Chapter 5 - The Woman at the Diner
We drove back into town without the radio on.
Three blocks from my shop, I pulled into the lot at Marlene's. Through the window I could see a woman in a booth, twisting a paper napkin into a rope.
She stood up when we walked in.
The first thing I noticed was her eyes. Josie had them. Same dark brown. Same shape.
"I don't know how to start," Renee said.
Josie slid into the booth across from her. "Start with why."
Renee didn't give us a speech. She said she'd been twenty-two, terrified, broke, and completely convinced that Tony would get to that car within minutes.
"I told myself he'd find you before anything could happen to you."
"You put a newborn in a trunk in January." Josie's expression didn't move.
"Yes."
"You could have killed me."
"I know." Renee's voice cracked. "I told myself Tony would be there in minutes. That doesn't make what I did safe."
For the first time since we sat down, she didn't try to talk her way around it.
"What did the note mean?" Josie asked. "The task and the reward."
Renee looked at me. "Tony used to say that stupid line about repairs. I thought you'd hear it and understand the message came from somebody connected to him." She looked down at her hands. "I wasn't calling raising Josie a task. And she was never a reward." Her voice got smaller. "The truth is... after sixteen years, I thought you deserved to know why that car was in your lot."
I didn't answer.
Josie asked, "Did you ever come back?"
Renee nodded. "I watched from across the street after the ambulance pulled away."
My eyes went to the photo still in my hand. "You took this."
"I saw you holding her." Her voice caught. "Later, Tony told me everything you were doing for her."
She looked at me.
"I didn't choose you."
Josie turned and looked at me. Then she looked back at Renee. She reached across the table and took my hand.
"No," she said. "Finding me happened in one morning. Being my dad took sixteen years."
Nobody said anything. Renee lowered her eyes.
We stayed another twenty minutes. Josie asked questions. Renee answered the ones she could. On our way out, they traded phone numbers. Nothing more than that.
In the parking lot, Josie looked up at me.
May you like
"You still found me."
I squeezed her hand. "Yeah."
