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hesitated. There was no such thing as color guard. It was just another scam. The colors in the heat transfers never ran. All he was supposed to do was take the shirts in theback, wait a suitable amount of time, then bring them out front again. Usually Kai refused to participate in Pat’s scams, but he knew today it wouldn’t matter. If he didn’t do it, Pat would have Sean do it, or Pat would do it himself. Either way, Mr. Asoki was going to get soaked.
    Kai took the shirts into the back room and dropped them on the desk. Once again he gazed down at the pile of unopened bills, the blank credit card receipts, and the landlord’s letter lying on the desk. Bills that would never be paid. Receipts that would be used fraudulently. A letter that would probably be ignored. It all meant the same thing. The clock had officially begun to tick. How much time was left before the bill collectors started calling? Before the phone and electric were turned off? Before an investigator from the credit card company knocked on the door? Before the landlord changed the locks?
    Kai’s time in Sun Haven was starting to run out. Sooner or later it would mean another 3 A.M. escape. Another two-or three-day drive. Another resort town with unsuspecting victims to scam. There was only one thing Kai could be reasonably certain of. The next place wouldn’t have a beach, waves, or surfing.

Five
    A t dinnertime Pat gave Kai five dollars and the usual warning to be back at the T-shirt shop in fifteen minutes or else. The “else” part made Kai laugh. There was nothing Pat could do if he was late. Recently Kai had gotten into the habit of taking as long as he wanted for dinner.
    Tonight he was feeling hungry. The five bucks wasn’t even enough for two slices of pizza and a Coke. The balance came from whatever he had in his pocket, but after he’d eaten the two slices, Kai was still hungry. The answer was a stop at the shop where Shauna worked, a thin sliver of a place simply called Ice Cream.
    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.
    â€œHey,” she said as if she knew him. Her girlfriends now turned and smiled at him as well.
    â€œHi,” Kai answered a bit uncertainly. He thought she looked familiar, but he couldn’t imagine where he could have known her from.
    â€œFairport 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?”
    â€œJust looking for something to do,” theyoung woman said. “Fairport’s dead at night. You know, all families with little kids. We thought maybe there’d be some action here.”
    â€œSo what happened to that Yater?” Kai asked.
    â€œIt sold the next day,” she said. “Nine hundred bucks used. Can you believe it?”
    â€œDefinitely,” Kai said. New or used, the board was one superfine stick. “You didn’t happen to find out where it came from, did you?”
    â€œI asked Rick,” she said. “He’s the owner of the shop. He said he bought it from this guy.”
    â€œWhat guy?” Kai asked.
    â€œHe didn’t know the guy’s name. Only that he had long bleached-blond dreadlocks and drove a red Jeep.”
    â€œDid the guy happen to mention how he got the board?”
    â€œRick