Tick Tock

followed the Labrador, and Tommy followed Del. He glanced back once and, in spite of all the outrageous incidents of the night, which should have inured him to spectacle, he was awestruck at the sight of the enormous boat balanced on the sea wall, overhanging the public walkway, as if it were the Ark washed ashore after the Great Flood.
    As worried faces began to appear at upstairs windows but before any front doors flew open, before frightened voices rose in the night, Tommy and Del and the dog found the nearest street leading away from the promenade. They headed toward the centre of the island.
    Although Tommy looked over his shoulder from time to time, expecting a serpent-eyed fat man or worse, no creature swaddled in fire pursued them.
     
     
     

SEVEN
     
     
    Hundreds of houses crowded the small lots on Balboa Island, and because of inadequate garage space, both sides of the narrow streets were lined with the parked cars of residents and visitors. Shopping for a set of wheels to steal, Del had a daunting variety of choices. Rather than settle for a Buick or Toyota, however, she was attracted to a fire-engine-red Ferrari Testerosa.
    They stood under the cloaking boughs of an old podocarpus, while she admired the sports car.
    “Why not that Geo?” Tommy asked, pointing to the vehicle parked in front of the Ferrari.
    “The Geo's okay, but it's not cool. The Ferrari is cool.”
    “It costs as much as a house,” Tommy objected.
    “We're not buying it.”
    “I'm acutely aware of what we're doing.”
    “We're just borrowing it.”
    “We're stealing it,” he corrected.
    “No. Bad guys steal stuff. We're not bad guys. We're the good guys. Ergo, we can't be stealing it.”
    “Actually, that's a defence that might work with a California jury,” he said sourly.
    “You keep a lookout while I see if it's unlocked.”
    “Why not destroy a cheaper car?” he argued.
    “Who said anything about destroying it?”
    “You're hard on machinery,” he reminded her.
    From the far end of the island came the sirens of fire engines. Above the silhouettes of the tightly packed houses, the night sky to the south was brightened by the glow of the burning yacht.
    “Keep a lookout,” she repeated. The street was deserted.
    With Scootie, she stepped off the sidewalk and went boldly to the driver's side of the Ferrari. She tried the door, and it was unlocked.
    “Surprise, surprise,” Tommy muttered. Scootie entered the car ahead of her.
    The Ferrari started even as Del settled behind the wheel and pulled the driver's door shut. The engine sounded powerful enough to ensure that the car would be airborne if Del decided that she wanted it to fly.
    “Two seconds flat. A true master criminal,” Tommy murmured to himself as he went to the car and opened the other door.
    “Scootie is willing to share the passenger seat.”
    “He's a sweetheart,” Tommy said.
    After the dog leaped out into the rain, Tommy climbed into the low-slung car. He resisted the temptation to close the door before the mutt could re-enter.
    Scootie sat with his rump in Tommy's lap, his hind legs on the seat, and his forepaws on the dashboard.
    “Put your arms around him,” Del said as she switched on the headlights.
    “What?”
    “So he doesn't go through the windshield if we stop suddenly.”
    “I thought you weren't going to destroy the car?”
    “You never know when you might have to stop suddenly.”
    Tommy put his arms around the Labrador. “Where are we going?”
    “Mom's house,” Del said.
    “How far is that?”
    “Fifteen minutes tops. Maybe ten in this baby.” Scootie turned his head, made eye contact, licked Tommy from chin to forehead, and then faced forward again.
    “It's going to be a long drive,” Tommy said.
    “He's decided he likes you.”
    “I'm flattered.”
    “You should be. He doesn't lick just anyone.” Scootie chuffed as if to confirm that statement. As Del pulled the Ferrari away from the curb and into the street, she said, “We'll leave this crate at Mom's place, and she can have it brought back here. We'll borrow one of her cars for the rest of the night.”
    “You've got an understanding mother.”
    “She's a peach.”
    “How'd you get the car started so quickly?” he asked.
    “The keys were in it.”
    With the big dog in his lap, Tommy couldn't see much of the street ahead of them, but he certainly could see the ignition, in which no key was inserted.
    “Where are they now?” he asked.
    “Where are what?”
    “The keys?”
    “What keys?”
    “The ones you started the car