Cut Back (3 page)

As usual on a warm summer night in Sun Haven, there was a line out the door and onto the sidewalk. Through the window Kai could see Shauna and two boys behind the counter. All three were wearing bright green T-shirts that said, “I Scream for Ice Cream.” Kai got in line behind three young women wearing tiny bare-belly tees and tight shorts. One of them turned and gave him a broad smile. She had sun-streaked brown hair, green eyes, and a diamond stud in her right nostril.

“Hey,” she said as if she knew him. Her girlfriends now turned and smiled at him as well.

“Hi,” Kai answered a bit uncertainly. He thought she looked familiar, but he couldn't imagine where he could have known her from.

“Fairport Surf, remember?” the green-eyed young woman said. “You asked me about that yellow Rennie Yater board.”

Now Kai remembered. She worked in the surf shop in Fairport where Kai had seen the Yater, which looked very similar to one that had been stolen from Curtis Ames's shed a week earlier. “What's up?”

“Just looking for something to do,” the
young woman said. “Fairport's dead at night. You know, all families with little kids. We thought maybe there'd be some action here.”

“So what happened to that Yater?” Kai asked.

“It sold the next day,” she said. “Nine hundred bucks used. Can you believe it?”

“Definitely,” Kai said. New or used, the board was one superfine stick. “You didn't happen to find out where it came from, did you?”

“I asked Rick,” she said. “He's the owner of the shop. He said he bought it from this guy.”

“What guy?” Kai asked.

“He didn't know the guy's name. Only that he had long bleached-blond dreadlocks and drove a red Jeep.”

“Did the guy happen to mention how he got the board?”

“Rick didn't say.”

“Does your boss always buy great used surfboards from strangers?” Kai asked.

“He's pretty careful about that,” she said. “The guy must've seemed okay. I've seen creepy people come in and try to sell Rick boards and he's told them to get lost. I don't
think he'd take a board if he knew it was stolen.”

“Even a Yater he could get cheap and make a lot of money on?” Kai pressed.

The young woman twirled her streaked hair around her finger. “Well … he does pay me off the books, so I guess it's possible.”

She seemed uncomfortable discussing her boss's honesty, so Kai decided not the push the question any harder.

“You live around here?” the young woman asked.

“Sort of.”

“Want to hang out with us tonight?” she asked.

“I would, but I gotta get back to work.”

“Where?”

“T-shirt shop over on East Street.”

“Oh, yeah?” She glanced at her friends. “Maybe we'll stop by later.”

“You can if you want” Kai said. “But the owner doesn't like it when people hang around and don't buy anything.”

“Then maybe we'll buy something,” she said.

“I wouldn't,” Kai answered. “At least not there.”

The young woman frowned. “So, uh, what time do you get off work?”

“Around ten.”

“Maybe we'll come by then.”

“You know any other cute guys?” asked one of her friends.

Kai thought of Bean. While he wasn't exactly cute, and seemed kind of gawky, Kai had noticed that there was something about him girls liked. Booger, on the other hand, was too young for this crowd.

“Let's see what happens,” Kai said.

“Great,” said the girl with the streaked brown hair.

By now the line had moved inside the ice-cream shop. In the chill of the air-conditioning Kai realized a pair of cool eyes were on him. He turned and saw Shauna looking at him, and at the young women he'd been talking to. Kai waited while they ordered ice-cream cones and paid.

“See you later,” the green-eyed girl said. She and her friends left the shop. Being next in line, Kai now came face-to-face with Shauna.

“‘See you later'?” she repeated.

Kai lifted and dropped his right shoulder.

“Aren't they a little old for you?” Shauna asked.

Kai lifted and dropped his
left
shoulder.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“So what's good?” Kai asked, pointing at the tubs of ice cream under the glass counter.

Shauna rolled her eyes. “It's ice cream, Kai. It's
all
good.”

Kai leaned forward against the glass counter and whispered, “I'm kind of broke.”

Shauna's lips twisted into a wry smile. “You should have asked your girlfriends to treat you.”

“Forgot,” Kai said.

Shauna let out a big sigh. “Okay, what flavor?”

“Uh, vanilla with Reese's topping?”

“Wait for me on the sidewalk,” she said, then turned to the next person in line. “Can I help you?”

Kai went back out to the sidewalk. With Fourth of July weekend approaching, the town was getting crowded. Families trekked up and down the sidewalks, and minivans and SUVs clogged the streets. Kai heard a honk. A long, black hearse stopped at the curb. Kai stuck his head in the passenger window. Bean
was sitting behind the wheel. Booger was sitting next to him.

“Your dad let you out?” Bean asked.

“I'm cutting class,” Kai answered. “What're you guys up to?”

“Looking for wood for the bonfire,” Booger said.

“Why don't you have a town dump truck deliver it, like Lucas does?” Kai kidded him.

“Is that sick or what?” Bean asked.

“His dad pays for that wood,” Booger said. “For everybody else, going out and finding the wood is part of the fun. Buzzy just buys a truckload.”

“You know why, don't you?” Bean asked.

“Because Lucas and his friends can't be bothered?” Kai guessed.

“Not just that,” Bean said. “If Buzzy Frank is gonna have a bonfire, then it's got to be the biggest bonfire.”

For a fraction of a second Kai felt the urge to make sure their bonfire was bigger than Buzzy's this year. But that was stupid. It was exactly that kind of dumb competitive thinking that led to fights over surf breaks. If Buzzy Frank was so insecure that he had to have the biggest bonfire around, that was his problem.

“So when do we actually start building?” Kai asked.

“Probably tomorrow, once the wind blows the surf out,” Bean said. “Waves are supposed to be good early. You gonna be out there giving Lucas grief?”

“I'm not giving anyone grief,” Kai said. “I'm just surfing where I feel like surfing. Why don't you come with me tomorrow morning?”

“To Screamers?” Bean jerked his head at his long board on the rack he'd built into the back of the hearse. The rest of the back was half filled with scrap wood. “Sorry, dude, but I value this stick too much to see Sam run it over.”

“That's not gonna happen,” Kai said.

“What's not gonna happen?” Shauna asked, handing him a large vanilla cone covered with Reese's topping.

“Thanks, Shauna. You're the best,” Kai said.

“I bet you say that to all the girls.” She pretended to pout.

“No, only the ones who give me free ice cream,” Kai said.

Shauna punched him hard in the shoulder.

“Ow!” Kai yelped. “Where'd you learn to hit like that?”

“Old boyfriends,” Shauna said.

“Thanks for the warning,” Kai said, rubbing his shoulder. “I'll make sure I don't become one.”

“Hey,” Booger said from inside the car. “Can I get free ice cream too?”

“Only if you can take a punch,” Shauna said.

“Forget it, I'll get some at home,” said Booger.

“Now that I've served my purpose, I guess I can go back into the shop,” Shauna said, a bit sourly.

“Wait,” said Kai.

“Yes?” Shauna brightened hopefully.

“Any of you ever see a guy around here with bleached-blond dreadlocks?”

Shauna's expression dimmed just as fast as it had brightened.

“I have,” Bean said.

“What do you know about him?” Kai asked.

“Uh, mostly that he's got long bleached-blond dreadlocks. Only, they're not really blond. They're kind of this gold color.”

“Goldilocks!” Booger said.

“But no three bears, or pigs,” said Shauna.

“What
else
do you know about him?” Kai asked.

“That's about it,” Bean said. “No, wait. I think he was at my high school prom. He's a deejay or something.”

“Know where to find him?” Kai asked.

“Maybe the yellow pages. Sometimes those guys put up flyers on bulletin boards and stuff. You could try Blockbuster and a couple of places like that.”

“Why do you want to find him?” Shauna asked.

“Because I think he may have sold one of Curtis's boards to the owner of Fairport Surf.”

“The yellow Rennie Yater you were talking about a couple of weeks ago?” said Bean.

“That's the one,” Kai said. “Listen, maybe you guys could do me a favor, okay? Ask around about this guy. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“Go undercover?” Booger asked eagerly.

Bean groaned. “You go undercover, Boogs. The rest of us will just ask around.”

By the time Kai got back to T-licious almost forty-five minutes had passed. He expected to catch hell from Pat, but he really didn't care. His father was all bark and no bite.
Kai only wished he'd figured that out sooner.

Walking down the sidewalk, Kai saw someone standing in front of the T-shirt shop with his arms crossed. At first he didn't think anything of it. Husbands and boyfriends often stood outside while the wives and girlfriends went in to shop. But then Kai took another look. Something wasn't right. Maybe it was the way the guy stood directly in front of the T-shirt shop door. And he didn't exactly look like a tourist, either. With his dusty boots and jeans, sleeveless black T-shirt and sweat-stained red bandanna around his head, he looked more like he'd just spent the day doing construction work.

Kai stopped by the shop's window and looked in. The lights were all on, but the place was empty. That was strange too. Either Sean or Pat usually stayed in sight of the cash register. Kai stepped toward the guy with the red bandanna.

“Store's closed,” the guy said.

“It shouldn't be,” Kai said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“I work here, so maybe you could let me in,” said Kai.

The bandanna guy shook his head.

“Seriously, this is my dad's place,” said Kai.

The bandanna guy tilted his head down and gave Kai a look. “That so?”

“Is there a problem?” Kai asked.

“Not no more,” the guy said.

Inside, Sean came out into the store from the back room, followed quickly by Pat, whose hunched shoulders and deeply knit eyebrows indicated that he was ticked off big-time.

Out on the sidewalk, Kai said, “There's my dad.”

The bandanna guy looked impassively through the window. He shrugged and didn't budge from in front of the door.

Kai considered his options. He could wait out there, or pretend to leave and circle around the block to the back door and try to go in that way. He'd just made his decision when someone else came into the front of the store from the back room. It was another construction-worker type, this one with a short black beard and wearing black jeans and a button-down work shirt with the sleeves torn off.

And behind him came Buzzy Frank.

B
uzzy Frank saw Kai through the window the same moment Kai saw him. He said something to the bearded construction worker in the sleeveless work shirt. The guy came to the front door and wagged his finger at Kai.

Kai went past the bandanna guy and into the store. “This your other son?” Buzzy asked Pat.

“For the time being,” Pat muttered.

“You know why I'm here?” Buzzy asked Kai.

“EBF Realty?” Kai replied.

Buzzy's eyebrows rose. “Very good.”

“What's the
E
stand for?” Kai asked.

“Elliot,” Buzzy said.

“You two know each other?” Pat asked with a puzzled frown.

“We've seen each other around,” Buzzy answered.

The lines in Pat's face deepened, as if he couldn't see how there could be a connection. Then he straightened up. “The surf shop?”

“There and other places,” Buzzy said. He looked at his watch. “I'll be back in half an hour. And there better not be any trace of anyone living here.”

He and the guy in the sleeveless work shirt left. The door banged shut. Inside the store, no one moved.

“Great,” the Alien Frog Beast muttered. “Just friggin' great. You gotta wonder who shoved the pole up that guy's butt. Usually they find out you're living in the store, they give you a couple of days or till the end of the week to find another place to live. This dick-head gave us half an hour. You believe that? We've got thirty minutes to get out.”

“Well, actually, it's more like twenty-eight minutes now,” Sean pointed out.

“Shut up!” Pat suddenly barked.

Sean jumped and shivered like a frightened puppy.

“We being evicted?” Kai asked.

“Not quite,” Pat said. “The store stays. That SOB just made me write out a rent check for the rest of the summer.
And
additional security for the phone and electric.”

“So the store stays, but we can't stay in the store?” Kai guessed.

“That's right,” Pat said. “The bastard knows better than to evict us and lose the rent on this place for the rest of the summer. He knows it's too late to find a new commercial tenant at this point, so he'll let us stay until the tourist season passes, and then it's good-bye.” Kai's father looked at his watch. “In the meantime it's almost eight o'clock and I gotta find a place for us to stay tonight.”