seat. “Mom got pregnant on their honeymoon. A month before her due date, she went to visit her parents in Ottawa, and that’s when I decided to make an early appearance. I have dual US and Canadian citizenship. It’s not something most people know about me.”
Kait nodded slowly. “Including the guy who put that mark on your face, I’m guessing. ”
“No, he doesn’t know.” Even before Jane had discovered the full extent of who Matteo really was, some part of her had known to keep that secret to herself, just in case she needed it someday. “If I use my Canadian passport to cross the border, Matteo—my… ex—might have a harder time tracking me down.”
Since Scarlett was a minor traveling with her mother, all she’d need was her birth certificate to cross the border. But even Kait didn’t need to know about Scarlett. Nobody in this town did. “Once I’m safely in Canada, I’ll head west and look for a town to settle in. Somewhere that I can blend in and find work as a server or house cleaner. If Matteo doesn’t know I’m a Canadian citizen, he won’t think to look for me there.”
“And if I tear your car down and sell it for parts, and give you an old beater, he could spend ages looking for the wrong vehicle.”
“Exactly. He’ll still think I’m driving the Toyota he gave me.” Jane wasn’t nearly as confident as she sounded. There were so many things that could go wrong. But going back to LA with Matteo wasn’t an option. Jane wasn’t sure if she’d survive it. And then what would happen to Scarlett? Jane clutched her abdomen as nausea rolled over her. So far, Matteo had never been violent with Scarlett. But then, for most of Jane’s life, Dad hadn’t been violent with her. Until one day that had changed.
“Are they going to run some kind of check on your vehicle plate and registration when you get to Canada?” Kait asked. “Will this car need to be registered to you? I don’t want you to get held up at the border.”
“It would be best if it was registered to me, but they probably won’t check unless I look suspicious.”
Kait nodded. “Okay. It’s going to take me about a week, maybe a little longer. I can get you a car pretty easily, but I’ll need to call a guy I know to expedite the paperwork. Can you work with that?”
If everything went smoothly with Kait’s guy, it would be fine. And if not—well, Kait’s guy would just have to come through. “Matteo is expecting me back in LA by New Year’s.”
“Okay. We’ll make it work.” Kait gave a curt nod of her head, a gesture that reassured Jane. If Kait didn’t think she could do it, Jane knew she’d be blunt enough to say so. “Leave me your phone number.” Kait pulled a Post-it note and pen out of the drawer, but hesitated instead of handing it over.
Jane’s pulse picked up speed. Please don’t let her change her mind.
“Listen, Jane.” Kait clicked the pen. “Are you sure you want to do this? Sure you want to keep running?”
“I don’t have any other choice.”
“You always have a choice.” Kait cocked her head. “You think it’s easy being a lesbian car mechanic in a place like this? I’ve been threatened, I’ve had my shop vandalized more times than I can count.”
Jane’s stomach churned. She had no doubt that some of those threats had come from Dad.
“But I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to let them drive me away. This is my home. So, I stay, and I keep fighting.”
Jane shook her head. “You don’t know what Matteo is capable of. If I leave him, and he finds me…” Jane closed her eyes, remembering the one time she’d tried. The worst week of her life. “It’s not just me I have to think about.”
Kait paused but didn’t ask Jane to elaborate. She just slid the pad and pen across the desk. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I have something for you.”
Jane took the paper and scribbled down her number. “Don’t you want to see the Toyota? To make sure it’s worth your effort?”
Kait shrugged. “Whatever the value of the Toyota, I’m sure it’s worth my effort.”
A wave of emotion crested over Jane. For the second time in her life, this almost-stranger was helping her. Saving her, with nothing in return. Jane wished there was a way she could properly thank her. To promise to make it up to her.
But if everything went to plan, Jane would never see Kait, or anyone in this town, ever again.