"Let's do whatever we have time to do."
Jane patted his shoulder. "You're learning fast."
"A few years in a state prison gives a person great perspective."
She finished the dye, and then mixed the small amount of blond for the highlights, and brushed it on select strands. "We'll give it a few minutes, and then you'll get to see the final effect."
When the hair was done, she held the mirror so he could see himself. "What do you think"
"Hmm," he said. "I look really different. Maybe even better."
"Glad you think so. That's what we want. I like it, too. Any change you make is best if it's an improvement." She took all of the cellophane and packaging and disposable parts of the kit and put them into the shopping bag. "This is another precaution. If you do something like dyeing your hair, don't leave any of the materials in the trash. It's always possible that one of the chasers will get a tip or make the right guess. If you leave the dye or the box, they'll know you dyed your hair and the exact color."
"I understand."
"Good. The next thing is your skin. I've got a tanning lotion here that will change the shade of your skin. You won't be that pale prison color."
"Don't those things make you look orange"
"I've experimented with just about every version that's on the market, and this one is the most natural looking. It looks like a mild tan." She handed the tube to him. "You don't have to do it."
"I'll do it."
"I'll get you started. Take off your shirt." She applied it to his face and neck and ears, his shoulders and back and chest. "You'll notice I'm wearing gloves, because I don't want to turn the palms of my hands dark. There. I'm finished with that part. Take a pair of gloves and go into the bathroom to do the rest. Do every part that the sun would tan if you were on the beach, including your feet and the tops of your toes. Then take a shower to get the lotion off."
When he returned, fully dressed, she said, "Very good. You look natural."
"How long does it last"
"A few weeks, but it fades gradually, so it's possible to stop using it without suddenly looking pale. Or you can keep using it as long as you want. We're thinking in small increments of time now-how we can give you tomorrow and the next day. Anything that can disguise you for weeks is pure magic. Just keep reminding yourself that change is good as long as it doesn't attract attention. Here," she said. "I bought you some glasses. Try them on."
He picked up a pair of frames with faintly tinted gray plastic lenses, and put them on.
"Those are pretty good," she said. "The frames are like regular glasses, and they look expensive. That gives you the right kind of appearance-professor, not drifter. And they obscure the color of your eyes. Try the dark ones."
He put on a pair that wrapped around his face. "I like these."
"They're the right choice for sunny days. Take them off when you go inside. I try to do it before I open a door because I don't like that moment of near-blindness when I step into a building. I want to see everybody who can see me. Since the glasses you replace them with are nearly clear, you'll be able to take one step and stop to put them on, but use the time to survey the place. If you don't like what you see, you're already at the door."
"All right," he said. "What next"
Jane looked at the clock beside the bed. "It's getting late, and that's a good time to travel-there will be fewer people on the road. Now we pack up and clean the apartment. What we do after that is get your sister out of her hiding place and take her with us into a better one before somebody finds her."
She went to the desk at the side of the room, turned on the desk lamp, found the pen, and filled in the quick checkout card. She put his key card into the envelope with it; then she took a twenty-dollar bill from his wallet and left it for the maid.
She took a hand-towel from the rack and went around the room wiping things off-doorknobs, the television set and remote control, the surfaces of all the furniture, the thermostat.
When Shelby emerged from the bathroom and put his razor, hairbrush, and toothbrush into his suitcase, she used her towel and wiped off every surface in the bathroom, too-mirrors, drawers, drawer pulls, faucets, tiles-rinsed the glasses, and dried them.
"You're pretty thorough," he said.
"There's no reason to make it easier for the chasers. If they find this room, they'll have to do a thorough job of fingerprinting to know it's yours. And maybe if we work at it, they won't find anything."
"That would be good," he said. "If they even get this far."
She stopped and looked at him. "I'm afraid this is what it's going to be like. You leave as little trail as possible, and you take the extra few minutes to give the chasers a chance to make a mistake or miss something. If they do, you've won for this day. You get to go on living until tomorrow."
"It doesn't sound like victory, does it"
"No, because it isn't. Nobody comes to me until all his other options are gone. Your sister made it clear to me that yours were."
"They were. I was buying one day at a time by fighting off the inmates who had been trying to kill me in the yard or on the cellblock. The stab in the back came on a work detail. One guy came up to distract me while the one with the homemade knife came up behind me. Another one tried while I was still in the hospital. I don't mind precautions."
"Okay. Make sure we have everything."
He took his suitcase and hers. "Ready."
"Are you sure you can carry both of them"
"Having both keeps me balanced."
She let him out into the hall and wiped the doorknobs, then tossed the towel inside and shut the door. They went to the first floor and put the envelope in the box at the end of the cashier's desk on their way out.
Jane walked to the gray car she had bought for Shelby. "Put the suitcases in the trunk and drive." She got into the passenger seat. "Circle the hotel, and then head toward Route 15."
Shelby drove around the block where the hotel was, and Jane studied the traffic, the cars parked in the area, and the people visible on the streets. Then Shelby came past the front of the hotel along the route to return to the interstate. As they drove past, Shelby pointed. "Look at that."
There were four police cars at the front entrance to the hotel with their lights off, and another unit on each side, near the residential wings.
"It looks as though they may have gotten a report that there were a pair of fugitives living on the second floor," Jane said. "I'd say they haven't gone in after them yet."
Shelby looked stunned and frightened, but he drove on.
"Stop at the light," Jane said.
"Sorry," he said. "It's hard to do anything but floor it." He pulled to a stop at the red light. It changed to green in a few seconds, and he continued up the street.
"There. That's good," she said. "You don't want to run a light right now. There will be more cops, probably." They went under the overpass where the street met the interstate, and there were two more police cars parked beneath it with their lights off.
"How did you know"
"I guessed. Just before they go after somebody who's armed and dangerous, they block the streets so nobody walks into the middle of it."
"What should I do"
"Keep going. When you're past the interstate and out of sight, I want you to swing around the next block and come out near the hotel. Let me off in the park."
"Let you off Why"
"I don't have a lot of time to tell you the whole story. But I left somebody else in that hotel, a young woman I picked up on the way in Las Vegas who had been abused by her ex-husband. I shot him. I'm sure he'll try to use the police to get back at her-get her arrested for the shooting, and so on. If she gets held long enough for him to catch up, he'll kill her."