Gately's burglary introduction (p. 56)

The rare disguise in this book that fully works. The retaliatory humiliation arrives as two Polaroids — Gately and his associate, "each in a Halloween mask denoting a clown's great good professional cheer," delivering an unmistakable message that incriminates no one, because the mask holds. And the endnote confirms the hold across decades: the associate, "masked in the evidentiary photo and never once given up or named by Gately to anyone," is only "presumed to have been one Trent ('Quo Vadis') Kite" (n.13). Set against Steeply's ever-sliding wig and cock-eyed prosthetics, the clown mask plus Gately's silence is the disguise that does its one job perfectly: an evidentiary photograph that proves the taunt and protects the taunters, a face-covering that never once fails its wearer.