“How much does he think there is?”

“Half a million.”

“There’s not that much. There’s just under three hundred thousand.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy with that,” I said. “He might be angry at first, but if he can really get his hands on that kind of money, he’ll take it.”

Trixie swallowed, tried to pull herself together. “I can tell you where it is, but I don’t know how you’re going to get it. They’ll have to let me out, I can’t imagine any other way…”

“Trixie, they’re not going to let you out. There’s no way. Why would they have to?”

“It’s in a safety-deposit box. They’ll have to let me out, just for an hour.”

“Trixie, the only way they might let you out is if you tell them what’s going on, that your daughter’s life is at stake. The moment Gary finds out you’ve been released, he’ll know you’ve told them what’s going on. And then I don’t know what he’ll do.”

More tears now. But even though Trixie was in a panic, she was also thinking. For Katie’s sake. “Okay,” she said. “I’m going to have to tell you what to do. You’ll need to write this down.”

“They took my pen,” I said. “Just tell me.”

“You have to go to my house. Break in, whatever you have to do. Go to the upstairs bathroom, the medicine chest, take out the shelves, then you take out the back.”

“The back comes out?”

“It’s a false back. There’s a small storage area behind that. You’ll find a safety-deposit key and a set of ID. For Marilyn Winter.”

Christ. Yet another name.

“The box is registered under Marilyn Winter. There’s a color photo with the ID. It’s not the clearest picture in the world of me, but I’m wearing a red wig in it. You’re going to have to get somebody to go into the bank, with that ID, with a red wig.”

“Where do I find a red wig?” I whispered into the handset.

“In the basement closet. Along the wall with the straps and ropes and things, there’s a set of folding doors. In there, there’s a bunch of Styrofoam heads, each one has a wig on it. You’ll find a red one there.”

“Okay,” I said. “The wig, the key, the ID. I got it.”

“The box is downtown. I didn’t want it in the same town where I lived and did business. Might run into people who know me as someone else. It’s SunCap Federal. On Kingston, near Bellview. You know where that is.”

“I think so. I mean, yes. I can find it.”