The Great Ice-Cream Heist (11 page)

Dilan knocked on the office door. There was no answer. He tried again, a bit louder. Nothing.

‘Right,' he said, ‘the office is empty. You go in and be quick. I'll find Sally and keep her distracted for as long as I can.' He ran off down the hall, clutching a football with a hopeful expression.

‘Eva!' Heidi called from the main hall behind them. Eva turned, smiling.

‘Here.' Heidi held out a piece of paper. ‘My phone number. I was thinking, you don't have my number and I'm your friend too. Not just Jamie. You should have my number.' Heidi's face flushed pink as a strawberry milkshake.

Eva took the piece of paper. ‘Thank you,' she said.

‘OK, if you two can tear yourselves apart for one minute,' Shan said, ‘we've got work to do. Heidi, keep an eye out for Sally. Eva, come with me.'

Shan turned the handle to the office door and stepped in slowly. She held up her hand to Eva –
Wait!
Then waved her in when she was sure the coast was clear.

The office was in a terrible mess. It was as though the people who broke in wanted to do the most damage here. It was as though
Michael
wanted to do the most damage here, Eva corrected. The desk was still in one piece, but the wooden chair had been smashed to kindling over it. Drawers had been pulled out and paper lay everywhere like an explosion in a library. It was awful.

‘What animals,' Shan said in a shocked voice. ‘I hope the police lock up the McIntyre boys and throw away the key.'

‘You said you'd help,' Eva said.

Shan's face looked cross. ‘I know, we've got a deal. But just because I help you doesn't mean I have to like it. We haven't got long. Jamie's record must be in here somewhere – get looking.' Shan started poking through the drifts of paper, flicking glances at each one.

Eva felt her mouth go dry. She stood still, she was all heartbeat and sweat.

‘What? Move!'

‘I can't,' Eva whispered. ‘I can't read.'

Shanika stood up slowly. She let the pile of papers in her hand drop back to the floor. She turned to face Eva.

Eva felt her cheeks burn.

‘Really?'

‘Well, I can, but not very well. It takes a long time. The words look like spaghetti unless I concentrate really hard.'

‘So concentrate.'

Shan picked up more papers and sorted through them deftly.

Eva bent down and picked up the nearest sheet. The words were held there for a moment, their shapes clear, then, like water dropped on to an ink blot, they seeped into each other and the sense was lost. Eva forced down the panic that was rising inside her.

Shan looked over and sighed. ‘You know what a “J” looks like, right?'

Eva nodded. ‘J' was a friendly letter; it didn't twist itself round to be different things like ‘d' and ‘b' and ‘p' which were the worst of all.

‘Good. Then find anything with a ‘‘J'' for Jamie at the top and pass it to me. And, next time we break into someone's office to read files, you might want to mention this kind of thing in advance, yeah?'

Eva nodded.

She dropped to the floor beside Shan and picked up a random sheet.

Her eyes skipped over the top – it was a logo and it was bound to be something like the project's name or the council.

‘Don't bother with that one,' Shan said. ‘We all filled out our forms by hand, remember? So you need a handwritten form with a “J” near the top.'

The pile of scanned pages next to Shan was piling up. Beep, beep, beep. A hundred items logged in seconds. Eva felt the familiar sense of frustration building.

She took a deep breath. And looked again at the next sheet.

The black type gave way to blue ink. Handwriting. The first blue word began with an ‘S'. Not this one then. She dropped it and picked up the next. There was no handwriting at all on this one, it was nothing but typed blocks, like the bricks in a wall laid solid. No good. Next.

Eva flicked through the papers. Not as quickly as Shan, but she was sure she would spot what they were looking for when it appeared. She just had to trust.

‘Here!' Shan yelped. She waved a sheet under Eva's nose. ‘Got it!'

Eva smiled. That was good, she told herself. It was good they had it, even if it hadn't been her who'd found it.

‘We'll get that waste-of-space boy back any minute!' Shan said. Her eyes ran down the page. Her smile drooped like hot lettuce. ‘Oh.'

‘What?'

‘His mobile isn't there. In fact, none of his details are. It's all Melanie.'

‘The social worker?'

‘No, Melanie the juggling clown.
Of course
Melanie the social worker. It's got her down as an emergency contact.'

‘Has it got her phone number? And address?'

‘The address is just the council office. Not that she's there much. I think she mostly works out of her car. Have you seen the state of her back seat? It's like this but worse.' Shan waved at the papers on the floor.

‘Shan! What about a phone number then?'

‘Oh. Yes. Yes, it has her mobile number.'

Eva's mind was whirring now. They hadn't found Jamie, but they had found someone who knew where he was.

‘Write it down,' she told Shan. ‘We can ask her where he is.'

‘She won't tell you; she wouldn't be allowed.'

‘Maybe. But it's the best lead I've got. Write it down.'

‘Fine,' Shan said, reaching for a pencil. ‘But it won't do any good. Jamie's gone and we won't be able to find him.'

‘Yes, we will,' Eva said. ‘I know we will.'

Chapter 20

Eva sat next to Heidi on the sofa. She turned Melanie's phone number over and over in her hands. Shan stood near the window, pretending that she wasn't really interested.

‘Shall I ring her?' Eva said.

‘Well,' Heidi said, ‘it's a phone number. Seems rude not to ring it.'

‘But what should I say?' Eva couldn't imagine any conversation where Melanie would just hand over Jamie's address.

‘Start with “hello” and work your way up to “tell me what you've done with my friend or the bunny gets it”.'

Eva grinned. Heidi was funny, but not that helpful. ‘Shan, what do you think?'

Shan turned away from the window. Her brown eyes were thoughtful. ‘Here's the situation as I see it. There's no way that Melanie would tell
you
where Jamie is. It's unethical, and Melanie wouldn't be unethical. So, what you have to do is to not be you.'

Eva frowned. What exactly was Shan suggesting?

‘Can you try that again, but this time in English?' Heidi asked.

‘Don't be you on the phone – be someone she
would
tell his address to.'

‘Like his mum?' Heidi asked.

Shan flashed her a look that would have withered spring grass. ‘No, seeing as his mum is in a police cell. I'd say very much
not
his mum.'

‘How about a police officer?' Eva asked.

Shan raised an eyebrow. ‘Now you're talking.'

‘You can get in trouble for impersonating a police officer. I saw it on telly,' Heidi said doubtfully.

‘Then be a community support officer, or a traffic warden, or a coastguard – I don't care. Just try and sound like someone official!'

Eva took a breath and shook her arms. She remembered that she had done just this sort of thing with Mum. She could put on silly voices and act. And Dad was always saying she had a good imagination. She just needed to be convincing.

‘Dial the number,' she told Heidi.

Heidi took her phone from her bag and took the number from Eva. She dialled and handed the phone over. It was pink and decorated with sparkly stickers. Eva pretended that it was black, businesslike and attached to a receiver on an office desk. The lodge seemed to disappear around her. She meant business.

‘Hello, Melanie Tyndall speaking.'

‘Hello, Miss Tyndall. This is Edie . . . er . . .' Her eyes flashed around the room wildly. ‘Lodge. Edie Lodge. I was at the scene earlier, where you collected Jamie McIntyre.'

‘Oh, are you CID?' Melanie's voice was crisp and direct.

‘Something like that.'

‘How can I help?'

‘Well, we just need to ask some follow-up questions. So I need Jamie's address.'

‘Don't you have it? I sent it with my report to the Friar's Brook station.'

‘Er, no. Maybe it got lost.'

‘Which division did you say you were with?' Melanie asked sharply.

‘ICT. I mean, TCP.'

‘Who is this?'

Rumbled.

Eva looked at the phone in horror.

Heidi grabbed the phone from her hands and mashed the ‘end call' button with her thumb.

The phone immediately began to ring.

‘Eek! Melanie!' Heidi held out her phone as if it were a hissing cockroach.

Shan took the phone and pressed answer. ‘Hello? No, you must have the wrong number. This isn't Edie. I don't know any Edie. I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't call you. You called me. I didn't –' Shan looked up. ‘She hung up on me. That's not very nice. So, did you get an address?'

Eva shook her head.

‘Nothing?' Shan asked again.

‘No. She said I should get the details from Friar's Brook police station. She took her report there.'

‘Friar's Brook?' Heidi sat up straight. ‘That's the other side of town. Why would she send his details there?'

Eva nodded slowly. ‘You're right. Friar's Brook is miles away, nowhere near our house, or Melanie's office. Friar's Brook must be the station closest to Jamie's new home. Melanie must have taken him there. But where exactly though? Friar's Brook is huge. We can't go knocking on every door looking for him. It would take years. And, now we've made Melanie suspicious, there's no telling whether he'll stay there.'

‘Oh well,' Heidi said, ‘you did your best. Jamie would understand.'

That was a phrase Eva had heard lots of times – you did your best. Dad said it to her after tests. Mum used to say it to her after parents' evenings. You did your best.

But she hadn't, not yet. If Heidi thought that mak-ing one call was her best effort at getting Jamie back, then she had a lot to learn.

Eva hadn't even got started yet.

Chapter 21

‘The outlook for tomorrow is sunshine with scattered clouds. You're listening to Burn107FM. Here's a tune to get your toes tapping.'

The radio played a bright pop tune that Eva hummed along to. Dad sat across from her at the kitchen table. He dunked a piece of chicken in his sweet chilli sauce.

‘You seem a bit better today,' he said. ‘Is the lodge recovering?'

‘The lodge? Yes. Loads of people came to help today. It's probably going to be on the news tomorrow, Shan says. She's good at P-something.'

‘PR? Public relations?' Dad asked with a grin.

‘Yes, that's what she called it. I think it means getting people to take notice of you. It's working though. Brian brought a sofa and Gary has loads of sports stuff we can have. And the radio people are coming too. It's nice, isn't it, the way people have helped out? I think people are nice, really.'

Dad chewed slowly. He didn't answer straight away. Then he swallowed and said, ‘I think most people want to be good, but they don't always manage it. It's not always easy to know what the right thing is.'

Was he thinking about the McIntyres? Or someone else? Eva didn't know what to say, so she didn't answer.

‘We all get it wrong sometimes,' Dad said.

‘Not you though,' Eva answered.

Dad gave a sad laugh. ‘Even me.'

‘You've never done anything wrong.' Eva felt herself getting cross. No one was allowed to criticise her dad, not even him.

‘Your gran might not agree. Jaclyn has very strong opinions about the things I'm doing wrong.'

Eva pushed aside the last pieces of chicken. She didn't feel hungry any more.

‘I'm sorry,' Dad said. ‘I didn't mean to make you feel blue. It's great that so many people have turned up to help you all. Maybe I could come by and get busy with some DIY myself one of these days?'

He took her plate and put the leftovers in the fridge. As he ran the hot tap into the sink, he joined in with the song on the radio.

‘Step on it, move on it, jump on it, go, gotta love it.'