"We'll be in place ahead of time," I said. "Don't worry if you don't see us. We'll be there. All you have to do is show up and go sit on the bench and wait."
"What if there's trouble?"
"Wave your arms if you need help. We won't be that far away."
"You know which bench, right?"
"The bench next to the flagpole."
"Yeah. That's the one."
Betty stuck her head out next door. "Hello, dear. Isn't it a lovely day? Are you young people planning some sort of activity? If I was your age I'd go on a picnic today."
"We're working today," Lula said. "We got a big lead to follow up on."
"Betty," Leo yelled from deep in the house, "where's my coffee cake? I thought you were bringing me a piece of coffee cake."
Betty pulled her head in and closed the door, shutting off the flow of cold air.
"Nosy old bag," Kuntz said. "You can't do nothing around here without her knowing it."
"Why do you stay if you dislike it so much?"
"Cheap rent. I get a break because I'm family. Betty's my mother's sister."
"YOU KNOW what we need?" Lula said, sliding behind the wheel, buckling herself in. "We need some disguises. I bet Maxine knows what you look like by now. And the way I remember that part of the park, there aren't a lot of places to hide. We're gonna have to hide out in the open. We're gonna need some disguises."
I'd been thinking similar thoughts. Not that we needed disguises but that we were going to have a hard time making ourselves invisible.
"I know just the place to get a good disguise, too," Lula said. "I know where we can get wigs and everything."
Twenty minutes later we were standing outside the door to Sally's condo.
"This feels a little weird," I said.
"You know someone else who's got wigs?"
"I don't need a wig. I can stuff my hair up under a ball cap."
Lula rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, that's gonna fool a lot of people."
The door opened and Sally looked out at us. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was standing on end.
"Yikes," Lula said.
"What's the matter? This the first time you've seen a hung-over transvestite?"
"Not me," Lula said. "I've seen lots of 'em."
Lula and I followed him into the living room. "We have a strange sort of favor to ask," I said. "We need to go on a stakeout this afternoon, and I'm worried about being recognized. I thought you could help me with a disguise."
"Who do you want to be . . . Barbarella, Batgirl, the fucking slut next door?"
"MAYBE I COULD just borrow a wig," I said to Sally.
He ambled off to the bedroom. "What do you want? Farrah? Orphan Annie? Elvira?"
"Something that won't attract attention."
He returned with a blond wig and held it out for approval. "This is from my Marilyn collection. Very popular with older men who like to be spanked."
I was thinking Yuk, but Lula looked like she was filing it away in case she decided to return to her former profession.
Sally pinned my hair back and tugged the wig on. "Needs something."
"Needs Marilyn lips," Lula said. "Can't have Marilyn hair without Marilyn lips."
"I don't know how to do lips," Sally said. "Sugar always does my lips. And Sugar isn't here. We sort of had a fight, and he went off in a snit."
"You two fight a lot?" Lula asked.
"Nope. Never. Sugar's real easy to live with. He's just a little nerdy, you know. Like, he thinks I shouldn't be hanging out with you because it's too dangerous. That's what we had the fight about."
"Jeez," I said. "I don't want to come between you and your roommate."
"No problem, man. Sugar's cool. He's just one of those worrywart motherfuckers." Sally opened a professional-size makeup case. "Here's lots of shit if you know how to use it."
I choose candy-apple-pink lipstick and made big, glossy, pouty lips.
Sally and Lula stood back and did the take-a-look thing.
"Gotta lose the shoes," Lula said. "Never gonna get away with those lips and that hair and those shoes."
Sally agreed. "The shoes aren't Marilyn."
"I saw these great shoes at Macy's," Lula said. "They'd be perfect."
"No! I'm not going to Macy's. I want to get to the park early, so we can hang out and watch for Maxine."
"Only take a minute," Lula said. "You'd go bonkers over these shoes."
"No. And that's final."
"Just let me put some lip gloss on and I'll be ready to go," Sally said.