What is the meaning of "laying low"?

During the meal, I play hostess, serving the food and pouring the wine, trying hard to ignore that Jeff is talking to Sam like she’s one of his clients—genial but probing. Jeff’s a conversational dentist that way. Extracting what needs to be removed.
“Quinn tells me you vanished for a few years,” he says.
“I like to think of it as laying low.”
“What was that like?”
“Peaceful. No one knowing who I was. No one knowing all the bad things that happened to me.”
“Sounds more like being a fugitive,” Jeff says.