"Okay. No problem." Kyle patted his pants pocket as he spoke, before pulling out his phone. "Please give me a second. It's my pal calling." He excused himself, stepping a few metres away. "Hey bro, what's happening?" He spoke at the top of his voice. "What?! What are you talking about? Your niece had another emergency? Tell me it's not as serious as the previous one. Shit. You should have called me sooner. Where are you guys now?...Sure." he stared at his watch. "Give me fifteen. I swear I would be there in less than fifteen minutes." Seeing the way the cops were staring at him, he quickly rephrased his statement. "I would be there under twenty and without any speed ticket, I promise. Hang on, please." He made a quick dive for the car and then stepped back immediately as though he forgot something. "Is Detective Thomas still coming with me? I think I would need a driver."
They exchanged scornful glances amongst themselves. "Don't be silly boy, and get out." Sgt. Adams reproached. "First thing tomorrow morning, we must see you at the station or you would face a penalty. Am I clear?"
"Sure. Who in the world would want to cover up for criminals?" Kyle mused aloud as he ducked back into the car. With great efforts, he concealed his grin as he drove off smoothly.
He drove for close to ten minutes before pulling up at the curb of a busy major road, where some vehicles still plied at that time of the day.
He finally turned off the engine at this point. "Are you still alive? If you are, you can show yourself. It is safe now." he announced, winding down the window for some fresh air. She came out hurriedly, inhaling deeply.
"Thank you so much for saving me, Kyle. I will forever remain grateful." she appreciated profusely.
Kyle merely grinned, shaking his head. "Thanks to you too, you were smart to hide in the trunk when he was searching the car and hide in the car when he was searching the trunk. Thank goodness they were not smart enough to search both at the same time." He trailed off in laughter. Though, still feeling uneasy about the whole situation, April joined. He appeared so relaxed and at ease. She glanced around in fear. It was a good thing this place appeared to be busier than the lonely street where he had parked previously, but then, what if they were caught again by the patrol officers?
"Are you parking here for the night? How about your friend who is waiting for you? The emergency." she asked.
Kyle laughed. She found it quite mischievous. "Friend my foot. I just had to do something to lay them off."
"Wow, that was pretty smart. No one would ever believe you were actually faking the call." she acknowledged.
"Nonetheless, I need to find a spot for this car now. We would be heading to a park to board a bus." he informed her.
"A bus to where?"
"To where you would be safe." He looked straight ahead as he spoke.
April didn't feel totally comfortable. There was no way he would be doing all of this for her for nothing. There had to be a cogent reason, and he seemed to have a dual identity. Didn't he inform her he was Kyle Coleman, but what were the cops calling him? Mr. Grey?
"What's your full name?" she summoned the courage to ask.
"Kyle Kai-li."
"Come on. I'm serious. There is a reason behind my asking; the cops addressed you as Mr. Grey, but you introduced yourself to me as Coleman." She pressed.
Kyle chuckled. "Do you really deserve to know? It's not like you would believe me anyways even if I said it. Besides, it doesn't matter since it is not necessary, and if anyone were to be scared of the other here, it should be me." His eyes rested on her accusingly.
"Why?" she didn't look away. "Why should you be scared of me?"
"Didn't you hear their claims? You are a murder suspect."
She scoffed. "And you believe them? They were just bluffing, big time. I assumed you would think they said it to scare you away from me or give me up, just incase you were hiding me."
"And what if I did?"
"Mmmh… what else? I would have probably been in their ugly net by now." She admitted. "Did you say you intend to park your car somewhere, while we take a bus? Why don't we just drive on with your car instead?" she changed the topic since they were heading nowhere.
Kyle shook his head stubbornly. "No. Bad idea. I have this sinking feeling in my guts that they could have placed a tracker on my vehicle. Asides that, my car could easily be tracked down. It wouldn't cost Rosita anything to divulge every necessary and unnecessary information they would need. So you see, the earlier I dump it, the better."
She saw sense and reason in what he said. She exhaled deeply in exasperation, her stomach growling again in reminder, and slowly, she finally opened the snack bag, eating with slow sad bites. "So, where are we heading to then?"
Kyle revved the engine back to life and turned the car around. "I think the question should rather be; where am I heading to? I am sorry, but I would have to enter this supermarket alone. Just make sure you are not seen." He instructed as he drove into the premises, which was only a few metres ahead. "I need to get a few supplies for the journey."
April glanced around her speechlessly in fear, as he stepped out. Though he had parked the car inconspicuously at the far end of one of the lonely areas of the lot, she still felt scared and uncomfortable as she was being left alone. Perhaps, the previous incident which they had barely evaded, made her feel so.
With the windows wound up again, she tried to relax her nerves as her eyes darted here and there, while munching on her food slowly. Everywhere was dead quiet, basically for the fact that it was midnight. Her mind kept searching for reasons why Kyle was playing the role of a saviour. Did he know anything about the real truth of what had happened previously? Or was he simply feigning ignorance? She couldn't seem to get anything out of him no matter how hard she tried. But since her curiosity wouldn't let her be, she summoned courage and decided to search his papers in the glove compartment. There she found some ID cards which showed he was a student at UC Berkeley. Kyle Manny Coleman. So, he wasn't Rosita's biological brother?
She was about to dig further into the papers when she sighted an angry looking rogue holding what looked like a small hand gun, approaching her car. Her pulse accelerated as she glanced around desperately for Kyle, but he was nowhere in sight. Quickly, she ducked down and was going to hide at the backseat near the boot when the car door suddenly opened. Her heart pounded wildly and she remained still, because she was yet to get into her hiding place and the predator was in the car already.
"April?" he called.
Was that Kyle's voice?
"What the hell you doing there?"
Oh. Shit. It was indeed Kyle. Had she been hallucinating or something?
"Kyle? It's you, right?" she raised her head a little.
He broke off in a loud derisive laughter. "Who do you think it was? I didn't think you would be so scared." he laughed on.
She crawled out and returned to her seat, feeling embarrassed with a red face. "Whatever." she murmured. "Let's just get out of here, please."
He clicked his tongue. "Sure, we would. After you change into these." He handed her a bag of clothes. "First things first, you need to be transformed in order to survive. Tie up your hassled hair, and put on this blond wig. I purchased a fake nose and beards. I would fix that for you."
April was stunned and stared at the items speechlessly. "Why do you need me to wear a disguise. Do you really think I did it as they say?"
Kyle gave her a cool but piercing stare, that made her wonder what was in his mind. "Does it matter what I think? We are talking about what they think. If they think you are a murder suspect, and then you are declared missing and wanted, don't you think your pictures would be all over the city? That way, you and I know you would be caught without a hassle. Guilty or not." His dropped it on her lap. "Hurry. I need to park this piece of junk somewhere before heading to the park to catch a bus to Nashville."
"Nashville?" she held her breath.
"Is there a problem? My favorite sis dwells there, and she would be so glad to have company." he explained.
"Oh... I see." she felt her nerves relax.
"I will be waiting outside. So hurry, please." he opened the door and stepped out.
About hour later, they were at the park. April could barely recognize herself in her disguise, to talk of any other person. Kyle had dumped the car in the premises of a middle school in the area. They were seated comfortably in the bus after purchasing their tickets and waited for the driver who was still putting things in order before the trip.
"Hey, by the way, your name is Ty James." Kyle whispered. "That's the name I gave for your ticket. So don't forget."
"Ty James." she repeated.
"Yeah. So you could simply introduce yourself as Ty or even Tj rather. That way, it would be difficult to have the name traced. At least, so I think" he shrugged.
April nodded in understanding. It made sense too.
"Do you have any bottle of water with you? I got us some food, but I forgot to get water."
She shook her head. She had none.
"Care for some gum? Bubble gum? I wanna get one too." he asked.
She shrugged. "Alright. Fine." she agreed. "But you know you gonna have to hurry. I think the driver is almost ready." she told him. "Or maybe you should wait instead for our next stop or break." she advised. But he seemed to determined and adamant.
"Don't worry. I will be back in less than five minutes." he hopped out of the bus.
About four minutes later, the driver was ready and about to move. After making his announcement, April panicked. Kyle was nowhere in sight yet. She decided to muster some courage.
"Listen to me, please" she called out to the driver in panic. "My friend got off the bus to get something. He will be back at any moment. He has paid for his ticket already."
The driver and some other passengers murmured. "He should have known better than to leave the bus when we were about to leave." They said.
April decided it would be best she alighted then, since he wasn't in sight. She would alight, and they would take the next bus. After making up her mind, she stood up to go but it was too late because the bus had started moving already and the doors were shut. Then she sighted Kyle running after them, waving frantically.
"There he is! Please stop!" she yelled to the driver, but he accelerated instead, and she watched in horror as Kyle tried in vain to run after them, the bottles of water in his hand.
Hot sweat clouded her forehead. Would she journey alone to Nashville? Even if she decided to go to her grandma's place, there was no way in the world she would be recognized, neither would she be safe. Kyle had been her only ticket. And now what?