“I like it,” said Jane. “And I think your husband is probably right about the price. Now what? Should we go see your mother to have her sign it over?”
Tyler said, “Uh, this is kind of awkward, but—”
“You want cash?”
“I’m sorry,” Tyler said. “But we don’t know you, and—”
“I brought cash. I assumed nobody wants to take a personal check from somebody who just arrived in town and answered an ad.”
“Great,” said Tyler. “My mother has already signed the pink slip, and a bill of sale. I just have to fill in the amount and hand it over. You can take the car right away.”
Ten minutes later, Jane had a car with the appropriate papers, traceable with great difficulty to a woman named Kazanian, whose last address was in Illinois, but who had no physical residence on earth. Jane drove her car out onto the street again, and made a few stops at stores. By the time she returned to the hotel she was very pleased with her purchases.
When she opened the door of the hotel suite, Jimmy stood and went outside to help her bring in four grocery bags and a few bags from clothing stores. They loaded the food into the refrigerator, and then opened the clothing bags.
Jimmy looked at the clothes she had bought him. He held up a sport jacket, and then looked at a pair of shoes, a pair of dress slacks, and a pile of shirts in their packages. “Thanks so much. These are really nice, but you know, I don’t usually wear stuff like this.”
“I can’t think of a better reason to start,” Jane said. “So now you do.”
“Why?”
“For a lot of reasons,” she said. “One I just told you. The people who are searching for you are looking for a guy who wears T-shirts in the summer, sweat shirts and puffy jackets in the winter, hoodies in the spring and fall. He goes to places where that’s what everybody is wearing.”
“I guess that makes sense, sort of.”
“Yes. So now you stay out of those places. You’re a guy who goes to a job every day and comes home to his wife and kids in the evening. Maybe you’re a lawyer or businessman. You’re local. That’s important. And when you travel, you dress the way that kind of guy dresses for travel. Think polo shirts, light sport jackets, khaki pants, walking shoes.”
“I don’t know if I can carry that off.”
“You’ll learn.”
“Aren’t these clothes kind of expensive?”
“Not as much as you’d expect, but they do look that way. What that accomplishes is that people who see you will make a series of assumptions, based on very little evidence. They’ll think you’re financially solvent. You probably don’t steal hubcaps off cars for a living. You’re probably not physically dangerous. You’re not crazy in any way that matters to anybody. The police, who are the ones we’re concerned about right now, are not looking for a man dressed like you. Most of the time they’re only looking at people dressed the way you used to. And in these clothes you’ll be easily accepted into the kinds of places where the police aren’t looking anyway.”
“A safe car, a safe place to sleep, clothes that will help us hide. That’s a lot to accomplish in one shopping trip. Thank you.”
“You’re forgetting the food,” she said. “I did that too. Let’s make some dinner.”