Neon Cop's Arc

Chapter 5 of 10

The evidence sat locked in the safe, but Neon Cop was trapped. He watched the station lot from a window. A gray sedan idled across the street. A second car passed twice in an hour. Bander's men. They knew the papers had reached custody, so they watched the only man who could carry the case forward. He couldn't leave without a tail. He couldn't work the case from a chair. He needed to move, and he needed to move unseen. Chief Parker found him at the window. "They can't touch the safe," Parker said. "But they can sit out there all week. You're stuck." "Then I stop being Neon Cop," he said. "Just for an hour." Parker frowned. "You have a plan." "I need a shop I don't own and a face they don't know." He made a call to a young surfer named Kai Nakamura. Kai ran a weathered surf shop near the water, all sun-faded boards and salt-stained wood. Neon Cop had booked him once for parking near the pier. Kai had paid the ticket with a grin and a shrug, then asked if cops could surf. Now Kai owed him nothing and helped anyway. Kai met him at the station's back door with a duffel bag. "Boss, you're gonna look ridiculous," he said, still smiling. He pulled out a loud floral shirt and board shorts. "Nobody hunts a surfer." Neon Cop changed in the back hall. The bright shirt hid the uniform he lived in. Kai handed him a longboard to carry on one shoulder. "Walk slow," Kai said. "Walk dumb. Look at the waves, not the cars." They went out the front together, laughing about nothing. The gray sedan sat where it always sat. Neon Cop kept his eyes on the water and the board on his shoulder. A window rolled down. A man studied the two surfers, then rolled it back up. The sedan did not move. Neon Cop kept walking until the station shrank behind him. Kai led him to the surf shop and pulled him into the cluttered backroom. Wetsuits hung from hooks. A workbench held wax and cracked fins. "Use it," Kai said. "Nobody thinks twice about who walks in here." Neon Cop set a notepad on the bench. For the first time in days, no one watched him. He could work the case here, off the books, out of Bander's sight. He spread out what he knew and started tracing where Bander's boats came ashore. But freedom cost him. Kai had walked him past Bander's men in plain view. If they connected the surfer to Neon Cop, Kai became a target too, the way his mother had. Neon Cop looked at the young man cleaning wax off a board and knew the truth. He had a base now. He also had one more person Bander could reach.