The Great Ice-Cream Heist (3 page)

‘Good.' Shanika grabbed Dilan's shoulder and tugged him towards the lodge. Heidi glanced towards Shanika, then back to Eva. She gave the smallest of shrugs and then followed Shanika inside.

Eva was left on her own with Jamie. ‘I'm Eva,' she said quietly.

He grinned at her. His eyes seemed to sparkle with hidden laughter. ‘Eva. Cool. Looks like you're working with me.'

Eva didn't know what to say, so she just nodded.

They stood together for a second, neither speaking. Then Sally was back by their side. Eva let out a small breath that she hadn't even realised she'd been holding.

‘Right, Jamie,' Sally said with a wide smile. ‘Mel says you're keen to help.'

Jamie gave Eva a quick grin. ‘She probably did, yes. She said the same to me.'

‘Isn't it true?' Sally asked.

‘I'm here. I've got my least-best jeans on and my second-worst pair of trainers. The worst-worst pair got chewed by my dog. So, yes, it looks like I'm all ready for work, doesn't it?'

Sally raised an eyebrow. ‘It certainly looks that way. I guess I'll hope for the best then. Shanika's team has taken all the aprons. So you two will be working outside. OK? Grab a bin bag and some gloves and put anything in the bag that you don't think should be out here – rubbish, weeds. If it looks wrong, chuck it.'

Eva took a bag and gloves from Sally's outstretched hands. She wasn't entirely sure that she knew what a weed looked like. Perhaps she'd just stick to old crisp packets and cans. Better to be safe than sorry, as Dad said.

She moved towards the trees. Jamie followed.

As soon as Sally went inside, Jamie dropped the bag and the gloves on the ground. ‘Last one to the top is a stink bomb,' he said.

Eva watched as he reached for a low branch and swung himself up. He followed the thick trunk, disappearing into the green canopy above. Lost in an emerald sky.

His voice floated down. ‘Sorry to tell you this, Eva, when we've only just met, but it looks like you're the stink bomb.'

‘We're supposed to collect rubbish,' Eva said.

‘Well, I've found a plastic bag stuck up here. I'll bring it down with me. Come on up – the view's amazing. I can see our street from here.'

Eva glanced back at the lodge. A few children milled around with bin bags, but Sally was nowhere to be seen. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch. She was supposed to be working; she was supposed to be building a youth centre.

She remembered what Gran had said to Dad.

She was supposed to be making friends.

What harm could climbing a tree do?

She folded her bag carefully and put it next to Jamie's with the gloves on top to stop it blowing away. Then she began to climb.

The bark felt coarse and flaky and smelled of earth. Tree skin.

‘Hey, what are you waiting for? A written invitation?' Jamie yelled.

‘I'm coming!'

She could see him now. He straddled a section where the trunk divided in two. His legs hung down on either side as if he were riding a beach donkey. She stretched up once more, then swung into place beside him. There was just enough room for the two of them to sit in the cleft of the trunk.

‘Welcome to the mothership,' Jamie said solemnly.

‘The what?'

‘This is no ordinary chestnut –'

‘I think it might be a sycamore –'

‘This is no ordinary tree. This is an organic life form, capable of sustaining living organisms as it travels at the speed of light through galaxies. The oxygen produced by its leaves can sustain us for the years required on our space-exploration mission. The super-jets concealed in its roots will steer us on a safe course through stars as we seek out aliens and make first contact.'

Eva reached her hand towards a knot in the trunk. It was dark and damp with dew. ‘I've found the ignition button,' she said, putting her hand over the knot. ‘It just needs the fingerprint scans of both pilots.' She smiled. She had played games like this with Mum.

Jamie put his hand beside hers. His fingernails were dark with dirt. Her hands had green smears from something.

‘Three, two, one . . . blast off.' Jamie gave a throaty rumble and leaned back, g-forces pushing him against the branch. Eva copied. Sunlight poured through the prisms of green around her, like the comet trails of distant galaxies. Their exploration of the stars had begun.

Jamie dramatically described their route and the aliens they met along the way: green and tall, purple and small, teeth and scales and tails. Each one a new discovery. Eva just had to say ‘hello' and come in as Jamie's back-up if the encounters got too dangerous.

She forgot completely about the lodge below.

‘Enemy craft moving into range,' Jamie said a while later. He pointed down at the drive.

The enemy craft was the woman he'd arrived with earlier. As she walked, she tapped furiously at the phone she held. Her steps were brisk and purposeful. She wasn't someone who'd climb a tree and save the universe, Eva thought.

‘My social worker,' Jamie said. ‘Melanie.'

Social worker.

Eva knew a little bit about social workers. One had come to visit her once, two years ago, when they were deciding whether Dad could look after her on his own. She'd been a nice lady, but that hadn't stopped Eva being terrified of her.

‘Mel!' Jamie yelled. ‘Mel! Up here.'

Melanie stopped at the bottom of the tree. She shielded her eyes as she searched for Jamie. ‘Have you actually done any volunteering this morning?' she asked. Her voice was sarcasm central.

‘Not exactly,' he said. ‘But I made a new friend. Is it time to go?'

‘Yes.'

Jamie grinned at Eva. ‘See you tomorrow?'

He slithered down the tree like a lizard.

Eva was left to climb down slowly, searching for each branch with the tips of her toes before lowering herself on to it. She'd made a new friend, she thought. It was what Gran wanted.

But Dad would not like it one bit.

Chapter 6

Eva rinsed the glasses under the hot tap before balancing them on the draining board. She could see herself reflected in the window behind the sink. There were two of her in the double glazing; overlapping but separate.

She'd felt like two people earlier as well.

Dad had met her at the lodge during his lunch break and walked her round to Gran's.

‘Did you make any friends?' he'd asked.

She'd paused. Then she'd said, ‘There was a nice girl called Heidi.'

She couldn't tell him about Jamie – he hated the McIntyres. Old Eva would never have kept secrets from Dad. But today it felt like there was a New Eva here too, and that one did.

She reached across the sink and turned the radio on. It made her feel better to have music playing.

Beyond the window, the garden was dusky purple. She could make out shapes that were the humps of bushes and the scaffolding of the swing.

Did something move?

Eva wasn't sure. She leaned up and over the sink. Was there something out there?

She peered into the bruised violet night.

It was probably just a cat.

She breathed out.

Slam!

She leapt back.

A hand was pressed up against the glass. The pads of the fingers were yellow where the pressure pushed the blood away.

Slam!

A second hand joined it. She heard a low moan.

She'd seen a zombie film once, by accident. Dad had turned it off as soon as he'd walked into the room, but not before Eva had heard the moans of the dead. She snatched up one of the empty glasses.

The hands clawed their way up the pane of glass. Then a face appeared below the hands.

Jamie.

Eva let out a shriek of annoyance.

Come out
, he signalled.

Eva looked towards the living room. Dad was watching telly. She heard him laugh at something. She put the glass back. Dashing her hands on her jeans to dry them, she opened the back door.

‘What do you think you're doing? You gave me the fright of my life!'

Jamie grinned. ‘More interesting than the washing-up though, wasn't it?'

Eva pulled her cardigan round her. Now that the sun had gone down, the summer air was colder. ‘You shouldn't do that to people. You'll scare someone to death one day and that will be manslaughter. Or even murder!'

‘Don't get upset – it was only a joke.'

‘Well, it wasn't funny. What are you doing out here anyway? How did you get into our garden?'

‘Easy.' Jamie stepped back from the doorway on to the uneven concrete path. He spun on his heel and pointed to the battered old shed at the bottom. ‘Our shed is right next to yours on the other side of the fence. I climbed over.'

Eva stepped out of the kitchen after him. She closed the door behind her. It was best if Dad didn't know Jamie was here. She thought about her double reflection in the window again.

‘I noticed it a while ago,' he said quietly. ‘I thought it would be easy to get into your garden from ours without going round to the front door. Do you want to see?'

She glanced back at the house. The kitchen was still empty. ‘OK, but just for a minute.'

They moved through the twilight. The purple shades were turning navy, and the sky above them was a smear of jam and orange juice.

Jamie moved towards the shed. It had been there for as long as Eva could remember. It had been painted once, but now the paint fell off in big scabs. Dad dragged a lawnmower out a few times a year, but otherwise no one went into it any more.

‘I used to play in here, when I was really little,' Eva said softly.

‘Yeah?'

‘It was a den. Sort of. Mum made cushions and things for me to sit on.'

Jamie stepped up on to a pile of abandoned wood, then pulled himself on to the roof. Eva followed. She'd climbed more in the last two days than she had in all of the last two years put together.

The roof of the shed was rough, like black sandpaper. Tufts of moss grew like continents on a map. Jamie stepped across the narrow gap that separated his shed roof from hers.

‘Oh,' she said. ‘Weird.' Looking at her house from this angle, she almost didn't recognise it. Her bedroom window was lit and it cast a soft glow down the back wall, like candlelight. The garden looked like it was hiding secrets – fairies or elves tucked into the rambling leaves of plants. She could almost hear them whispering mysterious spells and incantations. If Jamie turned into a frog right now, she wouldn't have been at all surprised. Well, maybe just a little bit. She felt a shiver of excitement. The gap between the sheds was dark and damp. A really skinny ogre could make a home there. Eva stepped across the space and hoped that no clawed arm shot up and grabbed her ankle.

She arrived on the other side without a monster attached.

‘This is your den, isn't it? On the roof? I've seen you lying here,' she said to Jamie.

‘I guess. I like it up here. I get some peace.'

‘I suppose you need it,' she said cautiously.

‘Why? What's that supposed to mean?' Jamie's scowl was easy to see despite the dusk.

‘Nothing.' Eva held up her palms. ‘I just meant that it does seem a bit . . . loud in your house. You might need to find somewhere quiet sometimes. That's all.'

Jamie's angry expression melted into a grin. ‘It does get noisy, doesn't it?'

He sat down on the mossy roof. Eva joined him.

It felt magical. Up above the gardens, hidden away in the fading light. If they stayed really still, they might see the night creatures coming out – the goblins and sprites. Or at least the hedgehogs.

‘It's my brothers, mostly,' Jamie said, breaking into her imaginings.

‘Your brothers?' Eva wasn't exactly sure which of the many young men she'd seen in next-door's garden were Jamie's brothers.

‘Michael and Drew. They're older than me. A lot older. They're grown up, but they still live at home. They like to party, and Mum and Dad don't mind.'

‘Do you mind?' Eva asked quietly. She wondered if that was why he always seemed to be hiding, separate from the rest of his family.

Jamie shrugged. ‘Your house is different,' he said. ‘It's quiet, calm. I think it must be nice, you know, to have your parents there when you come home from school, to have the house tidy and ordered and neat. That's what I imagine, anyway, when I look at your house.'

Eva felt a sudden piercing feeling in her chest. She couldn't answer him.

‘Look.' Jamie was pointing up into the sky. ‘The first star is out.'