Did Philip K. Dick purposefully confuse Mrs. Kesselman with Mrs. Keitelbein in "Time Out Of Joint"?

Question

I am confused about the Kesselman characters (mother and son). When a female voice spoke to Ragle on the phone, reminding him about attending his first civil defence class, she said that Walter could drive him to/from the class to save time, being a 15 minute car journey away. I am assuming this voice was Mrs Keitelbein (as this identity was used by a female who called at Ragle's house in person about joining the CD class), but Mrs Keitelbein only lived a block away, and it was more likely that Mrs Kesselman lived a 15 minute car journey away, because he had driven to her house (on the hill) before. It's as if during that phone call, Mrs Kesselman momentarily forgot (and so made a mistake) about maintaining her alter ego identity of "Mrs Keitelbein".

If this is correct, then why was the book written that way? Why does the book seem to purposefully confuse these two identites, as if to merge them together for some reason, so that they become one identity? (Mr Black mentions to Lowery that he knows someone called Mrs Kesselman, so a person by the name of Kesselman does seem to exist.)

The thing that puzzles me is if there is only one identity, and Mrs Kesselman had created an alter ego (Mrs Keitelbein) in order to sidestep Mr Black and the city authorities (as she was an "undercover lunatic"), then why did the Kesselmans sidestep Ragle in her house on the hill, by escaping from the locked closet, and presumably, alerting the city authorities to Ragle's current location, as he was quickly overcome by a group of city workers?

Answer 1

No, there's no confusion with the Kesselmans. The Kesselman house is much farther away, he drove quite a while through the countryside to get there at night.

This is what she says:

"...Walter can drop by and pick you up in his car; and I know he can drive you back home afterward. The class is only about an hour at the longest, so it wouldn’t be more than an hour and fifteen minutes at the very most. "He doesn’t have to give me a ride," Ragle said. "You’re only half a block away.""Oh that’s so," she said. "You’re just up the street from us. Then you surely ought to be able to make it; please, Mr. Gumm—as a favor to me."

So she estimates 15 minutes there and back, as an upper bound. She's only trying to convince him that it won't take too much of his time. That said, it does seem like she didn't remember how far away he is exactly.

The Kesselmans are loyal One Worlders, the Keitelbeins are lunatic agents, different people. Black speculates they chose the name for the similarity, knowing he would have trouble telling them apart, although why he knew the Kesselmans i don't know.