 Finding it inconvenient to conduct his investigations on foot, Pendergast hires a local teenager, Corrie Swanson, to chauffeur him around in her battered AMC Gremlin.Corrie, a Goth who lives alone with her alcoholic mother, is the town misfit, who has frequently been arrested for loitering.Though she is suspicious of Pendergast, she eagerly accepts his offer of $100 a day, just for her driving skills and the benefit of her familiarity with the town.