Endnote 276 — The slip that unmasks Steeply

Poutrincourt's use of the Québecois word "transperçant" (p. 1052), with its connotation of doom, is her signal that she has seen through Steeply's disguise — realizing he is neither a civilian profiler nor even a woman. She had likely known since watching him light his cigarette with his elbow out rather than in, a gesture only men and radically butch lesbians make, which together with his electrolysis rash is the only real flaw in his female persona.