Joelle returns; the Sheriff's car
It took forever to get from Comm. Ave. down to Enfield Marine in her clogs and skirt in the snow, and melt soaked the veil and made it adhere to the features below. She’d been close to removing the veil to get away from the outside-linebacker of a federal lady anyway. She looked now just like a linen-pale version of what she really looked like. But there was no one about in the snow.
Context
Released from the Steeply interview as bait, Joelle slogs home through the blizzard and the weather half-defeats the veil: soaked linen adhering to the features makes her "a linen-pale version of what she really looked like" — a plaster cast of the face U.H.I.D. exists to withhold, worn in public. The revelation lands on an empty street; the one time the veil fails, there's nobody there to see, and the deformity question stays exactly as open as the book wants it.