Perhaps a product of her environment, Loretta has a ragged, worn appearance as she smokes and drinks incessantly.  Her tough exterior reveals a tough interior when Max and Kevin visit Loretta (in order to return her purse), and she does not exactly treat them with kindness.  In fact, she insults Kevin by calling his dad a "magician" because he disappeared as soon as he heard Kevin was going to have a birth defect.

However, Loretta Lee is also very brave.  Max is eventually kidnapped by his dad Kenny "the Killer" Kane.  Killer Kane ties Max to the boiler in the basement where Max is unable to get free.  Loretta risks her life to save Max.  She is the only one brave enough to go down there.  As Loretta cuts the ropes that hold Max, her hands shake violently.  When Killer Kane appears, he begins “squeezing [Loretta’s] neck...[with his] two big hands.”  The only reason he lets go is that Max begins telling the story of his dad killing his mom.  At this point, Killer Kane switches his attention to hurting Max instead.  Thus, Loretta must care about both Max and Kevin deep down inside of her.  She risks her own life to save Max.

The newspapers call Loretta Lee "the Heroic Biker Babe" (Chapter 21).

Loretta Lee is a tough-talking, "scrawny, yellow-haired woman with small, hard eyes and blurry red lips" who lives in the Testaments, a housing project where "poor people...and dope fiends" reside.  She is the girlfriend of Iggy, a "big hairy dude...(with) a huge beer gut and these giant arms all covered with blue tattoos and...a beard that looks like it's made out of red barbed wire".  Iggy is "the boss of The Panheads, this bad-news motorcycle gang", and both he and Loretta know Kenny Kane, Max's infamous father, who is in jail.  Max and Kevin meet Loretta when they find her purse in the sewer, and attempt to return it to her (Chapter 11).

When Max is kidnapped by his father and tied up in an old, abandoned building, Loretta tries to release him when Kenny is momentarily absent.  Unfortunately, the convict returns and tries to strangle Loretta for her efforts, almost succeeding in killing her before the fortuitous arrival of Kevin and the police.  Although Kenny has broken a bone in her neck. Loretta recovers, and the newspapers write about her, calling her "the Heroic Biker Babe" (Chapter 21).  It is Loretta's stubborn resilience that enables Max to get back on track after the twin trauma's of his father's return and the death of his best friend (Chapter 25).

There is no doubt that Loretta Lee is a dynamic character. In short, Loretta Lee changes from someone who appears to be sleazy thug to a hero.

We first meet Loretta when Kevin and Max retrieve a “treasure” from the sewer. The “treasure” is an old purse that belongs to a woman named Loretta Lee. Kevin and Max vow to return the purse to Loretta who lives in the run-down tenements of the city. It is obvious that Loretta is of questionable character when Kevin and Max arrive at the tenements with Loretta’s purse. She is both drinking and smoking as she hangs out with her husband, Iggy Lee, who is the leader of the local biker gang. She also insults Kevin by saying his dad was a “magician” because as soon as he heard Kevin had a birth defect, he “disappeared.” 

However, Loretta Lee is inspired by the friendship of Kevin and Max, so much so that, by the end of the novel, Loretta has gained a heart of gold. When Max is kidnapped by Kenny “Killer” Kane and is tied to a boiler, it is Loretta who risks her life to loosen Max’s bonds and set him free. Kane appears at this point and almost kills Loretta by choking her. It is then time for Kevin to be the hero with his squirt gun full of “acid.” Kevin saves both Loretta and Max through this sneaky method. Kenny “Killer” Kane is then put in jail permanently.

Loretta Lee is the owner of the purse Kevin finds. She lives in the "Testaments," a housing project in an extremely rough neighborhood, and coincidentally knows both Kevin's mother Gwen, and Max's father, "Killer Kane."

Kevin, who is always looking for adventure, gets Max to come out one morning at three o'clock, so that they can go on a treasure hunt. He has spotted a purse stuck in the sewer, and is determined to retrieve it and return it to its rightful owner. After much difficulty, Max manages to raise the sewer grate while Kevin sticks his small hand underneath to reach the purse. The purse is soggy and disgusting, but Kevin is delighted with his find. Upon examination of the purse's contents, he discovers that it belongs to a woman named Loretta Lee, who lives in the unsavory New Tenements. Kevin prevails upon Max to take him there so that they can give Loretta her purse.

When Kevin and Max arrive at the tenement, the door is opened by

"a scrawny, yellow-haired woman with small, hard eyes and blurry red lips. She's wearing this ratty old bathrobe and she's smoking this cigarette..."

Taken aback by her appearance and the general aura of depravity in the house, Kevin tries to tell Loretta Lee that they have the wrong address, but Loretta's husband Iggy Lee, the leader of a notorious motorcycle gang, forces them to come in. After wracking her brains for the connection, Loretta realizes that she recognizes Max because of his resemblance to his father, Killer Kane. Putting two and two together, she figures out that Kevin is the son of another old acquaintance of hers and Iggy's, "stuck-up Gwen." Loretta Lee plays a big part in the lives of Kevin and especially Max later in the story. When Max is kidnapped by his father, she risks her life to save him.

Maxwell Kane is kidnapped by his murderous father, Killer Kane. Iggy and Loretta Lee once knew Kane, so he calls on them to help him so he can get out of town with Max. Iggy and Loretta have to be careful so they don't get Kane mad at them or he may hurt them. And even though Iggy and Loretta don't have a picture-perfect past, they don't agree with Kane taking Max away from his grandparents. Therefore, Loretta tries to free Max as soon as Kane steps away from the boy for a minute. Unfortunately, Kane comes back to see Loretta untying the ropes constraining Max and he chokes her. If it weren't for Kevin distracting Kane at that critical moment, Loretta probably would have died. Still, Loretta did try to help Max during the crisis, so the papers call her the "Heroic Biker Babe" (136).