The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(26)

Rex nodded. “Thanks, Tommy. That’s good to hear.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Leif said. He desperately wanted to believe Tommy, but he still felt unsettled.

“No prob,” Tommy said, walking away. “I’ll be back to take your orders.”

Rex leaned in. “Okay, so when are we taking that tree guy Ben the stuff he asked for?”

“What?” Leif said, slamming his menu shut. He had really hoped that Rex wouldn’t bring this up. “How can we even be sure he’s actually got information about the school?”

“Well, we can’t. But what if he does?”

“He probably just said he did because he heard us talking about Alicia being at Whitewood and he knew it would be a good way to use us to get him some stuff.”

“Okay. What if he is using us? Worst-case scenario, he was lying. All we lose is the time it takes to get what he asked for and take it to him.”

“No, actually…worst-case scenario is he uses that spear—”

“What can I get you fellas?” Big Gary was suddenly looming over their table. Neither Rex nor Leif had ever seen him take an order.

“Um, I’d like a pepperoni personal pizza, please,” Rex squeaked.

Big Gary focused his attention on Leif.

“I’ll just do a turkey sub,” he said. “No tomatoes, please.”

Big Gary glared at Rex and Leif for a few moments before speaking. “Behave yourself, boys. You understand?”

As Big Gary stared at them, Rex and Leif began to instinctively nod, even though they did not, in fact, understand.

“Good.” Big Gary turned away and shouted to Tommy, who was standing near the entrance to the kitchen. “Tell Ron I need a PPP and a turkey sub, extra tomatoes.” He shot Leif a cold look.

“Yessir,” Tommy said, disappearing into the kitchen, Big Gary following moments later.

“That was weird,” Rex said. “Why couldn’t Tommy just take our order?”

“There’s no way that wasn’t intentional, right?” Leif asked. “I asked for no tomatoes. Maybe he’s really proud of his tomatoes and I just insulted him?”

“I’d find it hard to believe a man would be that defensive about his tomatoes. No, that seemed personal.” Rex rubbed his chin the way he’d seen cops do on TV.

“I feel like I need to go up there and tell him to hold the tomatoes.”

“Wait!” Rex said, grabbing Leif’s wrist to stop him from getting up, even though Leif had made no moves to do so. “I figured it out. He’s sizing us up. Because of what happened with Alicia.”

“Really?” Leif looked down at himself, as if to assess whether or not he seemed like trouble. “We don’t even have our camera with us. Or Tucker. Does he think we’re gonna push him into his oven or something?”

“Maybe!” Rex was excited. “I’m not used to people thinking I’m a bad kid. It’s kind of exhilarating.”

“I don’t think it is at all,” Leif said. “I feel like I’m being judged. And punished with tomatoes.”

“Just take the tomatoes off.”

“But they’ll contaminate whatever they touch.”

“With what?”

“Tomato…ness.”

Rex rolled his eyes.

Leif sighed. If they’d gone to the Short Stop, they would have already eaten by now. He would’ve gotten his usual bag of pizza-flavored Combos and a blackberry Clearly Canadian, and they would’ve tasted amazing. Instead, he was waiting for a sandwich that wasn’t even what he ordered because he was being tested. As if he hadn’t already gone through enough in the past day.

“Act natural,” Rex whispered.

“Huh?”

“Big Gary is watching us. He’s with some woman.”

“What?” Leif said, going totally still as if he’d just been told there was a bee on his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Rex said. “Some woman I’ve never seen before. She looks kind of cool. Like, her jeans are ripped. And she’s wearing a hoodie.”

“Can I turn around and look?” Leif asked, only moving his mouth.

“Not yet. They’re still looking. Oh, shoot, she’s walking this way.”

“Who? The woman?”

“Yes,” Rex said, smiling and nodding at Leif as if they were deep in a conversation different from this one.

“Are we getting thrown out?”

“I don’t know,” Rex said. “She’s holding a camera.” And then the woman was standing right next to them.

“Hey, guys,” she said. “Sorry to interrupt whatever fun-fest you might be having, but I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions.”

Leif swallowed extra hard.



* * *



—

THESE BOYS DID not look like troublemakers.

At least the one with glasses didn’t. He just looked terrified, as if Janine were about to pull out handcuffs. The other one, who had the same side-part haircut as nearly every other male in this town, was trying to play it cool, but Janine saw through it. “What kinds of questions?” he asked. Something about him reminded Janine of Dennis, which was simultaneously endearing and irritating.