Cool Bananas (10 page)

Kay set him up with the ingredients, and he sat at the pizza-making table moulding scones from the soft pliant dough he’d made, and putting them on the trays. In between serving customers, Flick put the trays in and out of the oven to save him from getting up and putting weight on his injured foot.

To her surprise the first batch of scones rose even higher than Kay’s, with golden brown tops and lightly floured bottoms.

‘Maybe you should give up your day job,’ she teased. ‘These are the best scones I’ve ever seen.’

‘Don’t let Kay hear you say that.’ Cam winked.

In desperation Kay had phoned her friends Shirley and Chris, and also Cam’s mate Jim who was on holidays at the moment, to come and give a hand over lunch and to help set up for the Coolini Beach Shake contest.

Then suddenly, some of the lunchtime crowd began to disperse.

‘What’s up?’ said Flick, staring at the retreating tide of people heading across the road towards the beach.

‘The hot food van’s open again,’ said a woman, ‘and they’ve got a special on hot dogs — two for a dollar.’

‘Well, so much for customer loyalty,’ said Kay indignantly, although she was wondering how anyone could possibly sell two hot dogs for a dollar and make a profit.

Just then, Freddy the health inspector came through the door.

‘G’day, Kay. Can I have one of your pies and a cappuccino, please?’

‘What?’ Kay joked. ‘I thought you’d eat over at the van, seeing as you’ve obviously given it a clean bill of health.’

Freddy shrugged. ‘Well, Ben Turner saw the incident last night and phoned me about it, but when I arrived there an hour ago the girl who supposedly had food poisoning came forward and said it was all a stupid joke. I went over the place and it’s spotless inside, food properly refrigerated, clean as a whistle, so it’s business as usual. Anyway, you look as if you could do with a rest.’

So Kay got some food organised and Cam left his scone-making, and they all sat in the courtyard with Shirley and Chris and Jim as well, while the young ones ran the store. Once they’d had their food, Kay told the three girls to take a break too.

‘Three of us at once?’ Liz was goggle-eyed because that never happened.

‘I’m going to wash my hair,’ said Angela, who was actually going to give Nathan a surprise of the sexual kind in his tent, because he was on late patrol duty.

‘Let’s go for a walk and suss out the food van,’ said Liz.

‘Do you really want to? Like, what about Danny?’

‘What about him?’

‘I don’t want you getting upset by him,’ said Flick, stopping at the edge of the road. ‘I really think …’ She gave a gasp.

‘What? Is it a snake?’

‘No. Worse than that. Look! Someone’s nicked our sign!’

Liz blinked, as if by doing so the precious sign would materialise before her eyes. ‘Who’d do a nasty thing like that?’

‘Someone out for revenge, I’ll bet,’ said Flick.

‘You mean Danny?’

‘Well, who else? Unless a stray koala saw it and fell in love with your painting,’ said Flick grimly.

‘What are we gunna do? The press and TV people are coming to do a story on it in two hours’ time.’

‘Let me think.’

‘While you’re working it out, let’s grab Angela. We might need her.’

The two girls abandoned their idea of going to the beach for a walk and instead, took a detour past the camping ground.

‘I’ll just check whether Roxie’s left the bus like a pigsty or not,’ said Flick as they came abreast of her mobile home.

She always kept a spare key under the front bumper bar, and so, retrieving it, she unlocked the door.

‘What’s this?’ Liz bent down and picked up a piece of paper.

Together they peered at it with their eyes widening in shock.

‘Omigod, it’s a ransom note,’ gasped Liz.

The note was cleverly constructed. Someone had cut individual letters and phrases from newspapers and magazines and pasted them onto a sheet of paper. The message read:

If
YOU
EVA
want
T
o
SEE
yOUr
CL
Ass
Y
SiGn
again
leave
One
car
TON
of
UNma
RKED
cig
ar
ettes at
COOLiNI BEacH
in THE
fone
BOX
on
MOndAY
At
MidnigHT
Or
eLSE
THE
SiGn
GETS
IT

There was a polaroid shot of the sign stuck on, and a skull and crossbones drawn at the bottom.

‘I can’t believe I’m seeing this!’ Flick’s eyes were practically bugging out of her head as the two girls sat down at the table to stare at the note.

‘It’s got to be a joke,’ said Liz. ‘Who’d play such a trick on us? It’s too funny and too clever to be that moron Danny. Do you reckon it’s Nathan? Or Rob? Nah, they’re not that bright either. Who else knew we’d made the sign?’

‘The whole of Coolini Beach, that’s who,’ said Flick. ‘Half of them saw us lugging it down the hill and then onto the road. And Kay’s been telling all and sundry that the press and TV are coming to do a story on it while the Coolini Beach Shake contest’s on.’

‘Omigod,’ said Liz. ‘We need that sign or there’s no story.’

‘Well, I say never underestimate the enemy. Who’s to gain from the loss of our sign? And I bet a new sign advertising the hot food van mysteriously appears just when the TV crew arrive.’

‘You mean —’

‘I think it’s a very smart way of doing a payback while making it look like a joke,’ said Flick thoughtfully. ‘While their van was closed, they made the notice and nicked the sign. Only thing is, they didn’t figure on us going for a walk just yet and discovering that it’s missing. And they also didn’t figure that I’d come to the bus in the middle of the day and find this ransom note. Now, they haven’t had much time, and the sign’s too heavy to lug about, so where do you think they’d hide it temporarily?’

‘Somewhere close by.’

‘Exactly. They would’ve had to nick it in broad daylight when no one was looking, and they couldn’t have carried it far without people seeing them. So it’s either under their van, or in a car, or in their tent. I reckon it’s in a red Holden station wagon.’

‘The one Danny was driving this morning when he threatened to run over us?’

‘Yep. And I happen to know that it’s parked near the ranger’s hut at site 14.’

‘We’d better go and tell Kay and Cam. And there’s Jim there too. He’s a cop. He can help us get it back. He can arrest them and —’

‘No,’ interrupted Flick softly. ‘I’ve got a better idea. There’s nothing more satisfying than paying back a payback. Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

Flick snatched up the piece of paper. ‘We’re going to interrupt Angela’s hair-washing. I bet that someone who’s done time in Juvenile can easily break into an old station wagon, don’t you?’

But when they got to Angela’s tent there was the sound of someone sobbing quietly inside it. Flick looked at Liz and then poked her head round the flap.

‘Angela? What’s wrong.’

Angela quickly pulled herself together and scrubbed fiercely at her red-rimmed eyes. ‘Nothing,’ she snapped. ‘Go away.’

Flick stepped inside the tent, and going over to Angela, put her arm round her shoulders. ‘Is there anything we can do to help?’ she asked gently.

‘Yeah. Kill Roxie. And strangle Nathan.’

‘What?’

‘I went to Nathan’s tent and there he was having it off with that … that … slut!’

Liz gaped at her. ‘Omigod. But I thought Roxie was supposed to be in Lorne buying supplies.’

‘She’s still sort of getting there, isn’t she, the two-faced bitch!’

‘Hold on.’ Flick went across to the bucket of water and wrung out a facecloth. Bringing it over to Angela, she silently handed it to her, with a dry towel.

‘Look, Angela, Nathan’s nothing but trouble. He’s a womaniser, and I’m sorry that you had to find him with Roxie, but the fact is, he can have it off with whoever he likes and so can Roxie, and so can you, because none of you is in a steady relationship, are you? So look at it this way, you’ve had a lucky escape. He could’ve been sleazing behind your back for weeks. Even months.’

‘She’s full of shit,’ said Angela savagely. ‘She reckoned he was with her last night and he was with
me
.’

‘I think you might find that he was with Roxie for part of the night and then with you for the other,’ said Flick, who knew about Nathan and his tricks. She had observed him slinking about to and from an assortment of tents late at night or in the early hours of the morning.

‘You’re really beautiful, Angela,’ said Liz. ‘You could get anybody you wanted. You don’t have to put up with a creep like Nathan.’

Angela pressed her lips together. ‘I’m just trash,’ she said quietly. ‘Like, I’ve done time, I’ve done drugs, I’ve worked as a stripper and a few other things besides that. So no decent guys are going to be interested in me.’

‘You’ve never given them a chance,’ Liz pointed out.

‘Yeah, well, I’m off men right now. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all pigs!’

‘Speaking of pigs,’ said Flick, ‘we need your help.’ She showed Angela the ransom note. ‘We’re pretty sure it’s Danny and his mates.’

‘Right. I’ll bash their heads in for you,’ said Angela, jumping to her feet.

‘No, we don’t want any violence. What we want to do is quietly get the sign back. And we’re kind of hoping it’s in the red station wagon parked behind the ranger’s hut at site 14, and we’re kind of hoping you’ll break into it and —’

‘Lead the way.’

The three girls walked nonchalantly round the corner and sneaked down the side of the ranger’s hut. The red station wagon was parked there, like Flick had said.

‘Maybe we should check out the tent first,’ said Liz.

So they peeked in through the half-open flap. There were sleeping bags, a few sports bags, clothing strewn about and not much else. It was obvious the sign wasn’t there.

‘So it’s back to the wagon,’ said Liz with a sigh, because she’d been hoping the sign was in the tent. Then it wouldn’t have been such a hassle to get it back.

They stood looking at the red station wagon. Angela tried the handle of the rear compartment. It was locked.

‘Early model. Not a problem.’

‘It looks like something’s in the back under those towels. Do you think it could be our sign?’ Liz whispered as she peered in the window.

‘Only one way to find out.’

Liz watched round-eyed as Angela found a thin piece of wire, jiggled it in the rear lock, and presto, she put her hand under the handle, lifted it up and the next moment she was inside. She crawled over a jumble of clothes and other junk and lifted off the towels. There was the sign.

‘It was too easy,’ she said almost ruefully. ‘Okay, help me lift it out.’

‘Where will we put it?’

‘In their tent,’ said Flick, as they rested the sign against a tree trunk.

‘What?’

‘Aren’t we going to hand it over to Kay and tell her where we found it?’ asked Liz in bewilderment.

‘And me get accused of breaking and entering a locked vehicle? No way,’ said Angela. ‘We should just put it back on the road.’

‘Well, it’d be your word against theirs that it was locked. But I’ve got a better plan,’ said Flick. ‘Now, can you lock up the wagon?’

‘I can try,’ said Angela. ‘My speciality’s unlocking, not locking, but here goes.’ She fiddled with the lock and they heard a soft click. Angela tried the handle. The rear door was locked.

‘Okay. Liz, go see if the coast’s clear.’

Liz stuck her head round the side of the ranger’s hut. ‘All clear.’

‘Let’s go.’

‘Where?’

‘To their tent.’

‘Huh?’

‘Trust me.’

Quickly they carried the sign to the tent and shoved it underneath the groundsheet at the side.

‘Now what?’ asked Liz, panting with the exertion.
‘And why have we put it under their tent?’

‘Yeah, you’ve lost me,’ said Angela. ‘Why don’t we put it back on the road?’

‘Look, I figure that they thought we’d all panic about the sign when we found it was missing, and also we’d look stupid when the media turned up and there was nothing to show them. Then when the fuss died down they’d probably planned to dump the sign where someone would eventually find it. Or maybe they’d even just put it back on the road side in a few days, after it was too late to get the media coverage.’

‘What about the unmarked cigarettes at midnight?’

‘Forget that. What we do now is go and tell Kay, and set these guys up. We’ll get Jim in on it too.’

‘I don’t get it,’ said Liz frowning. ‘What are we supposed to be doing?’

‘Giving Danny and his mates a fright,’ said Flick. ‘This is what we do.’

The three girls put their heads close together as Flick outlined her plan.

‘Got it? Know what to do? Okay, let’s go.’

Back at the store five minutes later, the three girls and Kay, Cam and Jim were in a huddle as Flick showed them the note and told them the story.

‘How did you know the sign was in the wagon?’ said Jim, looking suspicious. ‘And how —’

‘Women’s intuition,’ said Angela quickly and gave him her one hundred watt innocent smile. ‘We saw it as we walked past and the door was sort of open and it was sort of half hanging out.’

‘Yeah. Others might believe you,’ said Jim shortly.

‘We didn’t enter the tent,’ Flick said quickly. ‘We put the sign underneath. They’ll be packing death when you make them open the van, but they’ll be packing more death when it’s missing. Then they’ll be relieved. See? But then,’ she paused dramatically, ‘it’ll turn up under their tent, so they’ll know it was us who sprung them and gave them a payback, but they won’t be able to say anything in front of you guys.’

‘Yeah, we just want to teach them a lesson for all sorts of stunts they’ve been pulling,’ added Angela, in case Jim started putting two and two together about the wagon break-in and running a check on her.

‘Yeah. Like, for nearly running over us this morning and spraying us with gravel,’ said Liz. ‘See? I’ve got the marks to prove it.’