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space next to her little Ford and in short order determined her battery was dead. She stood in a doorway and blew on her hands while I pulled out my jumper cables. “Your battery looks pretty old and the posts are corroded,” I advised, wanting to talk about anything else but her car. “I can probably get you started, but you’ll want to get a new battery.”
    â€œOh great. How much does something like that cost?”
    â€œMaybe fifty, sixty bucks. I don’t know.”
    She nodded in resignation. Her car roared to life with one crank, and I disconnected the cables. “I’m so glad you came along,” she told me.
    There had to be something witty I could say to that. I stood there, staring at her, trying to think what that might be.
    â€œHow much do I owe you?”
    â€œWhat?”
    She reached into her purse, digging out a wallet. “Oh no, no,” I protested. “No, I’m not a tow truck driver.”
    I could see the skepticism in her eyes: I was, after all, driving a tow truck.
    â€œI mean yes, this is a tow truck, but I’m not from a towing company. It’s … it’s hard to explain.” Particularly if you want to impress someone and thus don’t want to use the term “Repo Man.” Her skin was blemish free, perfect, and her teeth were white and perfect. Probably I would think her elbows were perfect too.
    We stood and looked at each other for a minute. “Well, thanks very much, then.”
    â€œRuddy. My name is Ruddy McCann.”
    â€œRuddy. You mean, like the complexion?” Her smile lit up her face.
    â€œIt’s short for Ruddick, it was my mother’s maiden name.” I bit my lip, remembering the reaction from the guard.
Everybody used to look up to you, and then you let us down.
I desperately didn’t want this woman to already know anything about me.
    My name didn’t seem to register. “I’m Katie.” Her hand was cold and wet from the weather, but it warmed me when I took it.
    She hesitated, perhaps sensing that I wanted to say more, and then gave me another smile. She opened her car door and slid inside. “Well, thanks again, Ruddy.”
    â€œSure. Uh, wait!” My heart was pounding. Katie beamed her beautiful blue eyes up at me and did as I asked: she waited. My brain flailed around, groping for words. “Uh, I was wondering if maybe I could buy you a cup of coffee?”
There.
    â€œThat’s sweet, but I need to get back.” Her expression seemed to indicate she really did think it was sweet, so I plunged ahead.
    â€œMaybe some other time? Tomorrow?” Could I sound more desperate?
    â€œWell, I’m dating somebody right now, Ruddy. So, you know.”
    Yes, I knew. Pretty, intelligent women with humor in their blue eyes didn’t wander around in the gray drizzle of East Jordan, Michigan, without a man lurking somewhere in their lives. “Okay,” I told her.
    She cocked her head as if to look at me from a different angle. Then she turned and dug into her purse, possibly to hand me a gun so I could put myself out of my misery. “Look.” She wrote her phone number on a piece of paper—I even found her handwriting attractive. “Coffee would be fun. Yes, I’d love to. Here.” She handed me the paper and our fingers brushed against each other. “Call me, okay?”
    I spent the rest of the afternoon rewriting my conversation with Katie, talking to myself and being almost excruciatingly witty. I gave Albert Einstein Croft enough time to get home from work, then swung the tow truck up his steep driveway, hoping to find his Chevy pickup out in the open at the top.
    It was there, but a severe bend at the top of the drive made it virtually impossible for me to back my tow truck up to his bumper. He’d parked his vehicle with a brick wall at one end and some cement stairs at the other, a tight parallel parking job that must have