Cut Back (12 page)

Ten minutes later, the young mother left the store with two matching personalized rainbow shirts. By the time Pat added up the colorful letters, deluxe rainbows, new special sparkle treatment and color guard, each shirt cost thirty-nine ninety-five. Before tax.

“Christ on crutches,” Pat groaned once the woman was gone. He threw his arms down on the glass display case and laid his head on them as if exhausted. Finally he looked up and glanced around, as if expecting Kai or Sean to ask what was wrong. When neither asked, he took it upon himself to explain anyway. “You see how much work that took? I have to do that on every sale, I'll have a heart attack.”

Kai looked at his watch. The entire transaction probably took twenty minutes. The
total, including the tax Pat would never pay, came to around eighty-seven dollars. Most people worked a lot harder for a lot less.

Pat fixed on Kai. “You're late again.”

“Something came up,” Kai said.

“Things have been coming up a lot lately. If I didn't know better, I'd think you had a garden or something.” Pat smiled to himself, then turned to Sean. “Get it? A garden? Where things come up?”

Sean frowned and shook his head.

“Aw, for Christ's sake.” Pat shook his head wearily and asked Kai, “So'd you ever come up with that logo?”

“I had a few ideas,” Kai said.

“Where are they?”

“In my notebook back at the motel.”

Pat looked out the window. Outside, sunlight glinted off car windshields. People passed wearing bathing suits, flip flops, and hats and carrying beach chairs, umbrellas, and coolers. It was another hot, bright, clear day and most people were headed for the beach. The store was empty.

“Go get it,” Pat said. “I want to see what you've got.”

To Kai, any reason to leave the store was a
good one. He left fast, before his father had time to change his mind, and headed down the sidewalk. The sun was a yellow fiery ball in the sky, and Kai wished he had a baseball cap or something. A shiny new black hearse pulled alongside the curb. Bean, wearing a black suit, white shirt, black tie, black hat, and sunglasses, was in the driver's seat. He brought down the window.

“'Sup?” Kai asked.

“Get in,” Bean said.

“Why?”

“I gotta show you something.”

Kai hesitated and squinted into the windows in the back of the hearse. This wasn't the old one he carried his boards around in. In the back, instead of boards, there was a dark brown casket. “Don't you have someplace to go?”

“So do you,” Bean said. “Get in, dude. I mean it.”

K
ai went around to the passenger side of the hearse and got in. “Where're we going?”

“Belle Harbor.”

Belle Harbor was the next town east of Sun Haven. Where to the west Fairport was mostly middle-class residential houses, and Sun Haven was trying to be an upscale, fancy, family resort town, Belle Harbor was known for being a place where only really rich people lived.

“Why are we going there?” Kai asked.

“I'm going there because I got a stiff to deliver,” Bean said, making a screeching illegal U-turn in the middle of Main Street. “You're going there because five minutes ago that was the direction a certain red Jeep was going.”

“Being driven by a guy with yellow dreads?” Kai guessed.

“You got it.”

They got out of Sun Haven. Main Street became Seaside Drive again. Bean had blues playing on the sound system.

“Who's that?” Kai asked.

“Buddy Guy”

“Sounds good”

“Of course.”

Kai glanced into the back of the hearse. The shiny dark brown casket had fancy-looking brass handles. “There really a dead body in there?”

“Indeed,” Bean answered.

“How come you're taking it to Belle Harbor?”

“People have this strange way of dying unexpectedly” Bean said. “Sometimes one funeral home has more stiffs than it knows what to do with, while the funeral home in the next town is pretty quiet. So the busy one'll farm a few bodies out. Belle Harbor got busy this week so they asked us if we could dress this guy for them.”

“Dress?”

“Drain 'em, embalm 'em, make 'em up, dress 'em up in their Sunday best.”

Kai was suddenly glad he hadn't had
much for breakfast. “How'd this one die?”

Bean shrugged. “You got me. All I know is, whenever it gets really hot out, the old ones start dropping like flies. Happens every summer. And Belle Harbors got plenty of old ones.”

“Weird.”

“Not really. Just life.”

“You mean, death.”

“Death is part of life,” Bean said. “Only its one of the parts no one likes to think about.”

“So how do you know Goldilocks was going to Belle Harbor?” Kai asked.

“I don't,” answered Bean. “But there ain't much after Belle Harbor so I figure it's worth a look. In fact, speak of the devil …”

Bean slowed the hearse down. Kai instantly saw why. Up ahead, the red Jeep was pulling out of the parking lot of a big barnlike club called 88s that advertised live music nightly.

“Am I good?” Bean asked. “I mean, am I good or what?”

“You're great,” Kai said without enthusiasm.

“What's wrong?” Bean asked. “I thought you'd be totally stoked to find this guy.”

“I am, Bean, really. I appreciate this. Only now that we've found him, what are we gonna do?”

“Follow him.”

“In a hearse?”

Bean turned to Kai and blinked. “You mean, you think he might notice?”

Kai rolled his eyes toward the hearses ceiling. “Yeah, Bean, I mean, I think most people tend to notice when a hearse is following them.”

Bean started to slow down. “Then I'll back off. We can follow from a couple of cars behind. Its not like we're gonna lose him in traffic around here.”

Some cars passed the hearse and then Bean accelerated back up to the speed limit. They could see the red Jeep ahead of them. Just before they got to the town of Belle Harbor, the Jeep turned off down a road lined with tall green hedges. Bean followed. Kai tried to see what was behind the hedges. He caught a glimpse of a tall brick mansion at the end of a white pebble driveway. The mansion was so big that he didn't even have time to count all the chimneys before they'd passed.

Ahead of them, the red Jeep stopped at the entrance to a driveway. Bean pulled the hearse to the side of the road. The driveway was blocked by a tall black iron gate with gold points. Goldilocks leaned out and said something into a
small intercom box. A moment later the gate opened and he drove through.

“Now what?” Kai asked, remembering that Pat thought he'd gone back to the motel to get his logo sketches, which should have taken about five minutes.

“We wait,” Bean said.

“What if that's where he lives?” Kai said. “We could wait a long time.”

“He doesn't live there,” Bean said.

“How do you know that?” Kai asked.

“People who live in Belle Harbor get special beach stickers for the town beaches. He doesn't have one on his bumper. Also, he had to talk into the intercom. If he lived there, the gate would have opened automatically. Same technology they use for garage door openers.

Kai gave him a look. “Amateur detective?”

Bean reached to the glove compartment in front of Kai and pulled it open. Inside were half a dozen paperbacks with curling covers and well-worn pages. “Mysteries,” Bean said. “When you drive a hearse you spend a lot of time sitting and waiting. So I read.”

“Okay, so maybe he doesn't live there,” Kai said. “Maybe he's just visiting. Could be a long visit.”

“Let's wait a little while and see.”

Kai jerked his head toward the casket in the back of the hearse. “What about your passenger?”

“He's not going anywhere,” Bean replied.

Ahead of them the black gate swung open and the red Jeep pulled out.

“Short visit,” Bean said.

The Jeep made a left and headed back up the road toward them.

“Duck,” Bean grunted. He and Kai ducked under the dashboard and waited. The vent from the hearse's air conditioner blew cool air into Kai's face. Bean slowly lifted his head and looked in the rearview mirror. “Let's go.” He quickly sat up, turned the hearse around, and headed back up the road. By now the Jeep was at least a quarter mile ahead of them and turning onto the main road into Belle Harbor.

The Jeep made two more stops. One at the hardware store in the town of Belle Harbor, and the next at the service entrance to the Belle Harbor Golf and Tennis Club. While they waited, Kai gazed at the perfect fairways and greens, the pristine white sand traps, and the large, old gray clubhouse with its navy blue awnings, each one embossed with a gold
seal. It had been hot and dry for the past few weeks, and some lawns in Sun Haven had begun to turn yellow from lack of water. Kai could only imagine that the water bill for this golf club must have rivaled the entire economy of certain smaller third world countries.

It wasn't long before the red Jeep pulled out of the club's service entrance and headed down another tree-lined road.

“Goldilocks is a busy guy,” Bean said as he started to follow him again.

“Listen,” Kai said. “I really appreciate your enthusiasm, Bean, but how much longer are we going to follow him while he runs his errands?”

“Let's just see where he goes next,” Bean said. “One more stop.”

Wherever Goldilocks was going next, he was going there fast. Bean had to keep a heavy foot on the accelerator to stay close behind him and several times the hearse took curves so fast the casket in the back thumped loudly and the handles rattled.

“Your friend back there is getting bounced around pretty good,” Kai said.

“We'll straighten him up later,” Bean replied, leaning forward in the driver's seat as
if to see better, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.

The hearse flew around a tree-lined curve and past several white signs with black writing that Kai couldn't make out clearly. The next thing they knew, the pavement ended at a tall silver chain-link fence. The hearse shot through the gate. Bean hit the brakes and the hearse skidded, bounced, and rattled to a stop in a rocky, potholed dirt parking lot. Not far away, a flock of seagulls burst into the air, squawking noisily. A large white and gray blob of guano splattered against the hearse's windshield.

“Crap,” Bean muttered.

“Exactly,” said Kai. He looked through the windows. They were in some kind of a garbage dump. Small mountains of garbage bags. Piles of old white kitchen appliances. Neat stacks of logs.

Clank!
At the sound of metal against metal behind them, both Kai and Bean turned and looked out the back window. The tall chain-link gate had swung closed and Goldilocks was wrapping a chain through the posts to keep it that way.

They'd been made.

“
U
h-oh.” Bean swallowed hard and turned to Kai. “What do we do?”

Kai was still watching Goldilocks through the back window. The guy finished wrapping the chain around the gate and started to walk toward the hearse. Kai reached for the door handle. “We get out. You stay on your side of the hearse and keep your hands low where he can't see them. Don't say anything. Just look serious and let me do the talking.”

“Jesus, Kai, what if he has a gun or something? What if he's gonna kill us and leave us in the dump?” Bean asked with uncharacteristic nervousness.

“Just be cool,” Kai said, and got out.

The sun was blistering. Now that they were inland from the ocean it seemed twenty degrees hotter. The intense rays scalded the top of Kai's head. Every single piece of silver and chrome in the dump glistened and shimmered. The mixed scents of hot rubber and rotting garbage hung in the still air, and heat mirages made everything in the distance ripple. Goldilocks stopped about twenty feet away. He was wearing a white T-shirt tucked into khaki cargo shorts, and a cowry necklace around his neck. Kai didn't see any telltale bulges that often accompanied concealed weapons.

“Why were you following me?” Goldilocks asked.

Kai took his time answering. He didn't want to appear scared. “Friend of mine said you might have something we're interested in.”

Goldilocks frowned. “And what might that be?”

“I have to tell you?” Kai said.

Goldilocks narrowed his eyes. “Could be any number of things.”

Kai glanced at Bean and frowned, then said, “Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe he's the wrong guy.”

“I bet you're right,” Bean said. “Definitely
the wrong guy. We should probably just go.”

“You're not going anywhere,” Goldilocks said. His eyes left Kai and traveled to Bean. “How do I know you guys aren't cops?”

“Sure,” Kai said. “You see a lot of cops my age. We're not old enough to drive, so we're the ones who ride bicycles.”

Goldilocks nodded at Bean. “He could be a cop. Maybe you're just some trick to get me to drop my guard.”

“That's a good one. Never thought of it.” Kai shrugged. “Could be, I guess.”

The words hung as motionless as the hot air.

“How much money you got?” Goldilocks suddenly asked.

It was amazing, Kai thought. He hated to admit it, but he'd learned a few things from his father. Like how to make someone feel like they just had to buy or sell something.

“Enough,” Kai answered. “But we could be cops, remember?”

Goldilocks wasn't amused. “What are you doing driving a hearse?”

“You've heard of
undercover
cops?” Kai said. “My friend here's an
undertaker
cop.”

Goldilocks smirked. “What's in the back?”