Angela didn’t pay Samantha any attention. She put the laptop on the backseat and then climbed in behind the wheel. The engine fired up on her first attempt and the tires screeched as she pulled away from the curb.
An hour later, Angela had already traded her car for another and was on the freeway. Knowing that Jason would have to trek for at least an hour on a secondary road, she’d made a speedy and even trade for a dented 1990 Volvo 240.
After thirty more minutes at the wheel, she worried she had either passed Jason by without noticing him or he’d gotten a ride from a stranger. She was thinking about heading back to her mom’s house to see if he’d returned after all when she spotted a tall figure up ahead. It was Jason. He was walking along the highway, his left thumb out, trying to hitch a ride.
She drove past him and then pulled over to the shoulder of the road, the tires spitting up gravel and dirt as she slowed. When he approached the car and opened the passenger door, surprise lit his features. “Angela, what are you doing?”
“I can’t let you do this alone.”
“Well, I can’t drag you into my mess.”
“You already have. I’m going with you.”
“I have no idea what will happen. You could get hurt.”
“I want to help you, Jason. You can’t spend the rest of your life in prison for something you didn’t do.”
“This is not a good idea.”
“Please get in. I can help you.”
***
After realizing she wasn’t going to give in easily, he climbed in and pulled the door closed. “Whose car is this?”
“I traded in my wreck for this one,” she told him. “Even exchange.”
“You got ripped off.”
She merged back onto the road. “But now, if anyone realizes I’m missing, they won’t be able to find my car.”
“Not until the car dealer recognizes your face on the news.”
“I’m trying to help. Don’t be a jerk.”
He smiled.
“If you’re hungry, there’s food in the back, compliments of Gordon.”
He gave her a long look. “I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye. I don’t like goodbyes. Never have.”
“No big deal,” she said with a shrug.
He knew that wasn’t true. He could see the hurt in her eyes, feel it hanging heavy in the air between them, but he let it go. What more could he say? He liked Angela, and he didn’t want to see her get hurt.
After grabbing some chips and water from the back, he flipped through the radio stations until he found one report about the riot that had broken out at San Quentin. Not one word was said about an escaped convict.
“Maybe they don’t know you’re missing,” Angela suggested.
“Not possible. They take a count every night. They had to have known by six o’clock the day I went missing, if not sooner.”
“That could mean the prison hasn’t told anyone outside of the prison walls, which could mean there’s no nationwide manhunt, right?”
“Wrong. More than likely it means that the FBI doesn’t want me to know they’re on to me, so they’re keeping the media out of it. Personally, I’d rather know what’s going on. I’m sure they know that.”
“So, what are you going to do? What’s your next step?”
“I have a few people I want to talk to, but I need addresses. Maybe a library.”
“Not a library,” she told him. “We need to find a Starbucks. Most of them have WiFi. I borrowed my mom’s computer so we could do some research and find out what your friends have been up to.”
***
It didn’t take long to find what they were looking for. Angela parked the car but reached over and stopped Jason from exiting the vehicle. “Hold on.” She crawled over the middle console, hopped onto the back seat, and rummaged around in her bag. “Don’t forget your hat. I found an old pair of aviators at mom’s house, too.”
He smiled as he obligingly put on her attempt at a disguise.
She drew back and took a good look at him. “Perfect. You could be anybody.”
He took a glance in the rearview mirror. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve done this before?”
She grinned, then slipped on a baseball cap of her own, along with a pair of sunglasses. “First, we’ll find a table,” she said as they walked toward the coffee shop. “Then I’ll get us both a coffee. I used to study all the time at Starbucks. Most people keep to themselves. Just act normal. We’re just two people on a ride across country, doing some research.”
“Got it.”
Everything went according to plan. It wasn’t crowded and they found a spot in a quiet corner. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever been to a Starbuck’s before or ever had their coffee. “This is good. What is it?”
“Caffè Mocha.”
“Where did you get the money?”
She turned on the computer and typed the password princess. “Mom’s boyfriend, Gordon, loaned me a few hundred dollars.”
He watched her closely. “You seem to really know your way around a computer.”
“Well, I took a few computer science courses and dabbled in web design and basic programming, but the medical field is where my passion lies.”
“So, what’s the deal with you, Angela?”
“What do you mean?”