a little spooked himself.
Maybe he believed what he’d told her, but none of it had any basis in reality. After all, he was a boozer.
Whether or not the stuff was true, Robin’s experiences with trolls last night had been unnerving, and the kids were an actual threat.
Reason enough to blow this town.
When she finished eating, she picked up the tab. Breakfast had cost four-eighty. She pulled the pack of money from her jeans pocket and folded it open.
She spread the bills.
Her mouth fell open. Her stomach sank.
She looked through the stack again and again.
Every bill was a one.
Yesterday, after she left the downtown bank, six of them had been twenties, one a ten.
Between last night at the movie theater and right now in the coffee shop, somebody had taken her money, substituted singles for twenties, and returned it to her.
And there was only one possible time when it could’ve been done.
While she slept.
In spite of the restaurant’s warmth, chills crawled up Robin’s back. She squeezed her legs together.
She saw Poppinsack kneeling beside her in the dark, sliding open the zipper of her sleeping bag, maybe after already searching her boots and pack and guessing that whatever money she might have was kept on her body. She imagined his hands roaming over her while she slept, not just seeking the money but feeling her up, finally slipping a hand inside her panties and taking out the bills and touching her there too.
Cockless Robin.
The dirty bastard.
And he gave me tea and I sang for him, and all the time he had my money and he knew what he’d done to me.
Robin’s face burned. Her heart pounded. She trembled.
He robbed me and groped me while I slept, and then he pretended to be my friend.
So much for his warnings to leave town.
Hoping I’ll be gone before I find out what he did.
She left her tip on the table, shouldered her pack and picked up her banjo case, and went to the front counter. After paying the cashier, she had only seven dollars.
She stepped outside.
Wouldn’t dare leave town now, she thought, even if I wanted to.
Seven dollars was as good as nothing. That short, she’d be too vulnerable on the road.
Feverish with humiliation and outrage, she strode toward the boardwalk.
Funland hadn’t opened yet, but workers were there getting ready for the crowd. Down on the beach, clean-up crews were dumping trash barrels and raking debris out of the sand. A few bums were also going through yesterday’s litter. But not Poppinsack.
Several joggers were out, running along the shore. A man in leotards was doing a peculiar routine that looked like slow-motion ballet. A little kid was on her knees, parents watching, father snapping photos while she dug in the sand. There were no sunbathers; there was no sun. The surfers were gone. No one was in the water. The lifeguard was at her station anyway. She wore red shorts and a white sweatshirt.
Robin trudged on. She left them all behind. Finally, forty or fifty feet from the chain-link fence marking the boundary of the public beach, she turned away from the ocean. She climbed up and down the dunes.
In a sheltered depression, she set her banjo case on the sand and slung the pack off her back. She took her knife from the pack and slipped it into a rear pocket of her jeans.
He’ll deny it, she thought. What’re you going to do, cut him up?
We’ll see.
Dammit, nobody messes with me!
She found the place where she had slept, where Poppinsack had crept up on her in the night and…handled her.
From there, she knew where to find him.
She rushed over the dunes. Charging up the last slope, she jerked the knife from its sheath.
And then she reached the top.
He was gone. All that remained were two sodden brown tea bags lying in the sand.
Thirteen
Jeremy climbed down the stairs to the beach. The sun had broken through, back around noon, and a lot of gals were sprawled out, sunbathing. But they held no interest for him. His eyes swung toward the lifeguard station.
She was there.
Tanya.
Even at this distance he recognized Tanya by her size and curves, her tanned legs and golden hair.
The sight of her made him ache.
He wished he could go to her, take her in his arms, kiss her, feel her body pressed against his.
I can at least go over and say hi, he told himself.
But he didn’t move. He couldn’t force himself to take even one step closer.
He gritted his teeth hard.
Such a