“And so I began to plan my way out. When I started working at the Kickstart, I was dancing. Shit, stripping. That’s what I was doing. But I’ve always had a head for numbers, and gradually I worked my way off the stage and into the room upstairs, showed them I could do a lot more than shake my titties.”

Claire glanced in the direction of the living room, assured herself that Katie was occupied with the television.

Trixie continued, “Wasn’t long before they valued me more for what I could do with their books than what I could do onstage.”

She told me a tale of fraud, setting up dummy accounts, faking invoices, skimming from here and there, covering her tracks, trying to gather together enough money to make a life for herself and Katie.

Claire said, “You haven’t told them what else they did.”

“Claire,” Trixie said, caution in her voice. “Everything in time.”

“What?” I asked.

“Later,” Trixie said.

“Then, when the thing happened, when the others got killed, I had to get away right away. That night, I disappeared, with Katie.”

“And ended up on our doorstep,” Don said. There was no resentment in his voice, no sense that Trixie was a burden to them.

“She was in trouble,” Claire said. “It was finally my chance to make things right, to help her out.”

“I asked them to take Katie,” Trixie said, and now it was her turn to tear up. “I knew that Gary—Pick, we used to call him.”

“I heard,” I said, pointing my index finger toward my nose.

Trixie shook her head at the memory of his personal habits. “Anyway, I knew Gary would figure out what happened to his money, that he’d be looking for me, that he’d put the word out, that he’d have everyone keeping an eye out for me. I knew Katie’d never be safe with me. And so Claire here, and Don, took her in.”

“Wouldn’t Merker have been able to find her here?”

“He never knew me by my real name, Miranda. Miranda Chicoine. When I got hired at the Kickstart, I told them my name was Candace. I don’t know, I guess when I applied for a job as a stripper, I didn’t want it to be Miranda who was doing it. So while I was there, I was Candace. When I left, I became someone else. I’ve always been hiding out from the place I’d last run from. My father wasn’t going to find me when I was Candace, like he’d even be looking. And when I didn’t want Gary Merker to find me, I became Trixie. But inside, I’ve always been Miranda.”

“I abandoned Miranda years ago,” Claire said. “When she turned up with Katie, I couldn’t say no. And Don didn’t say no, either.”