We’d put everything into a plastic grocery bag that sat on the seat between us. I grabbed it and followed him to the front door. The bell didn’t work, so he knocked.

A moment later, a woman, who no matter her age was probably at least five years younger than she looked, came to the door. She was thin with short black hair and large breasts, and had a child of about two balanced on her bony, jean-clad hips.

“Jesus, Gary,” she said, not sounding entirely pleased to see him. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, Annette,” Gary said. He forced his way inside and, despite how wrong it felt to me, I followed.

“Hey, Gary, like, you couldn’t have called first?” Annette said. “Do you mind?” She swung the child, a boy, over to the other hip. The inside of the house was a mess of children’s toys, dropped clothes, empty food containers.

“Nice place,” Merker said.

“How’d you find me?” Annette said, placing the child on the floor in the midst of some multicolored oversized Lego-type blocks.

“Listen, Annette, I got a chance for you to make some money,” Merker said. “How’d you like to make a grand for the afternoon?” That got her attention.

“What are you talking about?” she said. Baffled but interested.

Merker grabbed the bag from me and pulled out the red wig. “Try this on.”

Annette shook her head. “Oh no. I don’t do that no more. What’s this, for your friend here?” She looked at me scornfully. “This guy likes redheads? So what else you got in the bag? A little schoolgirl’s uniform?”

Merker shook his head. “It’s nothing like that. Jeez, that you would even think that of me.”

Annette’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding me? The stuff you used to have me do at the Kickstart—”

“Forget that shit,” Merker said. “Just try this on.”

“What’s it for?”

“Would you just do it?”

Tentatively, she reached for the wig, inspected it as if it might be infested with head lice, and pulled it on. She didn’t have that much hair to tuck under it, and it fit pretty well. Didn’t look cheap, either. I figured Trixie was able to afford the best when it came to this sort of thing. Maybe that was why there was only three hundred thousand, instead of half a million, left over.

“Ooh, you look good,” Merker said. Annette went to check herself in a front hall mirror. She cocked her head from side to side, watched the way the wisps of hair fell across her face.

“So like, what’s this about?” Annette said.