Haunted Read Free Page A

were really rude to that man."
    "Oh, Daddy, he was really rude first. It's not like I'm a little kid anymore. I'm almost seventeen and I don't think I should have to put up with rude old far-men."
    In theory, he agreed with her, but all he said was, "You're a cheeky brat."
    "I know." She leaned across the seat and pecked his cheek. "You taught me everything I know."
    "Maybe, but learn to exercise some self control, okay? Look, Amber, we're not in a big city anymore. Red Cay has a population of four hundred and eighty-four--"
    "Four hundred and eighty-six."
    "That's what I'm talking about. Don't keep correcting your elders. In the city, everything's different. Here, you give some old geezer a ration of crap and you're likely to hear your name splashed all over the place as the latest town juvie."
    "That might be fun."
    "Amber--"
    "I'm sorry," she said as they pulled up to a stop sign. She smiled. "You know I'm just teasing you. I promise I'll try not to rile the rubes."
    "Okay," David said as he made a left onto Cottage Street. "But you're making me nervous, kiddo. Look, you can call them rubes around me, but don't let them hear you do it. You do understand that, right?"
    "Of course, Daddy. You're such a worrywart."
    A quarter mile down Cottage, they found the high school. "Looks like they don't have summer school here, Amber. Guess you're brokenhearted."
    "Oh, yeah, right . It's sure dinky. Are you sure they've got art classes?"
    It was small, she was right. Low-slung, circa 1940s stucco painted babyshit yellow, and ugly as sin, it was a mini-version of the typical California public school building. "They claim to have several art classes."
    "They're probably all doofus fruit-drawing classes."
    "Well, Amber, consider it a challenge. You can draw bowls of rotting fruit."
    "You're weird, Daddy."
    He grinned at her. "If all they have are fruit drawing classes, we'll find you a private teacher."
    "Here? In the middle of nowhere?"
    "The hills outside of town are crawling with artistic types, remember? I'm sure we can find one."
    "Do you think I could take private lessons even if there's a class at school? I'd learn a lot more."
    He hesitated, unused to being able to afford things like private lessons. "Sure, why not? Now, let's go get the keys to our new palace."
    "Can't we cruise around just a little more?"
    "You've seen most of it already," David told her. "And you'll see more on the way to the office- -Theo's place is up in the hills where all the crazy artists live. Tomorrow we'll check out the town in detail, I promise. Okay?"
    "Sure, Dad. Maybe we'll meet some people just as nice as Ferd Cox."
    At least she said it with a smile.
    They headed into the hills west of downtown Red Cay and spent forty-five minutes attempting to find Theo's place by relying solely on David's memory. This resulted only in a number of snide inquiries from Amber about why he always refused to ask for directions, so he finally gave up, pulled over and consulted the map, an act not quite as humiliating as admitting failure to another human being. Melanie used to say he had testosterone poisoning and never let him get away with it. That was one of the things he liked about his ex-girlfriend. Actually, there were a lot of things he liked about her--chief among them, he constantly reminded himself, the fact that she was now thirty-five hundred miles away, making her own life in mid-town Manhattan instead of trying to make him feel guilty.
    "Dad? Do you see it yet?"
    "Oh, uh huh. I think I've got it. Take a look." After she confirmed his directions--she had a knack for reading maps--he checked his mirrors and pulled back onto the road. "Surveyors from Hell designed this place."
    The outskirts of town were comprised of a series of vague ovals crisscrossed by a maze of winding roads and passes, most of which they had traveled at least twice in the last thirty minutes. The outermost oval, a paved, two-lane highway, touched the coast on one side and fed from