say they would be?'
'Erm, like an hour or something. She said they didn't have any trucks in the area. It's bullshit, I don't even care about the money, I just don't wanna be standing around outside all night.'
'It's cool, Dan will help you, won't you Dan?!' Clara nodded in the direction of Mckenzie, who knew from previous experience that this was his cue to respond. Clara had learnt to use fake names at all times, and the more generic the better. Dan is good, so's Tom or Steve. Never over-complicate by moving away from the one syllable rule. People remember the weird names far better than the short and common ones. A 'Dan', especially one that's uttered quickly can very easily jumble itself up in a victim's head and become a 'Bob' or a 'Paul' by the time the cops arrive to take a statement.
'Oh uh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah man, shit, these Range Rovers. Man, if I had a dollar for every Range Rover that came into the shop broken, ya know...'
The two girls, grouped by the passenger side door, stared unimpressed at the rambling Mckenzie, who quickly took the hint and put his head back into the hood.
'Hey uh, baby. Are you able to work out what's wrong with her car? You sure you don't need her to come to the front and have a look at anything with you?' quizzed Clara, trying her hardest not to flash Mckenzie the 'know what I mean?' look.
'Oh yeah, no doubt. Yeah hey sweetheart, could you uh, come and help me? I need to move a couple bits and I don't want to touch anything on the car without you seeing what I'm doing.'
'Really?', asked the girl, her face the epitome of unwilling. 'I don't want to get oil anywhere. This sweater cost 100 bucks.'
'You won't, I promise, I just need you to see what I'm doing.'
The girl turned and for a brief second, made eye contact with Clara. 'Shit, she doesn't know whether we're trustworthy or not' was the message Clara received loud and clear.
'Look hun', Clara began. 'We're willing to help you, but you've got to cooperate. We're running late and really need to pick our twins up from the daycare centre. We were on our way over when we stopped to help you.' She waited for the girl to look back at her, pausing for that second of eye contact. When she finally did, Clara got the confirmation she needed; the 'They must be trustworthy if they're parents' trick had worked a charm.
The girl made her way to join Mckenzie at the front of the car, who proceeded to point and gesture at various sections of the enormous engine, moving his hand around whilst trying to make his actions appear as deliberate as possible. He'd occasionally tug on a cable or twist a screw cap, even burning himself on a particularly hot radiator valve. 'What I'm doing is checking for, uh, leaks', he assured the girl, who by this time was out of sight of Clara, and more interested in what she was reading on her cellphone than the 'leaks' Mckenzie had tried to convince her he needed to find. Clara, still stood by the passenger side door, got to work. She glanced into the car, spotting a designer handbag, it's contents half-spilled out onto the passenger seat, facing away from where Clara was stood. Clara glanced around over her shoulder, noticing that the road was quiet. She reached her hand in and pulled the top of the bag up so she could see some of the contents, making out what was clearly a purse. She crept her fingers along the top of the bag in a 'walking fingers' kind of motion, desperately trying to get enough purchase to reach for the purse without having to pull out the entire bag. She felt the soft leather of the purse, and squeezed her fingers together in a pinching movement. Nothing. She tried again but just couldn't seem to get a firm hold on her prize. She tried a third time, before giving up and changing her hand position, trying instead to find a zipper clasp she could pinch hold of. She knew that the quickest thing to do would be to get into the car, but that would make the car move and risked giving the game