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farm. Goldilocks pulled the Jeep onto the shoulder of the road. Kai and Bean watched silently while he reached into a glove compartment and pulled out two blue bandannas.
    â€œAround your eyes, dudes.” Goldilocks handed the bandannas to Bean and Kai.
    â€œWe going to your secret spot?” Kai asked.
    â€œJust put them on,” Goldilocks said.
    Kai and Bean pulled the bandannas over their eyes and tied them in the back. When theJeep lurched back onto the road, it caught Kai by surprise, and he quickly grabbed for a handhold and started to count silently.
    After a while Kai felt the Jeep slow down and make a right turn. The ride became a lot bumpier and the Jeep lurched and rattled loudly. Kai was pretty sure they were on a dirt road. He started counting again, and stopped when they slowed and made a left. Then he started once again. This part of the ride was even bumpier, and with his eyes covered by the bandanna Kai began to feel woozy with each unexpected bounce and drop.
    Finally the Jeep stopped.
    â€œOkay, take ’em off,” Goldilocks said.
    Kai pulled the bandanna off. They were deep in the woods. The spaces between the trees were thick with brush. It seemed to Kai that they were in a place where few people generally ventured. It was quiet. As dusk approached, the air was still and the sunlight was beginning to drain away.
    Without a word Goldilocks started into the woods. Kai and Bean followed. At first Kai couldn’t tell where they were headed, but then he saw a small green wooden shed with a sagging roof, nestled in the trees.
    Goldilocks stopped and pulled some keys out of his pocket. The old wooden doors were held together with a locked latch, which he released, allowing the doors to swing open.
    Except for the thin bars of light that seeped in through cracks and gaps in the walls, it was dark inside the shed. There was barely enough light for Kai to see that the dozen or so surfboards lying on their rails inside were almost certainly the same ones he’d first seen in Curtis’s shed a few months before. He recognized the light blue Bruce Jones, the plain off-white Rusty, and the custom boards that appeared to have no markings whatsoever.
    Kai stepped closer and carefully leaned one of the plain custom boards back so that he could see the stringer. There were the letters
TL
and #174. The board next to it was #239. So all these years Curtis had been collecting Teddy’s boards. Somehow Kai wasn’t surprised.
    â€œWhat do you think?” Goldilocks said.
    â€œThese things are beautiful,” Kai said. “So you just collected them over the years?”
    â€œSort of, yeah,” Goldilocks said.
    â€œWhere’s the good breaks around here?” Kai asked innocently.
    â€œWhat do you mean, breaks?” Goldilocks asked.
    Kai shot Bean a quick look. What kind of surfer didn’t know what a break was?
    â€œI meant, where do you surf around here?” Kai asked.
    â€œOh, you know, up and down the beach.”
    Kai ran his fingers down the rail of the Bruce Jones board as if he was admiring it. “They got a surf shop in Belle Harbor?”
    â€œNaw, most people go over to that place in Sun Haven,” Goldilocks said.
    â€œSun Haven Surf?” Kai pretended to act surprised.
    â€œYeah, that’s it.”
    Kai spoke to Bean. “You know who’d love to take a look at these boards? Buzzy.”
    Goldilocks didn’t react.
    â€œYou know Buzzy?” Kai asked him.
    Goldilocks shook his head. Either the guy was a really good actor, or Kai’s hunch that Buzzy Frank was somehow involved in the theft of Curtis’s boards was going down the toilet fast. It was Bean who came to his rescue.
    â€œKnow who else would love to get his hands on these?” he said. “Big Dave McAllister.”
    â€œThe guy who runs the board room?” Kaisaid, watching Goldilocks out of the corner of his eye.
    â€œYeah.”
    This time Kai